Big Things

Hello Dear Readers,

This weekend Chris and I traveled to Kingston on Thames at 8 am to see an 8:45 showing of The Dark Knight Rises (the latest and last Batman movie) in IMAX.  It was a bit early for me, and the show was 3 hours long, but it was a good one.  What I enjoyed at least as much was exploring the little town of Kingston.  It has some good shopping including a mall and the "Old London Road" quaint shops.  It has a little Quay by the river (pronounced "Key") and a fantastic medieval square with a little farmer's market on the Saturday morning we went.

We also found this gem, which I had seen in photographs before but had no idea it was so accessible or so local!  It's no the most interesting town in London perhaps, but I was blown away by it's charm.

 Speaking blown away, what have we here?  A Coca Cola bottle with Olympic branding?

 What is my whole team from the office doing standing outside in the middle of the day?  (Notice what a fantastic looking group we are, and how it's not raining, but seriously, these guys are great to work with).

 Who is that standing behind me?

Why it's the Olympic torch relay, passing right through Kew gardens!  We were able to take some flexi time off to see the torch being run through the gardens.  Impossible to get a good photo, but it was a fun little break in the middle of the day.  The first Olympic event is today (soccer) but the opening ceremonies aren't till Friday.  We're all a twitter here, big things happening, I'll keep you updated!
I am having a little trouble with my shoulders - too much stress and typing- so knitting is out and I'm limiting my out of office typing so I still plan to blog, they will just probably be short and sweet for a while.

Cheers!

Ufh Dah.... still raining

Hello Dear Readers,


Grumble grumble, it's the middle of July and it's cold and rainy.  And it's been cold and rainy since April.  Now I don't mind being able to wear my sweaters for a bit longer, and I love a rainy day to sit at home and knit, craft, read or just sunggle.  BUT 3 AND A HALF FRICKIN MONTHS OF SOLID RAIN EVERY DAY?!?!?!  I'm starting to get a little bit of cabin fever.  So with Chris off in Cyprus last week, I took a FlexiLeave day on Friday and headed up to Cambridge for a little relief.

Oh yeah, it was still RAINING up there, but it was a change of scene kind of rain.  Even little Katelyn was a little tired of it.

 I knit up some socks (in the car from the train to her house - talk about last minute!) in yarn that my friend Toad gave me, it has chitin in it. Yup, you Googled correctly, it's crab and shrimp shells.  They were warm and toasty, just what you need for an English summer.  Molly wore them when we went to the Cambridge Botanic Garden on Sunday.  She was comfy.





Of course I also had to make something for Katelyn, while she still can't argue about what she is wearing.  I used some lovely lush brown wool (also for free from Toad, seeing a pattern here?) and trimmed it with some hand spun green fiber (uh, from Toad, again). Check out those awesome corn buttons! From Helen, formerly of the Hammersmith Stitch 'n Bitch, but now sadly moved to New Zealand.  That's how I can afford to knit so much, people just give me yarn, but I love it.

We went out for the whole day Saturday to an art open house in Cambridge, it was delightful.  We had coffee in an artsy cafe, then walked around to the houses in between rain showers.  We had lunch in a french cafe nearby, where Katelyn ate as much as me, and that's a lot! then finished off with a banana which she ate, then smooshed into our shirts.   (Jennifer, I found a good home for your pineapple shirt, Molly loved it, it wouldn't fit over my boobs... )

Molly and George had evening engagements Friday and Saturday nights, here they are before going out to a friend's wedding.  Luckily I introduced Molly to Call Me Maybe so she knew how to rock out.  If you haven't heard this song  yet, you have to, it's the song of the summer.  Not that there is much summer to be had around here.  Noticing a theme?


The last day when we went to the Botanic Gardens, which I've been meaning to go to forever, I asked if they had an agreement with Kew as some gardens allow you to get in free if you are a member or staff member of another garden.  The woman looked at me through the flood of rain hitting the plexiglass of the ticket booth and said, "Normally no, but go ahead."  I guess she figured if we were crazy enough to go to the gardens in the POURING rain, we must really want to.  Luckily there were green houses and a lovely tea room to sit in after getting soaked.  Here I am enjoying what is called a Jade Plant from Thailand.  Lovely big bean pods.  I'm wearing a tank top, short sleeve shirt, thin cardigan, Holister Hoodie (cause I couldn't afford to dress trendy when I WAS 16) ....... and a bulky aran jumper.  In July.  And I am comfortable.  Sigh.

