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...
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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...
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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!
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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 .

One flew into my nest!

I've just had a most unexpected visitor! It arrived through the half open balcony door when I was in the other part of the flat. I thought the noises came from the balcony, but then the sounds became rather alarming so I grabbed the crutches and transferred myself into the room to see that the bird was actually indoors, making frantic efforts to get out through the closed windows. I dropped the crutches and after a while managed to catch the terrified bird, and then couldn't help portraying the trespasser with my little phone camera before setting it free:

Then I had to clear the mess. I thought that for some reason in pecked on my laptop screen, maybe thinking it was a way out. Fortunately, the dear neighbour who came with most appreciated provisions, determined through scratching the said screen that that the little white specks were removable. Now I must put away the supplies!

Now you know why I wrote about the blessing of having friends!

Friends and Corpus Christi

Good to have friends!

'A friend in need is a friend indeed.'
'Friends are the family we choose for ourselves.'
These are the two most well known sayings about friends, but there are many others and those of Dear Readers who wandered here constantly working on their English (I surely do), as well as those kind enough to help the first ones, are welcome to add other sayings about friends in the comments section.

I think I owe an explanation. Not that praising friends I am complaining about my own family. It just happens to be the case that we are all scattered around the Northern Hemisphere at present. Therefore I am so grateful to my friends for being there for me.

Anyway, on Thursday, the 30th of May 2013 one would expect me to write about The Feast of Corpus Christi and how it is celebrated in Poland, where it is a holy day of obligation (in other words a feast of precept). Well, this year for me it was a day of travelling from Krakow to Skarzysko. With my delicate leg, my friends kindly gave me a lift in the morning on the way to their relations further north. It meant we missed the colourful procession of The Blessed Sacrament performed at the end of a Holy Mass in every church of the country. The only 'trace' of the procession we could see driving through one of the villages was a little girl in a folk costume carrying a decorated with ribbons, little wicker basket which held petals of fresh flowers. Why? Well... Why don't you tell me for a change?

Hey, I just found a link for Corpus Christi processions at Skarzysko parishes 2013 AD:
http://skarzysko24.pl/wiadomosci/aktualnosci/10922-bozecialowskarzysku.html

:-)

Here are pictures taken on the way north of Krakow. No photo of the girl, we flashed by too quickly. However, you can see the travelling horses and some countryside:

And here is a very special plant:

Maybe one day I'll tell you why I call it special...

'Lazy' joint

My knee is slow to recover.... Another portion of liquid had to be removed from above it, but luckily, the same needle could be used to inject the good stuff. Now I must hop on one leg or use 'the undisturbed one' plus crutches. Great! :-(  However, on a positive side, I've had a nice day with friends and they offered me a lift home tomorrow, which is an amazing help. Can you imagine me walking on crutches and one leg only and pulling a suitcase at the same time between a taxi and coach, taxi and up the stairs??? Well, feasible, but better avoided.
Good night!

More travels!

Rainy and grim outside! Getting packed again and flying again on the agenda. You don't envy me, do you?
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I'm about to leave home and it's pouring with rain. Just what you want....
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It took me a while before I could return to this post. The rain stopped later, but not before I got wet on the way to the post office.  I couldn't believe my luck when an immigrant newsagent's assistant agreed to keep an eye on my suitcase when I hobbled to WH Smith. With all these regulations and precautions, I wouldn't've been surprised had he refused.

The flight was good, I was granted an extra seat to stretch my troubled leg and enjoyed a chat with a friendly  and cheerful woman who compassionately agreed to take her least favourite window seat. In the meantime the rain stopped and I photographed the sky and the clouds:

That reminds me of the exciting views I admired while flying to Hong Kong a few years ago. Yes, you are right there, I didn't fail to take pictures. There were no clouds and it was like looking at a huge map. Quite amazing...
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Never dine alone!

