Chelsea Physic Garden

Yesterday, Baby J, my sweet daughter-in-law, and I made a trip to the Chelsea physic garden. I thought you may enjoy some photos of it. Otherwise, I’ve been home all week with just a few brief forays into the neighborhood. I did discover an Aldi‘s grocery store close by which is much less expensive than the Tesco Neighborhood market. It’s a little further away, but the exercise is good for me after sitting at the house so much.

You can see that this garden was established in 1673. It was originally founded as an apothecary for physicians. Now it has plants from all over the world as well as medicinal plants, household plants, useful plants, etc. There are separate little areas for each as well as greenhouses with orchids and ferns.

The snow drops were everywhere, and so beautiful on a cloudy, drizzly winters day. But the promise of spring is there in these little beauties.

These tiny, tiny flowers are called Wendy’s Gold. I am assuming it’s Wendy of the Peter Pan stories.

Black mushrooms are something I had never seen before.

Baby J and our lovely DIL are enjoying the trees all around the garden.

Just one of the many, many signs placed in each section of the garden, describing the plants that are there. If you enlarge it, you can read the print.

There were sweet little pansies, and other flowers tucked in the trees throughout the garden.

This is a Piper plant. It’s covered up for protection from the cold, but I thought it was fun that there was a plant named Piper.

We stood at one of the gates overlooking the River Thames, and I took a photo of the Peace Pavilion in Battersea park across the Thames.

There were also greenhouses and a little tiny shop, along with a place where you could purchase plants and a little café, where we had tea.

These are some homes in Chelsea, behind the garden. I’m told that they START at around 11 million pounds!

Beautiful, but WOW!

I finished my Christmas socks last week. They are not identical twins, but rather fraternal, which is fine as they are for me. They make me happy just to look at them. 💕

I’ve also begun this years Christmas socks. These were made using Patons Kroy socks, and once again, I didn’t have enough to finish the toes. The last few pair I have knit with Patons Kroy seem to be short a bit in the skein. I’m going to have to weigh the next skein and see. I haven’t changed the length of the leg or foot so I’m not sure why I’m running out of yarn, unless they’re making the skeins with less yardage. They will need to wait to be finished until I get home and find a scrap ball to use for the toes. I have started another pair with a different brand of yarn, and I am almost finished with the leg of the first sock but I neglected to take a photo of that. I’m sure glad I brought some extra sock needles with me to leave these on.

I hope you enjoyed our afternoon at the garden. I’ll be back soon with more adventures!

I don’t know how many of you read Lorraine‘s blog at Mama’s Mercantile. She and her husband lived on the Isle of Lewis between Great Britain and Scotland. Dennis and I spent the day with them last year when we were here in London and they are such, happy, fun and wonderful people. Lorraine lost her battle with cancer on January 25. Please keep her dear husband, Gerard in your prayers. She was such a wonderful friend and I’ll miss her.

Blessings and hugs,

Betsy

Quiet Days in London

Hello everyone! I arrived safely a little over a week ago. Alex and I stopped in Windsor and had a lunch and a quick walk down the main street before going home to see our lovely daughter-in-law and Baby J. The days have been very quiet and I’ve only left the house a few times. Most of my day is spent with Baby J, playing and rocking her. That’s just the way I like it. 💜 There will be plenty of time for doing touristy things later. I have taken a few photos to share with you though. 

The beautiful Windsor Palace. Mandy and I visited there after she graduated from nursing school years ago. It’s beautiful inside too. We were also able to visit the place where the Queen Mum and now Queen Elizabeth are buried when I was there with Mandy..

We ate lunch at the Prince Harry pub. The food was delicious. There weren’t many patrons inside which surprised me because the food was so good. Maybe it’s their way of protesting Harry and Megan?

The inside of the pub.

Taking a walk through the neighborhood last Wednesday evening.

Yesterday, while the nanny was caring for Baby J, I decided to take a walk a little further afield. I walked to the Queens Park Station underground and back around to the local pub where I had lunch/dinner. The following are a few photos from that walk. I walked over 7000 steps on that excursion and it felt great to get out and around. 

Paddington Cemetery is just next-door to the pub and a few blocks from the house.

