Poppies and Roses

My favourite rose, growing in my garden, it is a real beauty, although it does not have any scent.

My daughter asked me a couple of weeks ago which flowers were my favourites? My first answer was poppies, followed closely by roses, but to be honest there are so many wonderful flowers it is difficult really just to pick one or two. However the question did make me think of the many photos I have taken in my garden and elsewhere this year, so as a celebration of summer (even a very wet one like ours has been), I thought I would share some photos with you all, hopefully they will brighten up your day

I get a great many of these yellow poppies in my garden every year, so bright and cheerful.

The four photos above were taken in Sandwich – I think!!

‘Pauls Scarlet’ climbing rose in my garden which sadly blew down in the high winds we have had recently – it will survive and hopefully will be in flower next year.

My favourite poppies, photo taken in Rye last month.

A small poppy but such a lovely colour, from my garden.

The poppies in my garden blew over too..

This one is so pretty

So is this one! I didn’t realize I had such a variety growing in my garden!

And to finish with, I found this one growing in Walmer Castle grounds

 

 

The ‘Matthew’ ship and St Clements Church, Sandwich

The Matthew

Firstly I must apologize for not getting round to anyone’s pages, my daughter has been home for the last month and is now getting ready to fly back to China next week for 2 months (I am very jealous!!) so we have just been enjoying all being together

The Crows nest

The ‘Matthew’ ship took part in the Queens Golden Jubilee on the River Thames last month, then it sailed down the Thames and round to Sandwich, where it stayed for 3 days, so of course we had to go and have a look, it is a replica medieval ship based on a vessel originally built in 1497 which John Cabot sailed across the Atlantic. It apparently had 18 crew, which  having seen the ship is very surprising as it is very small!

Below deck

The wooden rudder

On deck, the children loved it.

Decorated with flags

It is really lovely to be able to look round something like this, it does make you realize how daring the early explorers were. Whilst it was moored in Sandwich we had real high winds, the ship was torn from its mooring and the crew had to tie the mast to a nearby tree to stop it from keeling over! The wind also destroyed part of the garden wall at the Library, but that is another story!

My husband and I enjoyed visiting the Matthew, from there we visited St. Clements Church, the Parish Church of Sandwich. I have been there before and taken photos (of course) but I am so pleased we visited again this time because of the magnificent Crown hanging in the main aisle, which was made of flowers. Well done to whoever made the crown, it was a very fitting tribute for the Jubilee.

Beautiful

A ceiling boss

The Lecturn

A day in London

The South Row of The Piazza, Covent Garden

Like millions of other people we watched the Queens Diamond Jubilee celebrations on the television, and thoroughly enjoyed it. I have said this before, only the UK could put on a show like that. Sadly the weather was not at all nice, but that is nothing unusual…!

Admiralty Arch looking towards The Mall

The Mall with Buckingham Palace in the distance.

A closer view of Buckingham Palace. this was taken on zoom with my camera, from way back down the Mall, I am quite pleased with the way it turned out.

The Union flags

We decided to go and see Alice in London last Wednesday, and although the celebrations were over I wanted to see the Mall while all the flags were still up. The Mall was closed to traffic as there were numerous lorries clearing up, it was nice being able to walk in the middle of the road for once! Lots of other people must have had the same idea as us, but then any June day in London is going to be busy. Alice is suffering from a broken toe so we didn’t walk all the way down the Mall, we went into St James’ Park instead and watched the ducks, and the silly, friendly squirrels.

Troops rehearsing on Horse Guards  Parade for a display on Wednesday evening.

The fountain in St James’ Park

I had never noticed these before, a lovely memorial

Admiralty Arch from The Mall

From there we walked to Covent Garden, a favourite place with all the family. As usual it was really busy there, the street acts were great, and Alice and I left my husband and son watching them and went to the bead shop…via the The Tea House, where we both bought some Strawberry and Cream tea, which is lovely

By the lake in St. James’ Park

As you can see from the photos the weather was variable, luckily we were in a cafe when it really rained. We all had a great day, Alice is home now for a month, then she jets off to China again for two months – jealous, me?? You bet I am, but she won’t smuggle me in her suitcase, so I will just have to give her a very long shopping list lol

Very tame and very scatty squirrels!

While a pigeon looks on very bemused!

Its back to work tomorrow after over a week off, I am hoping that our next weeks holiday in July will have better weather than last week, I hope someone somewhere is seeing some sunshine

The replica ‘Eleanor’ cross outside Charing Cross station, where the name Charing Cross came from.

Nelson on top of his column.