Rydno! Children's Day today! More London!

Just seen: http://www.rydno.pl/ - I was most pleased to find this link and see this year's Archaeological Picnic Rydno 2013 as I could not join in the fun. The photographs show that the weather god didn't pamper the participants. It's not any better today: the gloomy morning evolved into a heavy rain afternoon.

See the smoke? Shut the windows!

What do people burn in their gardens? Well, it's not firewood. Guess why I can tell...
....
I phoned my son at a sensible time on this Saturday morning to give him my wishes. It's International Children's Day - June the 1st! When he was three and a half, I took him to Kensington Gardens. However, I didn't know about The Elfin Tree then, otherwise, I'd've shown it to him. I did so when he was much older though. I was shown this unusual oak tree trunk by an English friend, keen gardener I knew from Kenwood House, another enchanted London spot set in the massive green land of Hampstead Heath. I do hope my knee will recover at last and I will be able to hike across the heath like I used to...
....
Rainy it is and I am still resting my knee so I would share another interesting link to a London-themed blog:
http://www.peterberthoud.co.uk/2012/04/forgotten-images-before-aldwych-kingsway/ I'm so glad I found this site. I am truly enjoying it and would like to share a link to the London elephants  themed post:
http://www.peterberthoud.co.uk/2011/11/colourful-weekend-elephant/. My friend's mother loves these vegetarians and I think she may like to see it.  It is funny how I find it difficult to remember people's birthday's or 'namedays', but without fail know who collects wooden giraffes, ornamental eggs, toy cats or little sugar sachets from cafes around the globe. With the last one, I made a serious mistake though. Many years ago, in the States I accumulated quite a collection of the said sachets having used the sugar in  my hot beverages as one would. Later did it turn out that she collected full, not empty sachets!
....
I am please to introduce Elisabeth Wilbraham, the first known woman architect, according to the popular online resource:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Wilbraham. She is mentioned in an article on Cassiobury House, a gone-by residence in Watford as the designer of a dower house of The Cassiobury Estate (called Little Cassiobury), which survived till today. I found images of the house and its history here:  http://www.friendsoflittlecassiobury.org.uk/ and with interest skimmed through the text here: http://www.bladens.co.uk/id28.html , especially enjoying the extracts from Adela's diary: 'Rose at 8',  'picked some radishes for tea' and more...

Cassiobury House and many more such grandiose houses that didn't survive till now are described in The Daily Mail article:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2101933/Englands-lost-Downtons-Or-endless-homes-ended-bypasses-office-blocks-golf-courses.html#ixzz2JqzBEFKw .