Explore at home

In this post, explore at home, I will share a few online locations I’ve been appreciating lately. When we’ve started the lockdown it seemed that there were lots of posts on what you can do at home. I shared my ideas for activities that adults might enjoy, but that was in March. We are still in the midsts of the pandemic and we should all do our best to stay at home as much as we can.

The fact that now we are allowed to go outside doesn’t mean we have to. If most of us (there will always be inconsiderate ones) limit the number of times we are going to beauty spots, then those can be enjoyed by people who have no other option to relax outside. We did not go anywhere and we will continue this way for the next couple of weeks if not more.

Explore at home – talks and blogs

Oxford at home – They are sharing online weekly live knowledge ‘tutorials’. So far there were three: Garden Safari – the five groups of insects that dominate your garden; Rembrandt – the early years; Biomedically-engineered bubbles. All these can still be seen on youtube. The talks are just over 30 minutes. I watched the bubbles one live on Friday and it was fascinating. I feel I learned a lot in that half an hour.

The following talks are: Friendship through the lens of art; Shakespeare & the plague; Meet the Botanic Garden and Arboretum; International health in global governance after the First World War. There are many more talks, so make sure you check the Oxford at home page for more details. These talks are not suitable for small children, but I think children around 10 and over would understand enough. Also, if they don’t, it’s a good opportunity to teach them more.

National Archives – I’m sure not many are browsing the website of the National Archives, which is a bit of a shame. Here is their website. Here you can find blog posts which are funny and interesting, for example Shut up: Quarantine and social distancing during Tudor epidemics, published a few days ago.
There are blogs on many different topics and all the blog archives are available, from 2012, so plenty of reading material if you fancy them.

Explore at home – virtual tours

Gardens Illustrated – Eleven virtual garden tours to do from home, on their website. This is an older resource, published in May, but I don’t think it makes much of a difference when it was published.
One of the gardens is Highgrove, the private residence of Prince Charles and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, how exciting is that.

Bodleian – The Art of Advertising is a special exhibition at the library, but it is available to see online, with many pictures (around 60), all with descriptions. It is very interesting to see how advertising changed and, even more, how old are some of the concepts we see today on TV. There are details on how the printing process changed and also things like giveaways. I looked at all the ads and I found it fascinating.

You can see more virtual tours and enjoy the artwork in the Royal Collection Trust. I highly recommend Highlights of Windsor Castle.

Hope you’ve enjoyed my little update and, of course, that I’ve inspired you to listen to a talk or watch a virtual tour. If you want to add to my list some links, share them in the comments and I will add them to my post.