Powell Cotton Museum at Quex in Thanet, probably the most child friendly museum in the UK with the gardens where Atlanta and Hippomenes have been restored to their former glory.

Well here they are, all cleaned up and restored, presumably just before they upset Mother Earth and got turned into lions. They are pouring in the water at the moment.

Ovid’s description of Atlanta "Nec dicere posses, laude pedum formaene bono praestantior esset." Which means “no one is able to say whether she was should get more excellent praise for her foot or for her more outstanding beauty” is a bit strange, perhaps he was a podiatrist.

One great improvement to the museum is that they now allow you to take photographs inside.

But the best recent improvement is the new hands on experience.

 You can put stuff under the microscope

 or even the more powerful digital microscope

 you don't really need to go from Narnia in the wrdrobe

 plenty of games to play

 draws of skulls

 shoes to try on

 pencils

paper

A few photos of the rest of the museum next

I mostly sat outside and sketched

I didn't get time to colour this one in but I think it was going better than the one I did last August below

A few more pictures of the gardens next

We had an excellent day out there today.

Anyway if you are in East Kent and wondering what to do for the day here is their website http://www.quexpark.co.uk/  

Quex House pen and watercolour sketch and some photos of the gardens.

This sketch of Quex House at Birchington in Thanet was an attempt to capture. What? I think it’s something like a glimpse through time. I don’t think this sort of thing works unless you work very quickly, the whole thing took less than an hour, like being in a trance. Perhaps something haunting but not spooky, anyway hopefully not something that can be captured with the camera.

Here is a photo in of the view.

Here are the photos of the gardens, the family entrance for today would have been £24, but was £18 because the house was closed for some of the time for a wedding. Using gift aid, which in practice means telling them your name, postcode and house number means that this covers family entrance for the following 12 months. Yep that’s it house, gardens and museum, as many times as you want for a year.