Beautiful blue sky this morning in London.
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How easy it was to make one person happy. I selected some pictures, sent them to the nearby Snappy Snaps and they were ready for collection in no time! The old lady who received them was absolutely elated with joy. We had a good giggle together making up funny comments when looking through the lot.
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In the evening, when I found myself at London Bridge Station, I decided my hunger had to be satisfied then and there, as by the time I get home by uncertain public transport of a Bank Holiday Monday, my stomach may start devouring itself. Well, the Italian restaurants that a friend recommended where easy to find, but shut dead. To be precise, he talked about one, which one though, no knowing yet. Anyway, having searched The Borough High for a suitable venue, I made a choice to give a chance to a spectacular old pub reportedly frequented by no less famous patrons then W. Shakespeare and C. Dickens! I'm glad I went there as everything was top notch: the English barman, the food, the table and you name it! It was hard to get a table downstairs, but it turn out the perfect one in the far corner was just about to be vacated and I could go back to the cute barman and tell him to bring my haddock dinner to No 6! By the time I got back, I noticed a family of four nesting themselves at 'my' table which made me feel delighted as there was a chance to have a company. (Another friend has read a book "Never Dine Alone" or something similar - and I rarely manage to follow this advice in the recent days...) I can't speak for my companions, but I had a marvelous time with them, especially that they were on a self-guided sightseeing tour of London and I could give them a few tips!
It would be nice to know how they spent the next day in London! However, I won't blame them if they skip on The Roof Gardens should it rain.

Here are some of the pictures I took looking for a 'feeding venue', mostly of The Shard Tower, the tallest building in London, currently:

26th May - Mother's Day in Poland

I had a nice meal with my offspring when we met a few days back! He invited me to a restaurant. I know... Flowers like women and the other way round, but I was travelling the next day. Anyway, there are people who think that flowers' place is in the field or the garden.  
Due to different dates mothers are celebrated round the globe, my globetrotter mother receives wishes and more three times a year! I am very pleased that this year I finally printed a set of pictures for my and my dear friend's mom. The latter could be handed the pictures in person as I went to visit her. She was absolutely delighted. It was a pure joy to watch her joy! The set for my mother was sent by post.

Below are the flowers at  Edwardes Square, near the pub with an equestrian portrait of Napoleon mentioned in another end of May post. The shrubs I photographed are faced by Edwardes Square Garden. Unless you go there on an Open Garden Weekend, which may not be that convenient and easy to achieve, you can see what it looks like here:
http://londonholic.blogspot.com/2011/05/featured-garden-edwardes-square.html . BTW, it looks an interesting blog to follow, don't you think?

Wisteria in full glory

Chinese wisteria (wisteria sinensis)

 This year I cannot document the blooming of wisteria sinensis at Walpole Park walled garden in Ealing nor that near The Elephant & Castle Pub north of High Street Kensington and west of Ken Church Street. I'm sure they are as pretty as always!

Living rock legend's birthplace and... trains!

Weekend public transport permitting, I'll set foot in the town where Mick Jagger was born. It's not going to be a long visit, need to catch a bus from there to go further east. It would be nice if it stayed sunny for the rest of the day.
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It did stay sunny and dry. The trip was a pleasant one. There were frequent trains from London Bridge and I didn't need to wait long for the connection and after around forty minutes I got off. The destination railway station is undergoing major improvements  at the moment and due to the number of steps is not recommended to walking impaired. I wish I'd known that...
When I finally descended from the last flight of steps and walked ahead in search of a bus stop, I spotted these cute plagues. I hope they won't be removed during the redecoration process:

And now you can find out the name of the place:

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Let me add a few pictures of trains and tracks my phone snapped from the railway footbridge in Skarzysko-Kamienna  on 25 March 2011. If only it had been sunny...

Rain non-stop

It's been raining all the time. Are you surprised? It's England, after all. But why is it so cold????

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As the 24th of May is Saint Joanna's Day in the Christian calendar, I took pictures of some May blossom while walking under a big umbrella:

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In the evening a friend invited me to see a play in East London and by the time I got there, delayed by searching for another friend's mobile phone left on silent somewhere in the flat. Had I not walked straight past the theatre entrance and wasted the precious minutes, I would have not missed the first part. But then, I wouldn't have tasted a homemade brownie at the theatre cafe only to discover that it looked better then it tasted. Fortunately, the second part of Chechov's play adaptation was worth the wait.

On the way back home I enjoyed the sight of spontaneous dancing to a busker's tunes. But not the knee under repair, I might have joined in! ;-)