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~ An occasional blog, mainly photos

Musiewild's blog

Monthly Archives: July 2018

Two days in London – Saturday

28 Saturday Jul 2018

Posted by Musiewild in Museums, Photography, Plants, Wildlife

≈ 12 Comments

Tags

Broad Walk, Gnomus, Heathrow Airport, Kew Gardens, leucospermum conocarpodendon, Pagoda, Palm House, Pyrenean Pine, Richmaond Lawn Tennis Club, Royal Botanic Gardens, Temperate House

Kew Gardens. This time Mary and I went together to Kew Gardens, known more formally as the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.  We arrived fairly early, after an obligatory coffee near the station, and decided to make straight for the Temperate House, recently reopened after refurbishment, before the crowds arrived.  P1330244001

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En route, a sideways look at the Pagoda. How parched the grass is.

It happened to be the first day of Gnomus’s residence there. He is ‘a font of knowledge, and caretaker of the earth’, hanging around the Temperate House to share with children special stories about the plants there, until the end of the summer holidays. P1330248001

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As Mary pointed out, the poor chap at the back is having difficulty making the movements of Gnomus’s feet look realistic!

 

One corner inside. P1330261001Views from the balcony.

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Outwards

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and inwards

From the balcony I also admired elements of the ironwork.

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And ornamentation outside.

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And I focussed on plants from above.

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The story behind the leucospermum conocarpodendon below is interesting. In 2005, a Dutch researcher found 40 small packets of seeds in a leather notebook in the National Archives.  The notebook belonged to a Dutch merchant whose ship was captured by the British navy in 1803.  Kew’s Millenium Seedbank propagated this plant from one of those seeds. P1330281001 We moved on to the Great Pagoda, also recently refurbished.  When it was built in 1762, it had dragons on every corner of its roof, but they only lasted until 1784.  Thanks to donors, the original designs have been used to recreate the dragons, the lower ones carved from wood, the higher ones digitally printed. P1330287001P1330288001While Mary stayed down and worked on a crossword, I climbed to the top, 253 quite shallow steps. Access was by a broad central spiral staircase. I counted the steps between each floor, 33 to begin with, reducing to 21, so I suppose this was to give the impression, with perspective, that the tower is higher than it really is.  Around the outside of the staircase is a broad landing in every floor, with considerate benches (that is a figure of speech!) on every second landing.  At the top, the windows are glazed, and you cannot get out on to the balconies.

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Richmond Lawn Tennis Club from the second floor. They’re only playing on the hard courts.

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The Japanese Garden from the top

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Central London skyline

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There was a small exhibition on the ground floor. This automaton represents a royal visit to the Pagoda during construction

On our way to lunch:

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The central section of The Temperate House gleamed in the sun

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A different chap at the back has worked out what the handles on Gnomus’s calves are for.

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The Palm House, now by comparison revealed to be in need of a clean-up

After lunch we wandered down the Broad Walk.  P1330329001P1330332001P1330333001P1330335001P1330336001Then around a parkland area.

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I loved the bark on this deep-cleft Pyrenean Pine

We sat for a while, both working further on the crossword (my part really just marvelling at the solutions Mary found).

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Like my small pond at home, the lake has far too much duckweed etc on it. A result of the extreme heat we have been having?

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Aeroplane after aeroplane…

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Close to a bench

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Daddy swan seems much more concerned by the Egyptian goose than by us.

P1330369001A speedy passage through the sweltering Palm House, P1330388001P1330391001and out the other side, P1330394001back to the café to pick up something to drink. This we consumed sitting on a bench nearby, reflecting on the day, and counting the intervals between the planes which were going over our heads to land at Heathrow Airport (every 60 to 70 seconds, poor residents).  User commentsA lovely day, during which sunshine and cloud had appeared at totally convenient intervals for our comfort. We parted at Kew Gardens station, I for my Underground (which was largely over ground) for Paddington Station and the West Country, and Mary on her Overground (which was partly under ground) for North London.

