Explosive Nature

It was a day of two halves.

For the morning I headed to the Southern Nature Art Exhibition held at Rookesbury Park in Hampshire. The main house of this privately-owned family estate, once leased out as a school and now a wedding and events venue,  was the setting for the exhibition of over 400 works by local artists, and the skills shown were fantastic. I took the opportunity to talk to some of the artists - very inspiring.

As a complete contrast I headed to Explosion, the Museum Of Naval Warfare, on Priddy's Hard at Gosport. The museum explores the development of fire power used at sea culminating in missiles and the atomic bomb. It was very sobering.  

The museum itself is located at Priddy's Hard, where all Royal Navy warships, including HMS Victory, came to load up their guns and ammunition up until the Falklands War in 1982. Built in the 1770s, it stored munitions too dangerous to be kept in in the Portsmouth Dockyard following petitions by the general public, first raised in 1715. 

The main image shows a couple of the more modern gun turrets lining the road through the site. I liked the shadow and juxtaposition of the ornate Edwardian lamppost with its floral decoration against the destructive armament.  The extra shows some of the exhibits on display in the museum.