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Post by lagatta on Jun 16, 2017 14:09:51 GMT
Thanks Patrick. I was wondering what wartime engagement the poppy wreaths are commemorating, as they are more associated with Remembrance Day in November. Perhaps you or Mossie might now? It still isn't long since the anniversary of the D-Day landings. I see that there are also RAF roundels, so it could be an air battle or air support to a broader engagement. www.raf.mod.uk/history/theroyalairforceroundel.cfm
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Jun 17, 2017 14:11:33 GMT
Well this is fun..I love Camden market altho I haven't been for many years. I really felt like I'd known Bixa for years as her warmth and considerate nature left me completely at ease. What a star you are dearie xxx
Also it was a pleasure to meet Kerouac, Mick, Mossie and Patrick. Every one of them relaxed and good company. X
The Georgian Pleasure Garden looks interesting.... it's always more evocative when clothing is displayed in this way rather than in flat glass cases as they often are. I've seen similar over the years but this seems to be more imaginatively arranged. Great stuff.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jun 18, 2017 9:18:15 GMT
Thanks, Patrick -- interesting to know about the projected move. I can't say it felt compressed to me, not having known it before. In a discussion on the forum about another museum (sorry, can't remember where), someone mentioned the problem of things being made accessible for children and consequently winding up too dumbed down for adults. There might have been a little of that at the London museum, with large cartoony panels here and there. Still, if it engages kids it can only be a good thing. One thing I would have liked to have seen handled differently, but don't exactly know how it could be done, was the miniature rows of houses way in the back of the People's City section. I adore miniatures, but very quickly grew tired of having to walk stooped over so I could peer into the houses set at children's eye level. Aw shucks ~ thanks, Cheery. What you said is mostly a projection of your lovely nature, though. Agree completely about the anyport guys! The Pleasure Garden is compelling. The kaleidescope arrangement combined with moving pictures and dialogues really makes you feel like some kind of wraith from the future visiting the past.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jun 19, 2017 11:50:27 GMT
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Jun 19, 2017 19:26:57 GMT
scrumptious....I'm enjoying your holiday Bixa ! I really like the decorative tiles...and the little honey bee on the buddleja
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Post by patricklondon on Jun 20, 2017 5:14:41 GMT
Pedantic factoid footnote: "The Moon Under Water" was the name George Orwell gave to his fantasy ideal pub in an essay, describing the kind of (mostly rural) pub that was more or less disappearing even in the 1940s, and nothing like the busy Wetherspoon's chain that has adopted the name for a number of its hostelries. My blog | My photos | My video clips"too literate to be spam"
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Post by bixaorellana on Jun 21, 2017 22:42:47 GMT
Thank you, Cheerykins. Know that every bee I take is for you. Thank you, Patrick! The phrase "moon under water" kept ringing a bell, but I was completely unable to figure out why, so am happy to have that mystery solved. I didn't realize until researching London things for this trip how many pubs are parts of chains. So -- time to update the diary with what I did after the last thing I did. This is a quick postcard of an area I enjoyed very much: Bucolic Battersea <-- click!
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Post by bixaorellana on Jun 28, 2017 18:56:13 GMT
And another update, again something long enough that it got its own thread. I hope no one objects to my keeping the diary in this way. It's certainly helping me to keep things straight and I'm trying to not fall too far behind. At any rate, I hope you all will check out this exceptional way of rescuing a medieval landmark by grafting on an art deco house ~ Eltham Palace & Well Hall gardens <-- click!
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Post by bixaorellana on Jun 30, 2017 22:19:25 GMT
After Eltham, I had another "palatial" experience. I revisited Kensington Palace so I could say hi to the gardens there, but also because I really wanted to see the Diana: Her Fashion Story exhibition there. If you'd like to take a look, this year's visit has been added to the thread from last year, now titled Kensington Palace + royal fashions. The 2017 section starts at Reply #25. After leaving the park, I strolled along Kensington Road to the Royal Geographic Society, which was holding something called a map fest. It turned out to be an occasion for collectors to buy and sell, so I just snapped a few pictures and left.
