Category Archives: pleasures

More Kew

Here are a handful more photos from our visit to Kew Gardens on Saturday.

Click the images for larger versions
Lotus
Not a water lily but the sacred Lotus flower
growing in the Water Lily House

<i>Echinocactus grusonii</i>
Echinocactus grusonii
in the Princess of Wales Conservatory

Indian Horse Chestnut
The last of the Indian Horse Chestnut flowers

Lily Pond
The Water Lily Pond:
what a delightful spot on a sunny day!

Pagoda
The Pagoda looking drab in the dreary weather

General Pershing
Finally another tropical water lily, this is Nymphaea cv. “General Pershing”
in the Water Lily House

Reasons to be Grateful: 29

Experiment, week 29. Another week, another selection in my continuing experiment in documenting five things which have made me happy or for which I’m grateful during the week. So this week we have …

1. Iris sibirica. These wonderful blue, delicate looking iris are out now in our garden. They’re always a delight to me!

Iris Sibirica

2. Hypnotherapy. I always enjoy my 3-weekly-ish hypnotherapy sessions with Chris. We always find something interesting to mull over and I enjoy the experience of being hypnotised. And this week Chris reckons he got me hypnotised much deeper than ever before; I was certainly reluctant to emerge from hypnosis and it took me a fairly long time to come round.

3. Yummy Food. Yes we’ve had the usual good meal this week (as well as a few mundane ones; we don’t eat royally all the time!). On Friday I did pasta and seafood (a variant on my Pasta with Bacon recipe) again, only this time with scallops. Much as I like scallops I think I actually prefer this dish with king prawns — well who wouldn’t?! And tonight I did Pork Fillet with Pesto, but with a jar of commercial tomato pesto; served with steamed new potatoes and English asparagus — most yummy!

4 & 5. Meeting Friends. It’s always great to meet up with friends as we did yesterday with Katy and her children at Kew Gardens: always another delight and which I’ve blogged about here.

Kew Gardens

Yesterday we went to Kew Gardens to meet our friend Katy and her three children who are in London for half-term holiday, and trying desperately to avoid all the Jubilee shenanigans.

We had a great day. We’d agreed to meet at 10 and provision lunch for ourselves (we’ve not been impressed with the catering at Kew in the past); although Noreen and I did agree to provide cake for all: no mean feat when you’re meeting four cake eating fiends! We also provided a generous supply of home-made pizza.

Noreen and I left home too early. My fault as I was calculating on weekday rush hour traffic not that at dead of a grey wet Saturday morning. Even having stopped on the way to to acquire sandwiches and cake we arrived 30 minutes before the gates opened at 9.30. Boring!

Katy and troop eventually showed up just before 10.30 having (predictably) been stymied by the vagaries of London Underground. By this time Noreen and I had drunk coffee (some of which I spilled, scalding my hand — dozy git!), we’d had a wander round the shop and Kew’s all too tiny garden centre, and I had bought two orchids to add to my collection (luckily the shop were happy to keep them aside for me until we left).

Cactus Flower

Although we go to Kew at least once a year, I’ve still never managed to see more than about 40% of the 300 odd acres. And Katy hasn’t been there for half a lifetime! So we decided we’d take the motorised tour train round the gardens, to get a flavour of everything. It wasn’t very warm and was trying to drizzle; I was glad I’d worn jeans rather than shorts and had a waterproof. Sadly the tour guide/train driver was dreadful and seemed to be telling us everything except what we wanted to know — but then it’s probably designed to appeal most to Americans and Japanese (of whom there were plenty).

We managed 80% of the tour before jumping off and heading for (more) coffee and early lunch. Still, having now done the tour I now know that the parts of Kew I have seen are the parts which really do most interest me, with a couple of exceptions.

