Yellow Teddy

Time to repair the cracks in the garden paths. We got out all the weeds with the pressure washer. Someone else did all the dusty, cementy and messy work. I came back afterwards to check it was all done properly and no missed bits!

4 June

We went through Blackheath and this is Prince of Wales Pond. This was the first time here for me and Brown Teddy, but someone said many years ago there used to be some willow trees around the edge.

These are goslings beside the pond. We spent some time in Greenwich Park afterwards.

10 June

Today we went to Walthamstow Pumphouse Museum in north London. This chair is interesting and I am glad it is a two-seater, so that the hub is in the middle and not sticking in someone's back! Inside there are engines, pumps and all sorts of equipment from the past. www.e17pumphouse.org.uk

This is a scale model omnibus that was made for a film. I like this old buses jigsaw.

This is a model of Liverpool Street Station and the man brought the train into the station for us and told us some of the history of the station. These are full-size semaphore-type signal arms. When the arm is are up, the green window is illuminated by the lamp, so the train can go through.

In another building there was lots of fire fighting equipment and memorabilia.

After the museum, we went on to Lloyd Park to see Carter's Steam Fairground.

Dodgems are the favourite, as there is lots of noise, action and lively music from the fifties.

11 June

I am glad to say the sparrows are eating the greenfly off my roses. Then it's time for a bath.

The other day a blackbird blundered into the greenhouse, hitting the back window, and then flew out again. He was OK. We now have this plastic fly screen over the doorway to stop that happening again. The birds have got used to the strips waving around in the breeze.

13 June

We went to the Guildhall Art Gallery in Central London. It is bigger than it looks from outside.

There are too many paintings to spend time looking at every detail of all of them, so we just search out the little details in the corners, like birds and little animals.

Downstairs they have the original Magna Carta document in a climate-controlled glass case. Below ground are also the remains of a Roman amphitheatre.

It was very dark with just the remains of stone walls illuminated. Under this glass in the floor are the wooden drains. We read the information boards. A Roman arena was a horrible place, with lots of people killed regularly for entertainment.

These are models of mathematical equations and here is a book on geometry by Euclid. This is the hypotenuse page, the one about the long side of a right angled triangle.

There was a large display of decorative tiles. This is my favourite.

They have made a children's corner using the tile pattern pieces to make puzzles.

We took a walk along the Thames. The tide was coming in, and the waves were coming up the steps. This is Tower Bridge that is always full of tourists, as it is so famous.

14 June

Today we went to the Wallace Collection, more artwork and objects. There were lots of clocks and furniture covered in gold leaf.

There are very many rooms and it is easy to forget which ones you have already seen. The manuscripts, books and other decorated items are kept in glass cases that have leather flaps over the top, which you lift to see them. It keeps the light off them, so the colours do not fade.

I like to look at the details. A lovely pheasant and a fearsome sea monster.

There is a big room full of armour, swords, and models of horses with their armour. I don't really like this plate with a snake on, it would put me off my food!

Here is the famous Laughing Cavalier by Frans Hals. He has very fancy clothes on, and I think he is smiling because he likes himself in all this expensive gear!

The bigger paintings are hung round the staircases. Sometimes what seems to be a clock turns out to be a weather vane connected to the one outside on the roof.

Afterwards we went to Primrose Hill. It is higher and steeper than it looks in the photo, and you can see all the main tall buildings of Central London.

Here is a close-by church spire and the far-away Shard, which end up looking the same.

16 June

Today we went to Highgate Fair. There were lots of food stalls and other things to buy. A brass band was playing on the stage.

I think this is called artisan bread, it all looked delicious. There was a fire engine and they were letting children hold the hose, with the water running downhill along the pavement and gutter.

We enjoyed the Sheep Show, with lots of information on sheep, and a demonstration of shearing.

We went on to Parliament Hill not too far away. This is a marker stone but no-one knows they it was put there. It may have been a meeting point.

20 June

Our resident robin likes this particular spot to sun himself, just below the kitchen window. All our wood pigeons do this in the bath, sit and soak with feathers fluffed out.

21 June

The railway station is very smart with this planter. We went to Teddington in West London, which is where the Thames river tide ends, because of the giant weirs and locks.

Here they are, big and noisy, although you can't go along that walkway. I wish we could, though.

This is the bridge over the part of the river above the locks. Brown Teddy is looking back towards the locks, where will be going.

Some boats were passing through today.

The lock-keepers use this control station to operate everything. The water rises and falls very quickly. Further along the lock island is a small green area where we had our sandwiches.

22 June

This is Hill Garden And Pergola near Hampstead in North London. Here I am looking at the main private house, which is now separate from the pergola.

It is all very grand and the owner last century would have huge parties here for his guests.

At one end there is a viewpoint towards Dollis Hill further west.

Below the pergola is a Mediterranean garden and you can see that they are all plants that do not need much looking after and will put up with hot and dry conditions.

A gate leads out to the woodland, where we walked on to Golders Hill Park. This is the bandstand. All the grass was very green indeed, considering all the hot weather.

There is a duck pond and a flower garden, with lots of seats in various places. The fountain pond is behind railings, just to look at, for safety.

This is the butterfly house next to the flower garden. These are tangerines hanging up and other butterfly snacks hanging up, and this is the mister to keep it all humid and tropical.

It is a long sealed greenhouse, with double doors at each end. Brown Teddy likes these coleus, doing much better than our coleus seedlings at home which are still very small.

Here are the residents. You have to be quick getting a photo and the favourite place to land seems to be the window panes.

This park has lots more unusual things. This is a stumpery, using old dead tree stumps in a very shady place to grow ferns.

There is a zoo area with big enclosures that you can walk round the outside of. This is a laughing kookaburra from Australia, as big as a pigeon. This is a jungle fowl sunning itself in the long grass.

Here is Lady Amherst's pheasant and some ring-tailed lemurs.

A fallow deer and a rhea in the same enclosure, they don't bother each other.

Back at the Pergola part, there is a green area with a long lily pond, which used to be the owner's tennis court. It was very quiet with hardly anyone else around.

23 June

I got up very early and saw a hot air balloon drifting overhead, but very small and this is a zoomed in photo. This is outside Nunhead railway station, it is a mosaic showing all the roads and names.

We visited Carter's fairground on Peckham Rye green.

Although we have seen it many times before, it is all still very entertaining.

We walked into the main park, with pond, pergola and lavender walk.

Wonky tree needs a wonky seat. I like the little rivers running through this part.

These are the gates to the wildlife garden.

More wild areas, not tidied up like the main park. An insect hotel, and a moorhen feeding its chick.

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