Windsor Great Park 17 January 2016

Finally!  The first snow of the winter!

So exciting even though it only lasted about 18 hours.  There was a walk scheduled for the Great Park and this was the ideal place to experience snow for the first time.  I've seen snow in South Africa but only alongside the road while travelling.  It wasn't a particularly cold day and quite a large group met up at the Bishopsgate entrance.

Even now the snow was starting to melt

These palms look quite strange with a dusting of snow ...

There was a race taking place in the park and the lead runners were in shorts and Tshirts.  Always knew runners were strange people.  The back runners were more sensibly dressed.

We headed in towards the copper horse (or known by this blog as Big Daddy) and passed by a small herd of deer.

I didn't expect it because the fields of snow looked quite pristine, but there was about a foot of mud underneath all that white.  Quite difficult to wade through.  Though the horses were doing fine.

There was quite a bit of ice on the water.

Heading up the long slope towards the Obelix - raised around 1750.

And into the Savill Gardens.  The tearoom first for a very welcome cup of tea and cake and a pastry (not all mine!)  Banana bread and a raspberry danish - almost health food.

Mid winter but still a surprising amount of colour around - I haven't been here before but I'm looking forward to summer.  By all accounts, it's a spectacular sight.

Then a trudge back to the car park.  It would be good to get home and dry off.

Back to Kew 10 January 2016

Back to Kew on a very chilly day but the sky was blue - you have to get out on days like this.  Kew in winter is still surprisingly beautiful with lots of greenery and even some flowers in the gardens.  I like to see the bare bones of the trees.  This Black Pine tree though is apparently the unluckiest one around - it's been struck by lightening twice and was hit by a small plane back in the early 1900s.

I headed towards the Princess of Wales Conservatory where it was so warm I was discarding clothing as I went.  Winter clothing in the UK is a whole new vocabulary to me - you just wear so much of everything.  Somedays it's just the cheekbones that are exposed to the elements, but I've been told by a friend that balaclavas' are out of the question, I'm pretty tempted though some mornings. Can you just picture me in a balaclava? Snort ..

I took a lot of pictures.  So many so that it took hours to go through all of them.  Stick with me, I've edited them heavily and done a bunch of collages.

In February Kew are hosting an Orchid festival, but all the orchids are there anyway so no need to get into another queue.

They are just spectacular.  I've never seen so many and so many different ones.

Not only orchids though, Bromeliads and others whose names I cannot remember.

Gorgeous.

Moving through the conservatory takes you through various habitats and you end up in semi desert and desert conditions with plants like agave, cacti and aloe.

I really like this Spoon Flower which is growing at such a rate that they have had to remove part of the roof to accommodate it.

Time for lunch, so get dressed again - it's all very time consuming this taking off and putting on of layers of clothing.  Chicken pie - very tasty.

Then out into the cold again.

And into the Palm House which was built in 1848.  It's full of rainforest plants and hot and humid as you would imagine.

Late afternoon - which is actually only at about 2.30pm but the sun is low in the sky so I thought I'd catch the last of the rays but it was really cold - enough for a hat and scarf and gloves but here was a wedding party and the bride had on a sleeveless strapless dress!  I wonder what her memories of the day will be.  There were a lot of ducks,

The Temperate House is closed for renovations - thank goodness,  I couldn't deal with more disrobing today.  In the summertime perhaps?

The Japanese Gardens though - these are beautiful - calm and peaceful and very structured.

By this time the weather was changing.

Heading back towards the tea room - yes, tea was urgently required - there was this copse of snowdrops.

But tea was calling

Dorney 30 December 2015

Almost the end of the year, and what a year it has been.  Lots and lots of changes and new experiences.  Some good, some bad, all interesting.

Back in the UK winter had really set in and piling on the layers I set out with the Ramblers for their regular Thursday walk around Dorney.  It was very grey but there was a surprising amount of colour - take a look at these Dogwoods.

And of course, the walkers.

I saw some monuments which I'd never noticed before even though I've walked here a couple of times.  No time to get close though, keep up or get left behind!

We popped into the local farm where you can buy organic eggs. We stopped to say hello to the horses.  There were a few small ones, so sweet!

Back to the Garden Centre for tea - they have a great shop with farm produce for sale.  The final remnants of Christmas ...

Happy new year!

London Literary Walk 2 January 2016

We've finally made it to 2016.  It has taken a while.  No New Year resolutions though, just "keep moving" is the ongoing intention.

With that in mind, on a cold rainy day I met up with the rest of the Ramblers at Sloan Square Underground Station.  I was early so stopped in at a French cafe where they served freshly baked Madeleines.  Bite size delicious!

Fortified once more, I met up with the group and we headed off into Chelsea.

First stop was John Sandoe Books - favourite bookshop of Dirk Bogarde apparently.

Then into Bywater Street and No 9 which is the house John le Carre housed George Smiley of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy in and which house featured in the movie of the same name.

Around some twists and turns we found lots of blue plaques.

See the white cat on the wall?  Do you see the black one?  I didn't notice it until I downloaded the picture.  A different type of wall art.

 By this stage it was definitely time for another cup of tea but our intended destination - St Luke's Cafe, was closed.  A few other Cafes were reluctant to let in a group of 14 but we eventually found an incredibly hospitable Italian Trattoria, I suppose you would call it.  The owner was only to happy to cater for a variety of different requests.  Strange how no photos happen when I"m hungry ...

Some more street art and a season confused Camellia.

The rain was coming down even harder by now.

More blue plaques.  There are apparently 167 of them in Chelsea, we didn't get to all of them.

We did give it a good shot though.

Besides the Blue Plaques there were some other interesting places, for instance, this house used to belong to Mick Jagger.  He apparently lived here with someone famous, but I can't remember who it was!

And some different, but also interesting wall plaques.

The rain was pelting down so we finished off the tour at the Royal Hospital Chelsea Tea Room.  It was good to get out of the wet.