Kew Palace Panorama

After lunch, and allowing the kids to run around for a bit, we wandered off to see Kew Palace — yes, a small Royal Palace built late 17th century in the Dutch style and one of the last refuges of the madness of George III. It isn’t large, but is well done and is quite interesting, especially as in restoring it they have left some of the walls of the upper floors in pieces to show how they were constructed. The formal gardens behind the palace are also rather lovely, although the Laburnum walk was clearly well past it’s best. After this I had a little rest on a park bench (so decadent!) while the others availed themselves of a guided tour of the palace kitchens.

By this time it was nigh on 2pm and we were still cold; well the weather was unseasonably grey and breezy. So it was off in search of more coffee and share out some cake, with more time for the kids to run riot!

We then wandered off in search is the Princess of Wales Conservatory and the Palm House. There at least we would get warm! But by this time the sun was out and it turned into a rather nice afternoon.

I always like the PoW Conservatory. Like the rest of Kew there is always something to look at, whether it is flowering cacti, orchids, bougainvillea, water lilies … and there are Amazonian fish in the pond including, this time, a huge puffer fish and an enormous Plecostomus catfish.

Water Lily House

Another short rest to allow the children to let off more steam — where do they get the energy?! — and off for a quick tour of the water lily house (instant sauna!), which is always gorgeous at this time of year, and the Palm House with more aquatics in the basement as well as bananas, neem, ylang-ylang and ginger plants.

Nymphaea Cultivar

By this time we adults were on our knees, and in fact the kids were beginning to tire too. So just after 4.30 we packed up our kit and decided to go our separate ways home (having collected my orchids). We didn’t get to the roses, the Temperate House, the Japanese Garden or the Treetop Walk, all of which remain on the list for anther day. Nevertheless it was a grand day out; we got cold; we got hot; we saw lovely things, we drank coffee, we bought ourselves treats and we consumed a month’s worth of sugar. And there are still things to go back for. What more could one want?

You can find Katy’s account on her weblog.
And lots more of my photos of Kew (not just yesterday’s) on my Flickr.

Reasons to be Grateful: 27

Experiment, week 27. Well here we are; another week another selection in my continuing experiment in documenting five things which have made me happy or for which I’m grateful this week. It’s mostly been a repetitive and foodie week, again …

  1. Orchids. I know I keep saying orchids, but every time I go in the bedroom, where they reside on the windowsill, I can’t get how amazing they are!
  2. Home Baked Ham. I’m sure I’ve said this before too. Last weekend we had a joint of smoked collar bacon — much more character to it than gammon and cheaper too — as long as you can get large joints! (See here.) Noreen did her usual bake it in huff pastry and then glazed it with spicy tomato chutney. Definitely yummy!
  3. Pasta with Seafood. This was a variant on my Pasta with Bacon or Prawns dish on Friday evening. This time with a bag of mixed seafood, cherry tomatoes and lime. Another yummy tea!
  4. Oriental Tree. Then last night we went out with our friends Sue & Ziggy (and their boys) to their local Chinese, the Oriental Tree in Northfields Avenue, West Ealing (see here for my earlier review-ette). The Oriental Tree is essentially Chinese with an admixture of bits of Thai and Vietnamese. The food is to die for! Especially the gorgeous succulent prawn dishes, the Chilli Shredded Beef. Luckily for our waistlines it isn’t on our doorstep otherwise we’d be in there several nights a week!
  5. English Asparagus. This was today’s treat! We have just eaten roast chicken with steamed new potatoes, steamed English asparagus and mushroom sauce. Yeah, I know it sounds dull, but it wasn’t — I love asparagus!

The Gallery : Morning

The Gallery is back! Tara who runs The Gallery has been ill, but I’m glad that she’s now OK and this week it is once more open for business. This week’s theme is Morning, so without more ado, here’s my contribution:

Crows on a Crane

This was taken at the end of our trip to Germany in February 2008 for steam trains on the Harzer Schmalspurbahnen (HSB). HSB consists of the three narrow gauge (1m) railway lines of the Harz region: Harzquerbahn, Selketalbahn and Brockenbahn.

