Today is Pancake Day in the UK. Kerry and I celebrated by having buckwheat pancakes this morning for breakfast. At lunch, we wandered across Tower Bridge to the church next to the Tower of London.

All Hallows by the Tower had 16 teams racing for Pancake Day with the Russian Channel 1 filming the festivities too.

Teams of four run a relay race with a frying pan, flipping the pancake in the middle of the course. Most team members did this whilst running. The slick conditions made the sprinting even more difficult today.

City Police Team warming up

Review of the rules with the teams

Flaming Frying Pan, which received a round of applause

Easy does it

Kerry and I passed by the Fashion Week festivities at the Natural History Museum, while coming back from the RGS lecture.

Sunday, Kerry and I hauled ourselves from bed at a rather early hour despite the gray weather to go to a walk along the Thames from Putney Bridge to Richmond. We arrived with perfect timing at 10am for the walk. The group set off comprised of a group of about 30 walkers.

Our first destination was the Dove pub where we arrived about an hour early for the excellent food they had. We continued on to the three more pubs in the area to find all were closed; one of which, The Old Ship, was under renovations.

We ended up back at the Dove and waited patiently outside for 30 minutes until the pub opened it’s doors at noon. We all made it in and filled up the small pub within minutes. Kerry and I tried the Sunday Dinner, consisting of Roast Beef, fresh steamed carrots, green beans and broccoli, with Yorkshire pudding and gravy. The sausage mash (with smoked apple sausage) was also really tasty.

Inside the Dove

After a nice two hour session of chatting by the fire, we reluctantly allowed ourselves to be dragged back into the overcast day. Little did we know that we were only into the walk a quarter of the way. Traveling next from Hammersmith towards Barnes and Chiswick, we stopped for the second drink near Chiswick / Barnes. This pub offered a nice spot by the river and had lots of locals horrified to find North American’s high-fiving in the back corner. “Watch the elbow”. The popular drink of choice was the Smiles “Old Tosser”

The locals

Rowing Club with ‘the group’ hiking behind them

Charming Chiswick

View of Barnes from Barnes Bridge

Slightly muddy path with Thames Islands in the river

Along the river towards Kew

Making it to Kew with daylight still in the sky, many of the group dropped off at this point. The Rose & Crown, on Kew Green, offered respite for those still filled with energy. This cozy pub, with a coal grate fire, again provided a warmth against the growing cold.

Ellen, our guide, managed to ply us from here with the promise of something better in Richmond. We walked along the final stretch of the Thames path as night fell. Several in the group had a slowed pace due to the lack of comfortable shoes. At this point, having gone six miles, it is understandable.

Night falls on Old Isleworth

We had our final beer of the evening at the White Swan in Richmond.

While we opted not to eat, the menu looked excellent.

Here are some excellent pictures of the entire walk; we fortunately did not have the flooding.

http://www.thames-path.org.uk/thames_putney_richmond.html

Kerry and I had an adventure getting to Portobello Market with the tube closures today. It was well worth the trip as the sun was high in the sky all day. Even with the half term crowds, we had a really good afternoon.

Westbourne Grove

Hyde Park toward the Serpentine Gallery

Beside the Lido Cafe

Green Park sunsets

For the past few weeks, Kerry and I have chosen to eat lunch at the Borough Market on Friday. The cold but sunny air combined with the vast selection of great food make for a nice break from the Pb&J we eat typically during the week.

Today, Kerry opted for Ostrich sausages on ciabatta while I randomly chose bratwurst with sauerkraut, mustard and ketchup. Both were extremely tasty after a bit of a battle with all the half term crowds.

Jennifer and I met up at the Royal Academy of Art to hear a Linnean Society lecture on declining bee populations. Aside from being SQUASHED into the bench seat between a smelly lady and annoying man (rude enough to squash us), the lecture was very entertaining. Evidently the declining bee populations have occurred since the 19th century. The first causes were aphids and now a virus that has appeared all over the world in a variety of strains.

Even cooler was the technology update after the lecture showing how everyone can browse the web and see Linnaeus’s collections. Here is my favorite item in the collection

Brick Lane Treats, originally uploaded by snoosh.

Emily always gets Jalebi, I typically pick something random.
Jalebi: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jalebi

Things that float down the Thames, originally uploaded by snoosh.

How can we live next door to Tower Bridge and keep missing these floating
fun things?

–

Andrea, Helen and Shelia all joined me for lunch at Fish Central near Old Street.

The meal was excellent and enhanced by our fun Italian waiter Andrissimo who taught us to debone a fish with just a spoon and fork.

In action

Excellent plaice with a matzo fry covering–my lunch!!

In honour of my reading, Dry Store Room No. 1, Kerry graciously accepted the invitation to scope out the Natural History Museum on Valentines prior to our walk in Kensington Gardens and a visit to our favorite Burmese dinner spot.

Half term (aka school break) hit full force as we had to que to enter the museum. The din echoing off the walls was only made better by the sick someone left in a puddle on the floor. A docent, straddling the unfortunate incident, was trying in vain to keep the milling masses away from it.

Taking a deep breath, we tried to venture through a few exhibits. The crowd was really too much for me though and I kept feeling claustro.

Happily, here are Kerry and I in the Great Hall, complete with beautiful carvings and painting ceiling tiles.

Secret Herberium passage next to the Giant Sequoia

Special Dinosaur with Raised Tail (because the end of the tail kept getting snatched when it was laying on the ground)

Valentines along the Thames…yes, these people really are English. I couldn’t resist a picture.

This street reminded me of Rainbow Row in Charleston. Tucked right off the Kings Road, it proved a very nice walk for a cul-de-sac.

Kerry and I visited the Saatchi Gallery to see the new Middle Eastern art work. The building, now located by Sloane Square, is an amazing three story gallery space.

Attached are a few of my favorites from the collection. All are for sale if you see one you like.

These guys were moterized and zoomed around the room on battery powered wheelchairs.

Spatial Beirut made from rubber

Tower Block–Beirut style

Whole Foods is amazing here. In a converted department store building along Kensington High, the upstairs food hall cum restaurant and two story grocery area is amazing. Sadly, this is the first (and only) photo as NO PHOTOS ALLOWED.

Thanks to the RTPI, I had the opportunity to come out to Greenwich and learn more about the way that the UK implements World Heritage sites in the UK. While there are only four sites at present, two being in London with the Tower of London and at Greenwich, there are plans to include many more.

The discussion of the afternoon included both ways for the sites to be nominated as well as a priority listing. It also focused on the practicalities and costs of running and maintaining a site.

Starting the meeting with some architectural anecdotes and ghost stories, Geoff Belcher and his counterpart Duncan, provided excellent insight into the pleasures and challenges of running a World Heritage site.

We were invited to come early to wander and get a sense of place. These photos are from my wander.

Note the height of the Canary Wharf buildings behind was purposely off-set of the design axis conceived by Inigo Jones and bettered by Christopher Wren.

Interior Courtyard

View looking up from the Thames

Interior Courtyard

Love these windows