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Post by lugg on Jul 8, 2017 18:42:22 GMT
Just catching up with your travels in UK Bixa , I started with this report- so enjoyable thank you. I really hope you did not get food poisoning here ; what a rude welcome if so.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jul 9, 2017 23:29:16 GMT
Thank you, lugg ! Believe me, if I got sick here, I am not planning on holding it against England. In fact, I am already plotting to come back because I love it here so much. A quick update ~ Because of my tendency to be both dithery and compulsive, I have leapfrogged over one of my outings. I set out to see a specific thing on June 20 & it was closed that day, but I went out sightseeing anyway. A week later I managed to visit the site and again combined that with sightseeing. I'll be presenting the two days together soon, but in the meantime here is my report on a stellar day out on June 22nd ~ Glories of Greenwich <-- click
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Post by bixaorellana on Jul 18, 2017 17:15:34 GMT
I've just added a report in Post Cards. It encompasses two days a week apart. That's because the sight I set off to see was closed the first time and both times I wound up taking a bunch of touristic pictures so the two days go together. They were the 20th & 27th of June and obviously I did other things in between those two days & afterwards until I left London on the 10th of July. Diary will be updated as I pull pictures into order and get them posted. In the meantime, I hope everyone will enjoy this ~ The Banqueting House, London, plus happy snapping <-- click
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Post by patricklondon on Jul 19, 2017 7:12:31 GMT
No, Somerset House is further round the bend, by Waterloo Bridge. I think what you were looking at there was the National Liberal Club, in Whitehall Gardens, next to the Royal Horseguards Hotel. My blog | My photos | My video clips"too literate to be spam"
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Jul 19, 2017 17:04:28 GMT
I love images taken through archways and gates...there's something enchanting about a glimpsed view. Smashing Bixa dear.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jul 19, 2017 18:59:15 GMT
Thanks, Patrick! The Royal Horseguards Hotel was one of my guesses, but didn't seem right either. I never would have identified the National Liberal Club as the building on my own! I am going to quote your answer over in the Banqueting House thread, so future generations reading it will know the right answer. Thanks so much, Cheery! That wall that runs between the sidewalk and the park is so high in places that it's perfect for mouse-eye views.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jul 26, 2017 0:45:38 GMT
Hello dear Diary. Here I am to report more of my little adventures in London. One day in the latter part of June my visit to Hatfield House produced so many pictures that it got its own thread, which I hope everyone will enjoy. Just click on the bold words above to see it. The day after that I went to the Lambeth Palace fête, not because I'm such an aficionada of church fairs, but because it was a way to get in to see the Lambeth Palace garden.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jul 26, 2017 0:54:21 GMT
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Post by bixaorellana on Jul 26, 2017 1:16:54 GMT
Perhaps only some other gardeners here will understand how absolutely thrilled I was to see this tomb. It's on the grounds of the Garden Museum, which was nearing closing time when I got there. I didn't realize that it wasn't the original, but hey -- close enough. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Tradescant_the_elder
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Post by bixaorellana on Jul 26, 2017 1:25:53 GMT
On my way back to the tube station, I passed some quite nice but insufficiently loved apartment buildings. It was obvious that at some point they'd been landscaped with succulents, with the promise that "they don't need any care". Even sadly neglected, their beauty shines through ~
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Post by bixaorellana on Aug 1, 2017 21:50:50 GMT
Entering my next excursion into the diary, a pleasant hop over to Putney and the venerable former home of its bishops: anyportinastorm.proboards.com/thread/8122/fulham-palace-groundsFor the record, all the entries in this diary are in the order in which they occurred, except for my very first outing. I took that a couple of days after I arrived in London and almost immediately afterward became violently sick for over a week. The outing and its pictures got shoved aside, but once I finish reporting on everything else I did while in London, I'll get to it in a sort of the first shall be last way.
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Post by patricklondon on Aug 2, 2017 6:17:56 GMT
Thanks Patrick. I was wondering what wartime engagement the poppy wreaths are commemorating, as they are more associated with Remembrance Day in November. There were some ceremonies for the 300th anniversary of the Royal Artillery at the end of May - might have had something to do with that. My blog | My photos | My video clips"too literate to be spam"
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Post by bixaorellana on Aug 8, 2017 3:49:24 GMT
On the last day of June, which was beautiful and sunny, I had a fabulous day out visiting hidden gardens, an architecturally significant house, and a surprising art collection, all in Hampstead Heath. From there I went on to part of Highgate cemetery and a lovely walk through Waterlow Park. See my adventures here: Treasures of Highgate & Hampstead Heath <-- clickA couple of days later I decided to avail myself of the rustic pleasures London has to offer and headed off to the Mudchute Agricultural Show at Mudchute Farm.