To look forward to next month, trip to Whitby, home of Dracula and Lewis Carroll.  Visit from Cousin Elias, visit from Cat and Jeff.  Oh yeah, and the Olympics.  And rain. More rain. Probably.


Hope everyone else is managing to stay warm and dry, I'm going to go snuggle under my quilt with a hot water bottle......


Cheers!

and even more visitors!

Hello Dear Readers,

Well well well, the bar is being set pretty high here folks.  Jennifer, Amy, Adam and Melch, Luke, Matt and now....... Devin!  That's 7 out of 11 Skippies who have come to visit me in London.  Susan, KT, Jon and J-fer? Buller?  Your know what to do.

Last weekend completely out of the blue my friend Devin said, "hey Heather, I'm in London over the weekend, you around?"  Turns out he was here with another high school friend of mine to be the best man (and maid of honor) for a surprise destination wedding.  Not a surprise to the bride (I asked) but to the parents of the happy couple.  We met up at Piccadilly Circus, walked to Trafalgar Square, Covent Garden, had dinner in a pub (mmmm Eton Mess and Banoffee!) then wandered around the south bank, St. James' Park, Buckingham Palace and back to Piccadilly just in time.

It was so great to catch up with him since it's been about 5 years at least.  It's so weird how seeing old friends can make it seem like absolutely no time has passed at all.  Its always like that and yet I'm always surprised.  Pleasantly surprised.

Yesterday we had another (somewhat surprise as it was arranged last minute) guest, Christiana, Chris's cousin who lives about an hour south in Guildford.  She came up for the day to just enjoy our company (and my cooking, she lives in a dorm).  We walked along the Thames path up to Hammersmith, such an amazing day.  Cool and breezy but sunny and warm enough if you are walking.  Typical English summer I guess. After that we headed to the Mall in Shepherds Bush, but were pretty exhausted so we went back home shortly, ate more food and then chilled.

June Roundup

Hello Dear Readers,

As it's the last full weekend in June I thought I'd catch up on other things that happened this month.  I participated in a "Hen Do", or Batchelorette party for Elina, a Cypriot friend of my from the Natural History Museum, hence the greek Gods and Goddesses getup.  I'm Athena, goddess of wisdom, also called the "awesome one in pigtails" in some translations of the Odessy (Barbra Nelson's 9th grade English class anyone? Anyone? Bueller?)

As it's the last weekend in June I thought I'd catch up on other things that happened this month.  I participated in a "Hen Do", or Batchelorette party for Elina, a Cypriot friend of my from the Natural History Museum, hence the greek Gods and Goddesses getup.  I'm Athena, goddess of wisdom, also called the "awesome one in pigtails" in some translations of the Odessy (Barbra Nelson's 9th grade English class anyone? Anyone? Bueller?)  She's getting married this summer and we gave her a bit of a send off.  We had a picnic in Hyde Park, complete with kisses for the bride from total strangers.  Then we learned the moves from Dirty Dancing, where we posed for the above photo.

Afterwards we headed to another friend's place for a Vietnamese cooking class.  AMAZING! Such delecious food, and so much of it.  Of course obligatory tube ride in our hen do get up, thankfully we weren't the most outrageously dressed hen-do that weekend and there were a lot of them.  Hot pink tutu's and leg warmers for one, have to say I'm a little jealous about that one.....




Last weekend I received this fantastic belated birthday present from my friend Jennifer (remember her?).  It's a TARDIS, or for those who aren't Doctor Who fans (and why not?) it's a spaceship shaped like a police box which is actually an alien time machine space ship.  Which is also alive.  And bigger on the inside.  Ok it sounds weird when you say it like that but it's a hell of a lot of fun!  It's going on my desk at work as soon as I figure a save way to transport it, maybe in a large tupperware?


This weekend, there is a surprise guest in London - just further proof that the year 30 is going to be the best ever for me! 

Scillier and Scillier

Hello Dear Readers,

Part two of the Scilly trip, as promised.  On Monday we went to the island of St Agnes for Mark to do another Wildlife Trust talk and for us to finally start on our collections.  Here is Megan carrying the plant press around in the field.

After some hot dusty plant collecting work we found the pub near the harbor and sat for about an hour, drinking and relaxing.  It was such a hot day that I even braved taking of my stuffy boots and plunging my feet into the glacial waters.

That's as far as I got, but Mark went knee deep, and Elisa went up to her waist!  Apparently after a while you don't feel the cold but I wasn't going to stay in there long enough to find out.  It sure was pretty to look at though, look how BLUE!!!

