Kew Gardens 17th Smile – Japanese Festival

As the seasons change – Kew Garden does too. We went to the Japanese Festival in Kew.

Japanese Gateway

God's beauty never ends.
We just need to take time to open our eyes to see it,
to feel it and to experience all it can be. 

Laura D Field

In the Temperate house we saw Art work

‘A thousand Springs’ from Chiharu Shiota.

5000 Haikus – in Japanese – referencing nature – suspended on red threads

while listening to beautiful music by a Japanese composer.

5000 Haiku suspended in a web of red threads

The Chalk Garden was a mixture of chalky English limestone and beautiful Japanese planting.

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We saw colours with Bonsai Trees

I’ll leave you with a Japanese proverb

One who smiles 
rather than rages 
is always stronger.

Wishing everyone a great weekend !

An inventive selling idea

We had shortages in supermarkets due to Covid last year as people panic bought – this was world wide.

As you might have heard the UK had problems again with deliveries for food and petrol as due to Brexit there were not enough lorry drivers to deliver goods needed.

Hence we had a petrol shortage. This crises is only in the UK and not related to Covid.

The message that petrol will be short caused of course panic buying, panic filling up with petrol;

The queues were terribly long and caused impossibly many traffic jams.

On my travels, by train of course, I saw this sign in front of a coffee stall.

An inventive selling idea

🙂 We have not lost our humour 🙂

P.S. the situation has improved and there seem to be more petrol again as the Army is now helping out.

Whipped Cream, a Cherry on Top and a Statue

We did a short visit to London, I hadn’t been in for about 2 years due to covid.

Even in rain London is always magnificent.

We passed Trafalgar Square to see what is on the 4th plinth. Every so often there is a new sculpture on it.

I loved the this one, whipped cream and a cherry on top – with a fly and a drone which transmits a life feed of Trafalgar Square – here.

Heather Phillipson’s vast physical and digital sculpture tops the Fourth Plinth with a giant swirl of whipped cream, a cherry, a fly and a drone that transmits a live feed of Trafalgar Square. Entitled THE END it suggests both exuberance and unease, responding to Trafalgar Square as a site of celebration and protest, that is shared with other forms of life. The live feed of Trafalgar Square picked up by the drone’s camera is visible on a dedicated website www.theend.today giving a sculpture’s eye perspective. 

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I met Gene Kelly, one of my Tap heroes, in Leicester Square.

Dancing in the Rain.

… and of course I danced with him – what a privilege.

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We walked to the station via Soho with the ever present Chinese cooking smells, I love.

We enjoyed it thoroughly.

How to have a lovely Day

Smile at strangers
Slow down
Say thank you
Give lots of compliments
Dress nicely
Wear perfume
Observe and listen
Be charming
Laugh
Wish others a lovely day

♥ Wishing you all a wonderful

and lovely Day ♥

Kew Gardens 16th Smile – shapes

Another trip to Kew Gardens – this time I found lovely different shapes in the plants. We walked through the rainforest, grasses and admired another beautiful open waterlily.

Never lose an opportunity
of seeing something beautiful,
for beauty is God's handwriting.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

God was very creative making wonderful shapes for us to admire.

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  Aloe – spiral

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  soft long thin grass in the wind

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  long – titan arum

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  just amazing….

We saw a fruit in different stages

God gave us eyes
to see the beauty of nature
and hearts 
to see the beauty in each other.

A meaningful life

Kew Gardens 15th Smile

This time in Kew Gardens I admired the flowers and learnt some Photography tips from my Photographer friend I went with.

I learnt to focus on the flower with a blurry background. This was even possible with my Mobile phone camera and I was so happy that this worked well.

Please click on the individual picture to enlarge it. I’m proud how the pictures came out.

This little fellow fell on my trousers while we had lunch under an Oak tree.

He was not even 1 cm long.

We passed a fascinating tree, a Maritime Pine which did not grow straight. The bark was smoother on one side and really rugged on the other.

Maritime Pine not growing straight, and view up

We stayed so long we nearly needed a lantern home….

A sweet friendship refreshes the soul. Proverbs 27:9

My new adventure

Learn something new they say.

It is never too late to learn something new.

Since I was younger I was always fascinated by the Double Bass.

When I saw it in an orchestra or just in a small Jazz band I wanted to have a try myself on picking.

This dream has finally come true with the help of my sister.

I have a Double Bass on hire for a while at home and I am learning the notes and scales.

Learn something new.
Try something different.
Convince yourself that you have no limits.

Brian Tracy

What would you like to learn?

Every leaf is unique

Looking closer at an Agave at Kew Gardens, you can see clearly that every leaf has a unique pattern of the way it has grown from the inside.

The leaves have similar patterns but evey one is unique to its’ unfolding.

We are unique creatures, every one of us.

Be YOU.
Don't be someone else.
YOU are a unique individual.
Be proud... rock it loud.

Apolo Ohno

Kew Gardens 14th Smile

A new day – a new visit to my favourite Kew Gardens

A walk with a friend through Kew, drinking in the many beautiful colours of plants, I don’t remember the names of.

Here a collage of the beautiful mix.

There are some Eucalytus trees, it fascinated me that there are blooms, fruits and unripe fruits on the same tree at the same time.

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  blooms

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  fruits

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  unripe fruits

Kew surprises me every time.

Sometimes …. just spending some quality time with good friends is the only therapy you need.