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Join Our Garden Wilderness Trail

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Strange Times

By now every one of us should be aware of the special situation that has swept across the globe. And due to this, we are being asked to stay at home and apply social distancing. This period of isolation is necessary to help us stop the spread of the virus, just like washing your hands.

To some, social distancing means that you are home with your children and wondering how to keep them entertained. And at best to teach them a few things along the road.
So why not encourage them to go outdoors and connect with nature wherever possible?
They can do this by exploring their own garden, using some LEGO minifigures, just like Wendy explored her garden. If you are not allowed outside (which is happening in quite some countries), they may at least explore the plants you may have in your apartment to connect with nature.

Some of you may remember I wrote a blog about John Muir for our good friends over at toyphotographers.com. Those of you who are not familiar with this inspirational man can read all about him by visiting the TP (or this Wikipedia article).

Our Garden Wilderness John Muir Inspired Trail begins

John Muir led an interesting and eventful life, full of notable achievements. He was an explorer, a mountaineer, a botanist, a conservationist, and a writer. Most famously, he was an explorer of wild places. He developed a passion for the great wide open, which led him on a life long quest to protect them. His work caught the attention of influential people and he produced a considerable body of written work. This work continues to inspire many of us today.

Bevvypix gives John Muir a helping hand in Discovering, Exploring, Conserving and Sharing

Since learning about John Muir, I gained the John Muir Discovery Award in which I dedicated 30 hours to complete the following four challenges. This inspired and enabled me to develop a better understanding about the beauty of nature and everything it provides, such as food, clean water, spaces to relax and de-stress; but also benefits of fresh air, carbon storage and fuel to maintain our lives. We are asked to stay home during these times of unpredictability. However, it will become evident that minimal footfall will help replenish nature and in return it will be waiting for us to visit and enjoy our wild places once again.

The John Muir Award Consists of Four Challenges:

The John Muir Trust was set up to help protect wild spaces. The award consists of three levels and all that you are asked to do is commit to a minimum of time and meet the four challenges – Discover, Explore, Conserve and Share. However, we can all get involved, so whether you are new to toy photography or simply up for a challenge, join in and let us leave a lasting imprint not only on nature, but also along the way we can share our experiences and inspire others.

Discover a Wild Place

Create your own minifigure. Then use your minifigure to help you discover something new in your home garden landscape. Being so small will allow you to gain a new perspective, there will be lots of things you may not have discovered yet.

Identify something interesting in your garden

Explore It

See what you can find by exploring your micro landscapes. You could look under rocks, analyse flowers and leaves. Perhaps collect some items to make a collage and bring the outside, inside.

John Muir exploring the micro landscape

Conserve It

Do something to conserve it and take responsibility. Perhaps you could do some garden maintenance or plant a vegetable patch. You may be able to plant a tree, build a LEGO treehouse or even hug a tree. Keep a lookout for wildlife and encourage hedgehogs to visit, as they emerge from hibernation.

Conserving nature will bring new tidings

And Share It

Bevvypix is grateful to Stuck in Plastic for allowing me to share this little journey into wilderness with you, and John Muir’s family, of this I am sure, will be watching this adventure. At a time when we need to look out for one another Stay Home, Stay Safe. In the meantime why not share your experiences and use your imagination because “The power of imagination makes us infinite” -John Muir.

Bevvypix helping John Muir plant some trees

Use the hashtag #SiPgoesJohnMuirTrail to share your images and join the adventure into the garden wilderness.

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The Easter Egg Hunt

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The egg is a symbol of new life and for Christians, it is symbolic of the commemoration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, although many people associate Easter with a deluge of chocolate eggs.

Why do we have Easter eggs?

In fact, a lot of us will enjoy eating Easter eggs over the holiday period, but did you know that originally eating eggs the week leading up to Easter (known as Holy Week) was not allowed by church leaders. These eggs were saved and decorated and given to children as gifts. Decorating and colouring eggs was a popular custom in the Middle Ages. Throughout Europe, different cultures have evolved their own styles and colours.

Over time this exchanging of gifts has developed into a tradition that many people enjoy today. Talking of gifts, the good folk over at TLG have developed the perfect Easter egg gift. A gift that can be played with over and over again, but be warned, it is sadly not edible.

Little LEGO surprise limited edition
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Around the world in 90 minutes

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You may remember back in July 2019, the image I created of the Apollo 11 Lunar Lander appeared on LEGO social media. The good folks from Billund have now sent me the not yet released 21321 LEGO Ideas International Space Station to review in preparation for the official launch at the beginning of February.

The International Space Station

For those of you who do not know what to expect, here are three interesting facts about the ISS:
1. It is one of the largest single structures that mankind has ever put into space.
2. The space station was taken into space piece by piece and gradually built in orbit.
3. The ISS circles the globe every 90 minutes at a speed of 17,500 mph.

I really did not know what to expect when I said yes to reviewing this set. I knew it would either be something else or just space junk. Once my son put it together we could see just what I had to work with for producing images for LEGO.

It’s big… And it really has to be if LEGO is going to create a replica model. Indeed, the actual space station including its large solar arrays, spans the area of a US football field. This scaled-down model spans a width of 19 inches (49 cm). The solar panel width span is 12 inches (38 cm) so you are going to need ‘SPACE’ to store it.

