School holidays

 

Have been in Spain this past week with my daughter and her children. Most of the time was spent playing in one of the 7 different pools. However I did manage some early morning walks by the sea before the kids woke up.

Perfect temperature for walking and enjoying the sun rise over the Costa del Sol.

Blogging update

 Thank you so much for all your kind comments. I took a short break from Blogland but returned to rewrite the Camden post. I don't think it is as good as the original when the trip was fresh in my mind but having all the photos helped me to reconstruct the missing post.

https://62andthenext10pathways.blogspot.com/

Blogging

I'm so fed up, I am ready to give up. For those of you who follow me on my other blog 

https://62andthenext10pathways.blogspot.com/ 

you will know that this is where I write about my visits to London Underground stations. It is over 10 years since I started the challenge of visiting all 272 stations and writing about them. My latest venture was to Camden Town, the 211th station I've visited. It has taken me about 3 weeks to research and write about it. Finished it last night and this morning I did a read through, corrected a few bits and pieces and just as I was writing the final sentence it disappeared. There is no way of retrieving a post on blogger once it goes. This has happened once before and it took me ages to regain my motivation to continue. If it wasn't so early in the morning I would head for the gin bottle. Hope you all have a better start to your day. I am going out for the day now. Whether I open this computer again remains to be seen!

Chinese coins

 

I had always wanted to see beyond this door. Londoners may recognise it as the door to the old Royal Mint. It's situated to the right of Tower Bridge. Until 1810 the Mint was housed in the Tower of London and from there moved to this building on Tower Hill. In the 1960s it was moved to a purpose built building in Wales.

Since it was the Royal mint the building has been used for offices and residential apartments. Once inside there was only the one room where the coins were being displayed that was open. nevertheless it was still interesting to see the front of it. I doubt I will get an opportunity again as this is going to be the new Chinese Embassy. It will be their biggest embassy in Europe. How did the Chinese manage to buy this land you might ask. Well no doubt there has been or will be a public enquiry at some point because as sure as eggs are eggs this should never have happened and there has definitely been some shady dealings going on somewhere along the line.

These are a few pictures of the coins that were on display. These coins represented Chinese inventions such as paper making, printing and fireworks.

These coins represented the Chinese Zodiac.

    

Chinese cities.

The coins were not made for circulation but display. I enjoyed looking round but to obtain a ticket I had to complete a form giving all my personal details. I wonder if I should be worried!

More to explore

I am taking advantage of the pleasant weather to continue to explore my new surroundings. I am always keen to ask around locally for places to visit especially on foot. 

A 10 min walk from where I am now living is a very large area full of allotments. These plots of land are rented by local people to grow vegetables or flowers. Normally only allotment holders are allowed access but here I discovered that the public can visit at the weekend.  There are pathways between the rows of allotments making it easy to wander around.

The individual plots are large enough for you to erect a shed and a greenhouse.

Just getting it ready to sow.

Quite a few plots had raised beds.

Potatoes were the main crop on this plot.

Flowers were the choice here.

I even discovered beehives in one corner. Everyone was very friendly and chatty and there was even a cafe where I could get a bacon sandwich and mug of tea for just £2.50! 

I was there for a couple of hours walking around and chatting to the gardeners. It was a lovely way to spend a Saturday morning. Definitely a place to revisit.

Inside the windmill

The windmill close to where I now live had an open day a couple of weeks ago. I went along with a couple of friends for a guided tour.

We were escorted round in small groups by a knowledgeable volunteer. The windmill was built in 1808 and ceased milling in the 1890s.

It has been refurbished and a number of the timbers were replaced as part of a heritage project. There are three floors which are accessible  by very narrow, steep staircases. It felt more like climbing up and down ladders than stairs.

When built the view from the windmill would have been very different from today.

One of the old mill stones.

The Windmill is only open a few times during the summer months so I was pleased to get on one of the tours. 
Who knows, with the climate crisis maybe one day we will have to return to using wind power to grind the flour. 

Chelsea in bloom

 This week is the Chelsea flower show. It is a 5 day event run by the Royal Horticultural Society and is the height of the serious gardeners' calendar. I have managed to get a ticket twice in the past but not this year. However, in the local area of Sloane Square in Chelsea, local businesses have put on their own displays. Yesterday I went for a free walk to see their contributions to street floral displays.

 

Loved the ballet shoes.

I hope you enjoyed walking around Sloane Square and King's Road with me and hundreds of other people. There were many other shops and displays. I would say 90% of the flowers this year are real and not silk. Not sure how they will last the week. Many shop workers/ owners were out watering and spraying them. The businesses rely on the goodwill of the public not to touch the flowers especially overnight when the shops are closed. It is one of the best free flower displays I've seen and is getting bigger and bigger each year.