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Two days in London – Friday

24 Tuesday Jul 2018

Posted by Musiewild in History, Museums, Photography, Travel

≈ 12 Comments

Tags

fourth plinth, Glenn Miller, Junius, London, Mail Rail, Monet, Mount Pleasant, National Museum of Iraq, Panther House, pavement entertainment, Penny Black, Postal Museum, Rowland Hill, Sainsbury Wing, Tommy Steele, Ulysses

I spent two days in London last week, and, quite apart from social time with my friend, Mary, I had three very different experiences.  The timing of my trip was determined by the fact that the ‘Monet and Architecture’ exhibition at the National Gallery, Trafalgar Square, was very soon coming to an end. Moreover, I was very glad that I had pre-booked my ticket as there would have been no chance of a walk-in ticket.

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Pavement entertainment outside the Gallery

P1330088001 The ‘fourth plinth‘ in Trafalgar Square is currently occupied by ‘The Invisible Enemy should not Exist’.   It is built entirely of the packaging of Middle Eastern foodstuffs (some sources say date syrup cans) and Arabic newspapers, and is a commemoration of the artefacts stolen from the National Museum of Iraq, in Baghdad, in the aftermath of the American invasion of Iraq in 2003. It represents a determination to recover the more than 7000 objects still missing.

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The Sainsbury Wing, temporarily showing the 77 Monet paintings

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Looking back from the entrance

No photography inside the Monet exhibition itself was allowed, but I did manage to get these pictures at its entry and exit.  I thought a better title would have been ‘Monet and Landscape’. But perhaps they’ve done that already.P1330092001P1330095001My other visit that day was to the Postal Museum, including a short trip on its Mail Rail, the underground post transport system, which opened in 1927 and closed in 2003.  As there was no really convenient public transport between the two places, I decided to walk, and the 35 minutes estimated by online research turned out to be very accurate. I walked fast but made stops for a few photos and to check that I was on the right route.

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More pavement entertainment in Trafalgar Square

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I had a crush on Tommy Steele back in the   … ties, but I’m a little young to remember Glenn Miller.

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Paris? No, London.

It was a noisy walk with much traffic and many people, but once I turned off Grays Inn Road into Mount Pleasant (the road), it was totally quiet.  P1330103001P1330104001I have tried to find out more about the Panther Building, and it seems that it is currently workshops and studios.  Planning permission exists for the redevelopment of part of it.

Two big surprises awaited me just before I got to the Postal Museum in Phoenix Place:  the beauty of the 1929 Mount Pleasant building, and that, while much shrunken, there is still considerable Post Office activity on the site – a great deal of redevelopment is going on there also.  P1330105001I had a bite of lunch in the café at the Museum, P1330108001then crossed back over the road to Mail Rail, where likewise I had a timed ticket. This rather blurry picture shows the size of the ‘wagons’, ideal for postal parcels, packets and letters, but only just large enough for tourists to sit in! P1330112001

 

There were four stops on the 15 minute ride, at which there were projections on to the walls about Mail Rail’s history.  P1330125001

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It very much resembles the London (passenger) Underground of course – but it’s on a much smaller scale.

P1330139001After the ride, the exit was through a small further exhibition about it.  P1330143001P1330148001

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‘Ulysses’ banned – by mail as well!

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‘…ever needed again…’

And at the end I watched a short film which I had not had time to see beforehand, from which the above is a still.

I then crossed back over the road to the award-winning Postal Museum, which opened in 2017.  It was very well presented, with plenty to keep both adults and children interested. Here are just a few of the dozens of photos I took there.  Firstly, why do we call it ‘the post’? P1330167001P1330169001

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“It is not the cause of faction, or of party, or of an individual, but the common interest of every man in Britain.” Yes, well. (Junius was not, by the way, a Roman philosopher, but the nom de plume of an 18th century writer.)

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Rowland Hill introduced the penny black, the very first postage stamp in the world. This exhibit was not lit, perhaps for fear of fading, so a decent photo was difficult to take.  I shudder to think how many millions of pounds this exhibit is worth, though apparently it’s a plate proof so doesn’t count as real stamps.

Post boxes have not always been red.  They started – in the Channel Islands in 1852 – painted green, but people in the countryside thought that dreary, so from 1874 they were painted red. P1330188001P1330216.1P1330235001I think that splendid mail coach was the best, but here are some other forms of postal transport.P1330194001P1330202001P1330216.2P1330234001I rather fancied this tunic, but my attempt to try it on reflectively was foiled by the height of its plinth. P1330201001Is nostalgia the same as feeling old? I felt both as I recognised the famous ‘Press button B’ telephone booth.P1330203001Near the end there was the chance to sit and watch an hour’s-worth of short PR  films made by the Post Office’s Film Unit (founded 1933). The most famous of them all, ‘Night Train’ was just about to start as I passed, so I sat and watched it.