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Post by bixaorellana on Aug 8, 2017 3:57:23 GMT
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Post by bixaorellana on Aug 8, 2017 4:28:38 GMT
Across from the sheep was this tent. I would have liked to have gotten a closer look and pictures of all the birds. This didn't happen because a family had encamped themselves right across the whole middle of the front of the tent. There they sat, smiling away, oblivious to the fact that scores of people wanted to kick them in the small of the back.
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Post by bixaorellana on Aug 8, 2017 4:37:09 GMT
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Post by patricklondon on Aug 8, 2017 8:57:26 GMT
Fascinating to see your take on our local "secret surprise". The unromantic name comes from its unromantic origins: back when the Millwall Dock was being dug out, the enterprising Victorians built one of the first conveyor belts to lift the excavated mud and spoil over the then elevated railway line to dump it in the empty marshland in the middle of the Island. And there it was left to settle and dry out for decades, fenced off as dangerous (though of course that didn't stop many a local child explorer). The allotments, and then the city farm, came much later. As it happens, my father was in an anti-aircraft battery on the Mudchute for a few weeks at the start of the war, though I believe they had more of a temporary lash-up than the restored emplacement that's there now. My blog | My photos | My video clips"too literate to be spam"
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Post by bixaorellana on Aug 8, 2017 21:18:36 GMT
And fascinating to hear the "secret history" of the farm as well, Patrick -- thank you! That is alluded to in things I've read online, but in a much abbreviated version. I love the detail about the conveyor belt. I suspect the anti-aircraft emplacement is an idealized version of whatever your father and his comrades encountered when they were stationed there. I wish I could have shown more. There wasn't a horse to be seen, for instance, and certainly no prize winning vegetables on show. Maybe they'd all been taken home to be cooked up by the time I got there. As I started this little chapter of the diary with bragging about driving the train, I was amused today to come across this charmingly bad poetry about sitting in the back: londonist.com/london/transport/why-the-back-seat-of-the-dlr-is-for-meSpeaking of the train, every single time I was on any form of public transport in London I marveled happily over it. Returning from the Hampton Court Flower Show (there will be a report), I was just so thrilled yet again to be on the train. The woman sitting next to me began to complain about the train service and I was horrified. It was all I could do not to leap up and declaim my admiration for the system. Just as well I didn't, as the train failed to stop at her station, kind of corroborating her view of things.
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Post by kerouac2 on Aug 8, 2017 21:26:44 GMT
I'm just hoping that you will pick up where you left off on a future trip.
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Post by bixaorellana on Aug 9, 2017 16:10:37 GMT
Ummmm. You want to see me ensconced in a pig farm?
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Post by bixaorellana on Aug 12, 2017 1:53:50 GMT
Hello again, Dear Diary. Time to do a little more filling in. But first I'd like to say how sorry I am not to have met up with PatrickLondon on some occasion in addition to the anyport get-together. The fault is all mine, for sloppy planning, but I'm fully intending to have another chance on my next visit to London, if Patrick will permit. I'm also quite sorry not to have had an extra meeting with Mossie, although I am going to put that squarely in his corner, not mine. Still, all is forgiven, Mossie, and we'll try again next time around. Anyway ~ my next outing after the rural joys of Mudchute was to the Victoria & Album Museum of Childhood. Read & see all about it here: anyportinastorm.proboards.com/thread/8135/museum-childhoodBetween the museum visit and my last big splash the day before I left, I had two other exceptionally lovely days. Dear Cheerypeabrain arrived in her magic coach from the Midlands and we got to spend the day together. We did the classic ladies' day out shopping & lunch thing. Our first stop was Liberty of London ~ The very next day MicktheCactus, along with the lovely and fun Mrs. Cactus, left the leafiness of Hertfordshire for the big city. I met them at Liverpool Street Station, from whence we adjourned to an exquisite meal of tapas ~
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