There was even a lovely blue butterfly on the island which we saw all over the place.  I managed to catch two in the act, but what I like about this photo is how you can clearly see the difference between the dorsal and ventral views of the wings.  You wouldn't know they were the same butterfly if you saw them separately
.

The butterflies were on the island of Breyher (pronounced like Briar Patch) where we went on Tuesday.  This was probably the smallest island we went to, only 1.5 miles long and 1 mile wide.  The most exciting part of being here was searching for the dwarf pansy.  It was a beautiful flower (damned hard to photograph though) but it was also hilarious watching a whole group of botanists butts in the air admiring this little gem.

Here is one of my best attempts at photographing it, with my 10x loop for scale.  The pansay is the little purple splotch...... you can try clicking to make it bigger, but I don't think my macro setting was really up to it.

Wednesday was a "free day" in that Mark didn't have to give a talk, so we did some more serious collecting around St Mary's, with plenty of time for fun of course.  Megan explored some exciting rocks (in some exciting home made leg warmers to protect her sunburned legs).

And we climbed to the famous preacher's rock, no mean feat for someone like me who is a bit skittish of bouldering after that nasty accident when I was a camp councilor....

We hiked out to the site of neolithic burial chambers and settlements, here even before the Romans came.

And our real free day on Thursday was spent finding PUFFINS!  We took a boat that specifically promised we would see puffins and seals and they were not wrong.  They live mostly on the uninhabited (by humans anyway) islands of Annet and Samson.  This is probably the best shot I had of the birds, but they were everywhere.

 Kate had a handy monocular since the puffins are a bit shy and tended to fly off as we got close.

This seal on the other hand seemed almost too happy to pose for use as we came by. Not shown in this photo is the baby seal that was swimming nearby, perhaps that's why (s)he? was waiting around.

Friday was our last real day of work so Thursday night we had a bit of a celebration in the Barracks by lighting a bonfire in one of the old gun wells.  We had a grand old time finding dead wood in the nearby foresty area and burning as much as possible.  We grilled meat and veggies, invited the ornithologists over (they were looking for shags.  Honestly, it's the name of a bird!) and had a grand time singing songs (that was me and Kate) dancing around the fire in our bras (that was just Kate) and listening to tunes on my iPad (that was me).

Friday we spent on the island of St Martins and made a feeble attempt at collecting, but by this point we were all totally knackered.  After hiking out to see the famous Scilly Ant and giving up our search for the Scilly bee, we took to the beach, as it was probably the nicest day we had.  

 Kath made the mistake of lying too long in one spot so she got covered in sand and turned into an exquisite mermaid princess, complete with seaweed wig and merkin, as you do.

Clockwise, starting from me, Kath, Elisa, Megan, Kate, and Jacquie

Nothing left to do after this but catch the ferry the next morning, wait till 5 pm in Penzance and take the 6 hour slow train to London (thank goodness for iPads and knitting) and arrive at 1 am in Paddington station.  Phew!  What a great trip!

So much more has happened since then but this post is already long and photo heavy so it'll have to wait till next time.

Cheers!

Silly post part 1

Hello Dear Readers,

The trip to the Isles of Scilly was so big, I think I need to split it into two posts. The first day we assembled at the train station in Paddington. My first time at this iconic station, though I did have a Paddington bear as a kid. Megan who I work with at Kew was there looking stylish as ever.

We took a short 5 hour train ride down to Penzance, on the international day of the pirate no less. It was a really nice ride by what they term the Cornish Riviera, Cornwall being the name of the county at the far south west corner of England. I did quite a bit of knitting and caught up on the latest Southern Vampires mystery during the trip, so it was great! We spent the evening at a pub in Penzance and slept at a youth hostel. Unfortunately one of our party was a snorer, not just chopping logs as Chris would say but chain sawing them so I didn't get much sleep!

Three Cornered Leek, delicious in salad

The Not so Elusive Scarlet Pimpernel

 The next morning we took the ferry from Penzance to the Isles of Scilly. I slept a good bit of the trip, but really enjoyed the rough waters, at times it was like being on a roller coaster.  Apparently this is some of the worst waters off the English coast, notorious for shipwrecks. What I wasn't prepared for was how blue the water is, it was so much like the Mediterranean, except, you know, for all the cold and wind and rain in June...... We settled in on the first day and headed up to our lodgings. Half the group stayed in a holiday flat and I went up with Elisa, Kath and Megan to The Garrison!
 It's an old military bunker built in 1900 according to a stone in the wall. It was designed to protect the island from attack by the Spanish armadas etc., but was built in a bad spot for protecting and the story goes that the guns were never "fired in anger."  Our beds were in the underground bunker bit, with one small window that looked out into the ditch cut between the sleeping rooms and living area.  At one time where we slept was the ammunition's room, and there was a small dumbwaiter in the wall used for hauling ammo up to the big guns mounted up top.