On leaving the Museum, I took a backward look to the splendid Mount Pleasant building. P1330238001Then I wandered through quiet back streets to the bustle of King’s Cross, and took a bus back to Mary’s place.  We had a very nice meal at a French restaurant in Camden Town, though I could have wished that the moules marinières I ordered for my starter had arrived instead of the spicy moules provençales!

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12th time lucky!

12 Thursday Jul 2018

Posted by Musiewild in Countryside views, Photography, Something new, Travel, Wildlife

≈ 17 Comments

Tags

Adventure Balloons, Balloon flight, Berkshire College of Agriculture, Burchetts Green, Henley, River Thames, Sonning Common

12th time lucky! Two years ago, Barbara was given a voucher for a balloon flight for her birthday. She suggested that her daughter, that is my cousin Teresa, and I join her, and as I had been longing to go up in a balloon all my adult life, I was thrilled to agree, as was Teresa. So for two years we have been making reservations on flights, and 11 times these flights have been cancelled, either for bad weather conditions, or, once, because they had not enough passengers booked for the flight.

This morning, at last, it happened!  It was perfect weather.  Arriving at 5.30 at a field belonging to the Berkshire College of Agriculture, in Burchetts Green, the sun was rising over the horizon, and there was a little mist around which burnt off over the next couple of hours.  After a short briefing with us all actually in the balloon basket, we all clambered out and watched the balloon being inflated. This didn’t take long and we all climbed in again.  P1320903001P1320905001P1320906001P1320908001P1320909001P1320913001P1320916001

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To begin with, just hot (I presume) air is blown into the balloon. (Later edit: I now understand that the balloon is filled with cold air to begin with.)

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Then the burner comes into action

P1320921001P1320923001Take-off was imperceptible and we were up and away before we knew it.

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“It’s actually happening!”

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Before long we were at our maximum height of 900 feet plus.  It didn’t feel like it – though how would I know?

We saw animals. P1320957001

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Mostly I didn’t use zoom on my camera, to retain the impression of height, but this is an exception. I loved the early morning shadows of both animals and trees.

 

P1320965001P1320966001P1330012001P1330021001At last some wild animals – running deer, tiny specks here.

We saw expensive properties (this was the Henley area).

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I really was not leaning out of the basket to take this.

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Presumably a dressage arena

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P1320997001P1320998001We saw fields with patterns.

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We three were facing the sun.  I think we got the best of the deal.

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Why was this field so exquisitely green, when all around had been affected so badly by the lengthy drought?

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Perhaps this aircraft is the clue.

 

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A golf course

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The greenkeeper?

And of course we saw views.  P1320946001P1320949001P1320961001P1320963001P1320978001

 

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The Thames with Henley in the distance

 

 

P1320986001P1320991001P1330006001P1330011001P1330012001P1330013001P1330015001P1330019001After some 50 minutes it was time to start descending. P1330023001P1330024001P1330026001

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I didn’t turn round to look at the views behind me much, for obvious reasons.

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We have landed, in a field at Sonning Common.

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The ‘plughole’ at the top is opened to let out some air

P1330048001Once the balloon had deflated sufficiently we were allowed to get out.

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83-year-old yoga-loving Barbara didn’t really need help,

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but she seemed delighted to accept it.

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Teresa and I used the same method as each other.

P1330057001P1330058001We were invited/encouraged/cajoled to help push all the remaining air out of the balloon, then to roll it up and put it back in the basket.  P1330060001P1330062001

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Barbara helped squeeze the air out…

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… by rolling in the hay with her young man.

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The balloon was tied into sections

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All helped lift it towards and then into the basket

P1330083001It was some time before a minibus arrived to pick us up. The interval was very pleasantly spent sipping champagne and chatting with fellow passengers. P1330084001P1330085001P1330086001It had been worth the two-year wait!  Thanks Geoff for kicking off the whole adventure!  And Adventure Balloons, we’re sorry for all the evil things we said about you every time you cancelled – we really do understand that you couldn’t take the risk.  And you served up perfect weather today.

 

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