Woke up at 6.30. Clear blue skies. Blood Pressure 123/67 Pulse 61. Today we are going to Kew Gardens. Why don't they call it Queue Gardens? We will find out today. We changed to the Jubilee Line at Wembley Park and then changed again at West Hamstead and went all the way to Richmond. I wanted to go there because I went there 45 years ago a few times. I was there the saturday morning that Abbey Road was released. I listened to it in a newsagent that had the radio on. Kenny Everett was most respectful. No silly talk at all. And I agreed with him. These guys are geniuses is what he said. He just played the whole album. And I stayed and listened intently. As I remember it Richmond was a small village near a large park with deer in it. Its not like that now. It makes me think I must have been somewhere else. Its the same with Kew Gardens. I went there a few times when I lived here. I even took others there to show them. It looks different now. The only thing I remember is the Chinese Pagoda. I feel there were more ponds. One day I was there all ponds were half frozen. I mean half frozen. Half of each pond was ice and the other half was water. Ice all around the edges and halfway to the centre where it was unfrozen water. Birds were standing on the ice rather than swimming. I took bread to feed them. Not allowed now I would think. It was a cold day in the middle of winter last time. Today was mid spring. New leaves on trees. Very attractive. I do remember the hot houses of course. Apart from that nothing. I feel there were less trees as well. But I read that 1000 trees were knocked over or damaged in the tornado of 1987 so maybe I am wrong about that also. We went up the tree walk. You get the lift up and walk down. Its so high not everyone braved it. This is new. Its quite high. You have to have a sense of heights to endure it. The walkway is patterned metal you can see through as you walk over it. I do not recall the number of planes going over either. One every 2 minutes now I would say. All on the same flight-path to Heathrow. Is this the only flight-path? Do planes come in from a different direction.? Just how many planes land a Heathrow each day? Sydney has nothing to complain about. Not that it would worry me living under the flight-path. I would like it. We walked the full circle of the Park. Queen Anne's House. The Badger Set. Are there badgers there or have they culled them in their enthusiasm to cater to the farmers prejudices about TB in cows? Took lots of photo's of the lily pond inside the hothouse. They should have wading birds in there. They have fish. Why not birds? Only one Eucalyptus in the whole garden as far as we could see. We inspected closely the palm House. Some palms from Queensland. One Macadamia tree. Gives us some confidence about our Macadamia's. A constant spurt of fog coming from fog machines in the Palm House. It fogs up your glasses immediately you enter. We left the gardens and walked back to the shops near the station for lunch. The prices in cafe's inside public places are horrendous. Double outside. I had steak and kidney pie and Jenny had a pastie. Neither were like what we get in Australia. Jenny's pastie was mostly meat and my pie did not have much kidney in it. It did not have that four n twenty taste that all pies emulate in Australia. But both pie and pastie were excellent. Home made. The type that make you want to go back and buy more. Our tickets allowed you to leave the gardens and return. We both took photo's of Canadian Geese. Or what we think might be Canadian Geese. They have a very attractive voice and talk back when you get close and talk to them. I also took several photo's of a male Peacock displaying. Really giving a show. We will have to get a pair. All in all we did a fair bit of walking. There was a vehicle giving tours but again it was 6 pounds. If it was 2 we might have considered it. It shows how wealthy the British have become. Or to be more precise maybe the rest of Europe because most of the visitors in the park were Europeans. Japanese and Chinese as well. There were some English as well - gardening types. They don't seem to mind forking out money for overpriced things. The cafe was well patronised. There are three in the park. We were in the least expensive one. I don't recall one being here 45 years ago. We did see one of the Parks special Constables riding his bike. The Park has its own Police Force. I watched a little of Russel Crows Robin Hood on TV. It was probably better than what the critics said. He is a good actor but his accent was intriguing. I remember hearing him interviewed when he was asked quite innocently why he gave Robin Hood an Irish accent. The interview was terminated immediately. With extreme prejudice. No one questions Russel's acting ability. I think all the critics in England at least were against him from them on.
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