Coffins in a beduin tent, John Dee and Wlodzimierz Sedlak

Today I managed to see the tent-shaped tomb and pay tribute to the pair of amazing travellers.  Below you will find out how it happened and what else the day brought me.

...

'What a fantastic hat to greet the official arrival of the spring season!', I thought to myself noticing the elegant head gear at David's Octavia Sheen shop.

As soon as my colleague came back from lunch, I headed for the other Octavia shop, taking a little detour to pay tribute to the pair of remarkable travellers resting in a Bedouin tent at a nearby churchyard.

Having consulted a map at a bus stop, I turned right to go towards the railway. There were some old almshouses on the right in a small residential street.

 I failed to find a footpath to the right that was to lead towards a footbridge above the tracks. Instead, I sensibly bet on a safe route  along the main road.
Spring and Easter-themed cupcakes at their best made a cute display at a local cupcake shop. The lady who makes them didn't mind my picture taking and blogging about them. However, she clearly stated, these were too old to be eaten. That was not a problem with me. I don't like cupcakes. However, put any piece of my mom's cake or  ex-mother's-in-law cheesecake or  in front of me, and it's a different story altogether!

I made the second failed attempt to find the way to the footbridge. The road looked so pretty. The direction seemed right. Alas, I didn't want to wander in vain nor to waste the precious time.

 Near the scaffolding  shown above I stopped a lady with a small dog to make sure I was heading the right direction. To my surprise, although a local resident, she had no idea where St Mary Magdalene Church is and had vaguely heard of a tent-shaped tomb...  She suggested that I ask the way at a charity shop on the corner near the level crossing by Mortlake Station. The third person at the shop, a customer, had a clue and told me to cross the tracks and turn right. Obediently, I did so. Mortlake Green was to my right and a pub sign with 'pub no more' beside me.

It was quite a walk until I saw a pretty church. I was quite sure it was not the one with the tent. Never mind, I was interested to see St Mary The Virgin as well, and this was my chance.

Getting inside the church outside service times is usually out of the question nowadays. Therefore, the locked door didn't surprise me.

Regretfully, I had no time to visit the churchyard and look for the earliest surviving tomb: that of the astrologer John Partridge, who died in 1715 and memorials to other famous people: a British Prime Minister,Henry Addington, 1st Viscount Sidmouth (d.1844) and three Lord Mayors of London.These and memorial to John Dee inside the church, unveiled in June 2013, will have to wait till my next visit in the area. 
John Dee, of Welsh origin, was yet another fascinating Englishman from Queen Elizabeth circles: a mathematician, astronomer, astrologer,occultist, navigator, imperialist and adviser to Queen Elizabeth I. He devoted much of his life to the study of alchemy, divination and Hermetic philosophy.

Although you can follow the link to find out more about John Dee, I know you may find it too much and not bother... Thus I've decided to add a Wiki chunk referring to the Polish link in this extraordinary Renaissance man's life:

'In 1583, Dee met the visiting Polish nobleman Albert Łaski, who invited Dee to accompany him on his return to Poland.^[11] With some prompting by the angels, Dee was persuaded to go. Dee, Kelley and their families left for the Continent in September 1583, but Łaski proved to be bankrupt and out of favour in his own country.^[25] Dee and Kelley began a nomadic life in Central Europe, but they continued their spiritual conferences, which Dee recorded meticulously.^[23][24] He had audiences with Emperor Rudolf II in Prague Castle and King Stefan Batory of Poland and attempted to convince them of the importance of his angelic communications. His meeting with the Polish King, Stefan Batory, took place at the royal castle at Niepołomice (near Kraków, then the capital of Poland) and was later widely analysed by Polish historians (Ryszard Zieliński, Roman Żelewski, Roman Bugaj) and writers (Waldemar Łysiak). While generally they accepted him as being a man of wide and deep knowledge, they also pointed out his connections with the English monarch, Elizabeth. From this they concluded that the meeting could have hidden political goals. Nevertheless, the Polish King who, being a devout Catholic, was very cautious of any supernatural media, started the meeting with a statement that all prophetic revelations were finalised with the mission of Jesus Christ. He also stressed that he would take part in the event provided that there would be nothing against the teaching of the Holy Catholic Church.

During a spiritual conference in Bohemia, in 1587, Kelley told Dee that the angel Uriel had ordered that the two men should share their wives. Kelley, who by that time was becoming a prominent alchemist and was much more sought-after than Dee, may have wished to use this as a way to end the spiritual conferences.^[25] The order caused Dee great anguish, but he did not doubt its genuineness and apparently allowed it to go forward, but broke off the conferences immediately afterwards and did not see Kelley again. Dee returned to England in 1589.'
What a story!
And now we can continue the walk to the tent-tomb:

Having passed the Montessori School I entered the gate to St Mary Magdalene churchyard:

Celtic-style croses, angels, you can find them at every English cemetery. But let' keep looking!

There it is! The resting place of Sir Richard Burton and his wife Lady Isabela:

You can climb the ladder to look inside:

Here are a few more pictures from the cemetery:

It probably took me longer to write this post than to visit the cemetery as I had to rush back to work!
I went past the footbridge above the railway tracks choosing to use the level crossing on the way back as well:

This portrait at an art gallery in Mortlake (or Sheen) reminded me of a Polish priest-professor: Wlodzimierz Sedlak. I would like to show it to Ms Danuta Zyla, who looks after the little museum devoted to this remarkable man. It occupies a mere room in the Tow Library of Skarzysko-Kamienna and is a great introduction to the life and work of Professor Sedlak caught between two worlds in Poland behind the Iron Curtain. It was not easy to be a scientist and a clergyman there and then...

Soon I was back at work and soon sold a really old chair that had been in the family for many years until they left it with Octavia Sheen the day before:

After a while a strong jovial voice I could hear at the shop and soon I could tell that I have met another actor! His name is Peter Stanford. He got off his bike and entered the shop to leave it with a book of old photographs depicting Putney and Roethampton and our ears full of his dynamically and expressively told stories!

A cute-cat tee - summer is coming, we will need lots of Tshirts!

Two bus journeys and I was back in Ealing Broadway. I got off in Bond Street. Heading for the gym, I noticed these books in the Oxfam Bookshop in Ealing Green:

The plan with gym didn't work, can you believe that???? This time both lifts were out of order and there was no way my knee joints would be happy to climb and descend the fifth floor! How upsetting! I carried my gym and swim gear all day, all in vain! I could put up with only one of these lifts working for a good while and never imagined that both of them may be allowed to go faulty.... Shame on you, Ealing Broadway Shopping Centre, or to whom it may concern!;-)

Obviously, the flowers are not for you, the lift management guys. I photographed them thinking of the very special woman who makes delicious cheesecake. I wrote about her earlier today in this post. She has a fantastic bouquet of various flowers that never need water in the vase!

I'm so glad I could see some more interesting places on an ordinary working day. Besides, what a joy it is to be able to take a walk like this again!

Good night!