Britt-Arnhild's House in the Woods

The oldest botanical garden in London

@brittarnhild

1673, that´s a long time ago, a very long time, isn´t it. 1673, the year the apothecaries in London started a garden to grow their medicine plants. The garden got the name Chelsea Physic Garden. I don´t remember when I first heard of this garden, but when I did I knew it was a place I wanted to visit. And yesterday that happened.

Over the centuries the garden has had its ups and downs, but today it is a walled oasis in the middle of London, where gardeners, teachers, guides, collectors and researchers are busy taking care of the plants. Taking care of life.

I have bought a book about the garden and look forward to learn more, and also to came back for other visits, may be at other times of the year.

I can imagine frost in the leaves in winter, may be a little snow. I can imagine the first spring flowers, and the full summer with its wide range of colours.

But more than that I imagine living in the garden. Walking. Painting. Drawing. Writing. Gardening. Dreaming.

Living the changes.

With a goal to show beauty.

By the way, the clematis shown in the picture below is called Traveler´s Joy. Isn´t that a most wonderful name :-)

Here is a link to the garden´s website.

 

Along the river Thames

@brittarnhild

Rivers fascinates me. I am staying close to Thames these days, she must be the queen of rivers. At least the queen of rivers running through main cities......though I guess most rivers do, as building a city on a riverside was the wisest thing to do.

 

Yesterday, as the sun set, I walked along the Thames in Richmond. I have wanted to visit this village of London for many years, and now was the time. Out of the busy summer season it was so peaceful. Hard to believe that London is just a stone´s throw away.

Weeping willows, they must be among my favorite trees.

 

Today my walk along the Thames continued. I started the morning with a v isit to The Garden Museum, on the other side of the river from Westminster. Chelsea Physic Garden was next on my list, and I decided to walk up there, along the bank.

 What I did not calculate was that after walking for may be 45 minutes, the pathway along the river was closed, due to building constriction. It gave me a 40 minutes detour, so when I finally reached the garden, my feet were quite sore.

Walking along Thames is never boring though.
Here I pass the remians of an underwater exhibition from last month. Workers were removing it while I watched.

These sculpures are made by Jason Decayres Taylor (according to what I read along the shore)

 

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Thanks for your comment on my travel blogging. The internet connection in my hotel room is terrible slow, so blogging take ages!

 

The world´s largest orchid is blooming

@brittarnhild

Six weeks ago @kewgardens wrote on instagram that the world´s largest orchid was blooming. I knew then that I was going to London this week and wrote them back, asking how long they though it would bloom. I was advised to contact the gardens via emails, something I did of course. Then I never heard back from them and had kind of given up the whole idea, but on our last day in Dublin, actually it was while we were sitting on the bus out to the airport, I wrote another email. And not long afterwards I was booked to an orchid tour behind the scenes.

 

So today, some minutes before 1pm I followed the given instructions - Please meet your guide at the allotted time at the gate between Climbers and Creepers and the White Peaks café/shop There I met up with a handful others, among them the guide, a woman who told us she has about 50 orchids in her livingroom and a father and son, the father an avid orchid grower and a judge at orchid competitions.

 Our guide was very enthusiastic, never still enough for me to take a photo of her, and filled with so much interesting information, all I could to was smiling from ear to ear. I loved it!

In 1983 the two biologists Phillip Cribb and Christopher Bailes found this spesifuc orchid, the grammatophyllum speciosum, in Sabah in Malaysia, and brought it home to Great Britain and Kew Gardens. Since then it has been growing, but never blooming. Not until August 2015!

 

After the information we were taken, two by two, over to the plant.
Amazing!

And I am so glad I made it. Today was the last day of behind the scenes visits :-)

 

Here you can read more about the plant.

 

 

There will be more Kew posts in

Britt Arnhild´s Blue Garden

and in

Edens hage

......eventually

 

 

 

Afternoon walk into evensong

@brittarnhild

 I got a message on facebook from an American friend. She loves languages and had just discovered that in Norway we don´t say "boyfriend" or "girlfriend", but we use the word kjæreste, which is gender neutral and means dearest. Terje has been my kjæreste for 37 years now, and the other afternoon my dearest and I walked hand in hand through St. Stephen´s Green.

 Walking like this, in the low afternoon autumn sun, hand in hand with your kjæreste is like getting a double doze of life. You live though your own heart, and also through the heart of the one you love.

As dusk fell, we went over to St.Patrick´s Cathedral and evensong.
Oh. how I love the anglical tradition of evensongs.

 

 

Howth, the fishing village

@brittarnhild

To get the feeling of a country, you need to get outside the big city. Dublin is great, with so much to see, but we wanted to get some country life feeling, and took the train out to the sea, to the small fishing village Howth.

Only 20 minutes by train, and all of a sudden we were in quite another world.

The weather was perfect, just like I imagine Irish westher to be. A little reain in the morning, then a combination of sun, clouds and a lot of fresh wind. With the wind came the smell of the sea, and everywhere you could hear the seagulls´music.

 

Howth is known for its local food, and everywhere you found local restaurants serving fish and seafood. We looked in at several along the pier and had to smile when we found small coffee shops inside the fish markets. A great combination :-)

We had tea and scones with butter, cream and jam down there, but walked up the hills for lunch. There we found The House, a combined restaurant and art gallery. And we found great food. I had a fishcake of haddock, served with the best tomato sauce I have ever tasted. After I had finished my meal I had to ask for some more, to give Terje, and to try to figure out how it was made.

......yes, I do think I could pick out the different ingredients, and will try it when I come home :-)

By the way, The House has a special recipe webpage, take a look here.

 

My mother´s gift

@brittarnhild

My mother is a woman of a million talents. My mother is the best mother you can imagine. My mother never stops to surprise her children with gifts of love.

Tonight was a night filled with her love, even though I am on Dublin, she is back home in Trondheim.

We spoke on facebook this morning, aged 85 she is the one who har taught me to use the facebook phone. After I had told her all about our day yesterday here in Dublin she said: "BrittArnhild, autumn is here and it is time for me to give you my autumn gift. I want you and Terje to do something special in Dublin, and I will pay for it"

So tonight Terje and I unwrapped my mother´s autumn gift at The Winding Stair, a restaurant servin local gourmet food. We had three courses, we had a lovely night, and my mother´s love seasoned it all.

Thank you mother :-)

And thank you Laura for mentioning The Winding Stair.

You can read more about Winding Stair Bookshop and Restauramt here.

When Terje decides the way

@brittarnhild

With Terje as the map reader and the guide book master, all I have to do is to follow. Something I do gladly, because I know everything is okay with him in the lead.

After lunch today he told me he would take me to a shopping center. I did not feel quite safe right then, because I am not a shopping center girl. Absolutely not. But when the center is called Powerscourrt, is situated in a series of old brick buildings and has an entrance through a flowershop called The Garden.........well, I was lost.

Inside were a multitude of colourful, great cafes and restaurants, and small, artisan shops, one greater than the other.

We did not queue for this antique store.......

.....but when I found this candy store, I was lost!

 

This man of mine knows how to take care of me :-)

 

Here you can read more from this unique shopping center.

 

 

37 years

@brittarnhild

37 years ago today we became sweethearts. We are celebrating in Dublin, Ireland and took a selfie along the river Liffey tonight after dinner.