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It was a wet day for gardens today, but being not only a gardener myself (we're tough and unafraid of rain), but one from the West Coast (known as the Wet Coast in Canada), I stuck it out for my plans and had a happy, if damp, time wandering through generally green spaces today. The nice thing was that there were not too many crowds anywhere, even in Hyde and St. James' parks (though there were throngs of people in front of Buckingham Palace).
So, I walked through St. James' park and then took the tube over to the South Bank again, where I had superb fish and chips for lunch and then sought out the Museum of Gardening History. The museum itself was not very well designed (I can imagine kp wanting to get her hands on it...) but the reconstructed knot garden was lovely. It was also nice to see the Tradescants' family grave (and William Bligh's, for some reason!). There were the most gorgeous frilly red parrot tulips blooming.
Then on to the Chelsea Physic garden which was well worth the effort to get to. Fascinating and beautiful. Note to self: geranium palmata, salvia rosmarianus and a hebe of some kind that looked like a mauve, bigger version of my little parahebe caractacus. I learned that broad beans are the source of L-dopa, the most effective medicine for Parkinson's. I then walked alond the Chelsea Embankment, or at least a little off the back of it, enjoying the houses and gardens. Saw the house where Dante Gabriel Rossetti lived - and Swinburne -(presumably the house in which Swinburne slid naked down the banisters and annoyed Rossetti. Chelsea Old Church had a beautiful little garden surrounding it. Then it really started pissing down rain, so I jumped on a bus back to Earl's Court. A quiet evening is planned for tonight - a hot shower first (I rather long for a bath, but one can't have everything). I'm going to try the Sainsbury's up the "top of the road" for something hot I can microwave in my little kitchenette. Tomorrow I'm meeting my sort-of-cousin Miranda, and no specific plans except possibly a return to the British Museum (unless it is, by some miracle, fine).
So, I walked through St. James' park and then took the tube over to the South Bank again, where I had superb fish and chips for lunch and then sought out the Museum of Gardening History. The museum itself was not very well designed (I can imagine kp wanting to get her hands on it...) but the reconstructed knot garden was lovely. It was also nice to see the Tradescants' family grave (and William Bligh's, for some reason!). There were the most gorgeous frilly red parrot tulips blooming.
Then on to the Chelsea Physic garden which was well worth the effort to get to. Fascinating and beautiful. Note to self: geranium palmata, salvia rosmarianus and a hebe of some kind that looked like a mauve, bigger version of my little parahebe caractacus. I learned that broad beans are the source of L-dopa, the most effective medicine for Parkinson's. I then walked alond the Chelsea Embankment, or at least a little off the back of it, enjoying the houses and gardens. Saw the house where Dante Gabriel Rossetti lived - and Swinburne -(presumably the house in which Swinburne slid naked down the banisters and annoyed Rossetti. Chelsea Old Church had a beautiful little garden surrounding it. Then it really started pissing down rain, so I jumped on a bus back to Earl's Court. A quiet evening is planned for tonight - a hot shower first (I rather long for a bath, but one can't have everything). I'm going to try the Sainsbury's up the "top of the road" for something hot I can microwave in my little kitchenette. Tomorrow I'm meeting my sort-of-cousin Miranda, and no specific plans except possibly a return to the British Museum (unless it is, by some miracle, fine).
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I haven't read a guide book for London in ages. Clearly it would behoove me to while I still have time to be a tourist at whim.