This was taken the morning we left for home; it was about 0720 local time and very cold. While we waited for the train from Wernigerode Hbf at sunrise these crows were having their morning briefing meeting on the crane of the building site next to the station.

There are more photos from the trip on Flickr.

Another Orchid

No not another new plant — I don’t think I have room for more! — but another photo of one my existing plants.

Phalaenopsis Orchid

This is the orchid my mother gave me last year after it had flowered, and which I’ve managed to get back into flower. It is absolutely amazing. There are 13 flowers on this one stem with a couple of bids still to open — and it’s been in flower now for about 8 weeks.

Reasons to be Grateful: 26

Experiment, week 26. Continuing the experiment here are this week’s five things which have made me happy or for which I’m grateful.

  1. Half-Price Orchids. As previously blogged.
  2. Pork with Pesto. Also as previously blogged.
  3. Strawberries & Raspberries. Special treat for the weekend we bought some good English strawberries and raspberries. What a wonderful weekend breakfast.
  4. Sparrowhawk. As we arrived home yesterday afternoon the sparrowhawk darted across the road in front of us, obviously chasing after some hapless sparrow. It failed in its quest but we then had the delight of watching it gliding around for several minutes until it drifted away across the houses. So graceful in flight, and when they want so fast.
  5. Wellington Arch. As I mentioned earlier we visited the Wellington Arch at Hyde Park Corner earlier today. Super views from the balcony including looking up at the Quadriga’s black bronze horses and down on the Household Cavalry (today the Blues & Royals) riding their equally black horses back to barracks after changing the guard at Horse Guards in Whitehall.

More Orchid Porn

Yes, here are some more orchid pictures. I cannot get over how fantastic these flowers are. First a new one I bought this morning …

Cream Orchid
Cream Orchid

I bought this rather nice greeny-cream with pink blush (almost a Hellebore colour; it’s much creamier than the photo suggests) orchid in our local Waitrose. It had been sitting there looking forlorn, very dry & tired and with a couple of wilted flowers for the last 3 weeks. I’ve looked at it every week and rejected it. Today when I looked at it the second time, I thought I’d ask if they’d sell it to me at half price. To my surprise and delight they agreed.

Having brought it home, taken off the wilted flowers and given it a good water it already looks 100% happier. OK, so it has only these three flowers and a couple of buds to come. But it is rather pretty and who knows I may be able to nurse it back into flowering properly next year.

I also bought this one at Waitrose this morning …

Pink Orchid

It is a very pretty blushed pink — much prettier than my photo shows. It is profuse with flowers and with at least another 8 buds to come, so well worth paying full price for it.

And finally another shot of one of the orchids I’ve had for some weeks and which is still flowering well.

Magenta-Veined Orchid

In fact all my orchids are still flowering well, the first has now been in flower for something like 10 weeks!

They look magnificent, especially when you put them all together in a nice sunny window.

As I say I can’t get over how fantastic these flowers are. OK so mine are all Phalaenopsis hybrids, perhaps the easiest of the orchids — but then that’s why they’re easily available and so cheap.

I really don’t mind, they just look stunning!

A Curiosity of London

OK, so here’s one of the more curious of London’s accoutrements …

Buxton Memorial Fountain

It is the Buxton Memorial Fountain and you can find it in Victoria Tower Gardens, just south of the Houses of Parliament wedged between Millbank and the river.

Apparently it was originally constructed in Parliament Square but moved in the 1940s and placed in its present position in 1957. It was commissioned by Charles Buxton MP to commemorate the emancipation of slaves in 1834, dedicated to his father Thomas Fowell Buxton, and designed by Gothic architect Samuel Sanders Teulon (1812–1873) in 1865.

It surely has to go down as one of London’s more outré and colourful adornments. Not only does it have that “spire” of coloured encaustic(?) tiles, but it is carved with various animals including some very dragon-like iguanas/lizards.

Not the best of photos as it was taken on a horridly grey and, as can be seen by the puddles, rather wet Sunday morning.