 Sunday we took a boat from St. Marys where we were staying to the island of Tresco.  In the morning Mark gave a nature walk/talk for the Wildlife Trust to a very attentive audience.  Here is Elisa intently listening to the history of the island

It is clear from the twinkle in his eyes and the alarming pace he sets that Mark really gets a kick out of giving these talks, and why not, it's nice to be appreciated for your botanical knowledge.  That's something Mark has in spades.

We walked for quite a few miles while I furiously tried to keep pace with sketching in my notebook and trying to capture Latin plant names.  I probably learned more about  English plant life in that first trip to Tresco than I have in the past year.

Tresco is one of the more touristy island, and offers the usual stunning views of the sea and ruins of old fortifications.  I know, yawn yawn, amazing company, great plants and a perfect sea breeze.  We even managed to make it to the world famous (yeah, I never heard of it either) Tresco Botanic Gardens, though we only had a short hour to spend there.  Because the islands are so far south a lot of things grow here that you won't find anywhere else in England outside of a greenhouse.

Jubulation!

Hello Dear Readers,
     I just got back from an amazing plant collecting trip in the Isles of Scilly (yeah, I had to look them up too, they are off the coast of Cornwall) which I can't wait to tell you about.  But first, this weekend marks the 60th anniversary of Queen Elizabeth's Reign.

 It's a really interesting atmosphere around here, when there is a big nationwide celebration the English like to do "Street Parties."  Most people's streets are quite short, maybe no more than 40 houses so they get permission from the Council (local government) to shut it off, string up "bunting" and bring out tables (and umbrellas!) to share a big lunch.  Sort of like a block party, but with more rain and bunting and tea.  All the shops get into the action too, the above photos are some I took just of the shops on Lower Richmond Road, not even the High (Main) Street.  From left clockwise are a Shabby Chic home decoration place, tailoring and alteration, local butcher and cake shop, all decked out in bunting and Union Flags.

 You couldn't swing a dead cat and not hit a flag, as Chris is showing posing under the 1000th flag on the street.  We didn't fly our colors, though two roommates here are Australian so technically they are the Queen's subjects too, and Cyprus is an ex-commonwealth country.

Chris had the final appointment for his Christmas present from me, as part of a spa deal he had a pedicure.  Then we walked down to the river and headed east until we couldn't walk anymore.  We saw some people getting on a boat near Imperial Wharf and Chelsea bridge.  It was pretty crowded  (and even two snipers on the roof) but even the people we could see we didn't recognize so we decided to walk back along the river to see the boats mustering.

 We did see the paddling boats lining up.  They had people from all over the world, including a Canadian canoe complete with people in what I assume to be native Canadian outfits.  They were probably the best off as it was FREEZING cold out there, and drizzly at best, and really chucking it down at about 4 pm.

After watching and waiting for a bit we decided to head back towards home along the river, stopping at Wandsworth bridge where we saw the motorized contingent of the flotilla arrive, with a bat-pipe band and full concert bands on some of the boats.  One even played Yankee Doodle as it went by, not sure how appropriate that was.......  I also ran into my friend Jacek and his partner on the bridge, sometimes London can really feel like a small town!

Chris and I kept walking down the Thames path enjoying the flotilla going by, since they were headed the other way from us it made for a nice short flotilla, which we were glad about as it started to pour as soon as we got back to our house.  We went upstairs to snuggle warm in bed and watch the end on BBC iPlayer on the computer.  Not a moment too soon for me as I was soon fast asleep, owing to the fact that I got in from Scilly at 1 in the morning.  Chris jostled me awake for the end of it, but I was flotillaed out.

As a nod to the occasion I did make my own version of (vegetarian) Coronation Chicken, a classic English dish that was invented for the original coronation in 1952.  You can still buy a coronation chicken sandwich (think tuna salad) in the local grocery stores, the English love a good cold meat salad and frankly, it was delicious.

This is end of our two day Bank Holiday, and I have to go to work tomorrow.  I'm looking forward to it, still in that Honeymoon phase of Yes!  I have a JOB!  I'm working on the posts for the Scilly Isles and will be doling them out later this month.

Cheerio!