The International Space Station

It is fragile, oh boy is it fragile. I would not recommend you purchasing it for children to play with as it will be broken into the tiny little pieces it started off as. It is definitely a display model if you have the ‘SPACE’. The attention to detail makes it like the actual real thing and this set includes eight movable solar panels.

Three are a Team

The ISS generally holds crews of between three and six people who are responsible for science experimentation and maintaining the station. Included in this set are officially two (well actually three) Astronauts. However if you are expecting the usual size mini-figures I will have to disappoint you. These figures are only half an inch high. Nevertheless they add to the scale of the model. In addition as a nice little touch, a little Space Shuttle is also included.

Three Astronauts

The Mission

My mission was to photograph the International Space Station ready for the official release. As a matter of fact, it was a challenging mission. Firstly I needed ‘Space’ and not to mention good lighting. The model reminds me of the size of an old fashioned television aerial, remember them? Secondly, I knew I would have a few hours editing the final images. Nevertheless, the build itself took a few hours and I have created five different images in more time than the ISS circumnavigates the world. (Keep an eye out for the pix, remember to check every 90 minutes).

The question is, would I purchase this set? Personally I do not have the ‘Space’ to display it but if I did, yes I would, simply because I love the idea of this set and what technology can do for our learning experiences. I will never get close to the real International Space Station (ISS). Still this set gives me the opportunity to explore and learn. It allows my perception to envisage just what Space Agencies are achieving. The fact that different nationalities live together in harmony shows that it can be achieved. The team from LEGO Ideas has created something special and again I will say: If you have the ‘Space’ then make this station yours, too.

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Off Roading the Land Rover Defender

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LEGO Technic Land Rover Defender 2019

The wonderful designers at the LEGO Group have only gone and done it again. The new Land Rover Defender 2019 has been released and like its original design, it is a force to be reckoned with. The new model 42110 from the Technic range is authentic and iconic. Developed in partnership with Land Rover, this impressive LEGO replica does not disappoint.

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“Houston, The Eagle has landed”

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“Houston, there’s no problem, bevvypix will accept the mission.” Not only do I love LEGO but I love the fact that humanity can reach incredible heights. Using technology that allows us to explore places far beyond our wildest dreams. This is the story of how three men changed history 50 years ago.

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Week 20 – Florence Nightingale

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This week it’s me, @bevvypix, who is helping us out with a little write up for this week’s #SiPgoes53 Human being. This amazing lady is the iconic Florence Nightingale, OM, RRC, DStJ. She was an English social reformer and statistician, and the founder of modern nursing.

Florence Nightingale was a revolutionary figure in nursing. Her dedication during the Crimean War earned her a worldwide reputation. As more soldiers were dying from infections than from battle injuries. Nightingale and a team of nurses greatly improved the unsanitary conditions at a British hospital, working night and day to reduce the death count by two thirds.

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Elsa and Anna

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Anticipating the release of the new Disney characters, the amazing guys at LEGO and Stuck in Plastic have managed to ship them out across the globe ready for us to capture them and write up our little toy review.

So I received Anna and Elsa, possibly Disney’s most popular characters. I am sure they will be a massive favourite addition to every Disney fans’ LEGO collection.  Prior to receiving the girls, I noticed that Maëlick had created some amazing images, just how can I match his images. He had Olaf to top it off, plus real snow.

I have neither real snow or an Olaf. But then I remembered years ago buying my kids a tube of magic snow that needed water adding. So I set out to make snow, yep make snow, and boy did I make a lot hahahaha. For my background, I used an image that I took in Alaska… 23 years ago! And here are the results.

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The LEGO Movie 2 by Bevvy

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This blog post is part of a series about the new LEGO Movie 2 Collectible Minifigures Series. Thanks to the folks from LEGO for providing us a box of Minifigures that we sent to 9 creative toy photographers to review for the blog.

With the anticipation of the new LEGO Movie fast approaching, a few of us toy photographers have received from the kind folks at LEGO, a couple of the new minifigures ahead of the release date.

So last week I received 4 characters from the 20 characters in total to collect. The minifigures stand on a white base plate, which I feel is a nice touch. The characters in my packs were Apocalypseburg Lucy, Hula Lula, Swamp Monster who appeared in the first movie. Rounding off the cast Watermelon Dude.

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For Your Eyes Only

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Some time ago Stuck In Plastic contacted me asking: “We are looking for a creative photographer to join us in a creative challenge…”  It turned out that LEGO was looking to get some of its iconic cars shot by creative toy photographers. Did  I accept the mission? Of course I did. 

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Beverley goes Harry Potter

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This article is part of our series of reviews related to the Harry Potter and the Wizarding World Minifigures. Thanks to the LEGO Group for providing the Minifigures.

A little review.

Last week Stuck in plastic sent me the LEGO figures that I won runner-up up in a little competition.   In the package, there were also a few goodies and 2 sealed bags of the Harry Potter/ Fantastic Beast minifigures.  From the looks of the packet, they are a limited edition and there is 22 to collect.  Upon opening the packs and reading the leaflet, I found out there are 16 Harry Potter and 6 Fantastic Beasts minifigures in total.  And I just got have two characters from Harry Potter.

The Package
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