The inside of the pub where I feasted on Beef Bourguignon and watched the locals visit and have a good time. It looks empty, but it’s not. I tried to get a camera angle that wouldn’t infringe on anyone’s privacy.  We have eaten here many times before and always find it a welcoming place to be. The food has never disappointed us either. Well, except for a vegan burger Dennis tried last time we were here. He said it wasn’t very good!😂

The infamous double decker bus! They are all over London.

Another café, that I contemplated eating at before I decided on the pub.

Yet another street showing the building going on in the City.

I hope you are all doing well. For those of you that are new here, I’m sorry I cannot post pictures of Baby J. My DIL’s  job prevents me from saying their names online or showing photos of them. Thank you for understanding the need for their privacy and security.

I’ll be back soon! 

Blessings and love,

Betsy

I’m leaving on a jet plane …

It’s almost time to fly away to London.  Tomorrow this time I’ll be somewhere over the North Atlantic. It’s hard to think of leaving Dennis, but sheer happiness at spending four weeks with Baby “J”. It’s not looking as if the weather in London will cooperate with many outdoor adventures, but we can have fun inside! Alex asked me to bring some of his favorite childhood books for Baby J. Yes, I’ve kept them through all of our moves. I’m looking forward to reading them to her.

Last week we had craft day here and we were able to make coasters or trivets with our Christmas cards and purchased wall/floor tiles. I ended up making 14 of them and will give Mandy and Mom some next December to use in their homes. I really like how they turned out and they were so easy.

My orchid has shot up a new stalk and it has 6 buds getting ready to open.  I sure hope they’re still in bloom when I get home and Dennis has promised to take pictures for me.

I’ve been frantically knitting on my “Portage” sweater, hoping to take it with me. I finished the second sleeve this afternoon but still have the shawl collar and pockets to knit. It’s not going with me. It’s too big to work on on the plane and my suitcase is full. I’m taking sock yarn with me for my projects there. Since I took this photo about an hour ago, I picked up well over 350 stitches around the fronts and the back and started the 6 inches of garter knitting, but that’s about all I’ll get done until I get back home. The yarn is “I Love This Yarn” and the colorway is “Fireworks Show”. I think it would look great with jeans don’t you? Now if only I could fit into my jeans!🤷‍♀️

Just a photo of the wall right inside our front door. I really like the two signs together. Lots of keys hanging up since I’m not taking any with me, so there are none in my purse.

I snapped this of Dennis a little while ago, unbeknownst to him!😂🤣😂 Zoey is under that pile of blankets on his lap. A chilly, foggy afternoon is a good time for a nap for man and dog. 💜 Mandy made him the plaid fleece blanket several years ago and he uses it year round.

This was on FaceBook and I thought it was so pretty and homey. I’ll be drinking a LOT of tea during the next month.

Take care everyone. I’ll try to post as I find time. I’m sorry I won’t be able to comment, but I will be reading your blogs faithfully. Please pray for me as I travel and for Dennis as he’s alone and caring for Mom without me. That is a big job for one person. Stay safe and well.

Blessings and love,

Betsy

A beginning!

How has the beginning of your year been? Mine has been busy. I have realized that I’m going to have to scale back the things that I planned to make this year because we are so busy with Mom and with activities here at the building. Yesterday I met with the ladies here who crochet sleeping mats for the homeless and we crocheted and chatted for a couple of hours. We meet every Tuesday at 1:00. After that Dennis and I went downstairs to the theater and watched “Ticket to Paradise” with George Clooney and Julia Roberts. It was really good. Today I went to craft time and although it was only supposed to be an hour or so, I ended up staying downstairs almost 3 hours! We made coasters from our Christmas cards. When I get them up to the apartment, I’ll take a photo to show you all. I’m very pleased with how they’re turning out but they weren’t quite dry when I left. The lady that does crafts is only a couple of years younger than me and we really enjoy spending time together at various activities. Her dad lives next door to us and her daughter is the activities director. Tomorrow I have a dentist appointment with Dennis‘s mom and I have a feeling it’s going to take awhile. She broke a tooth off on Monday. Every day something is going on, and where I used to be able to craft a great portion of the day, that isn’t the way it is now. The days fly by and it’s hard to believe that it’s  gone when we get ready for bed, but I’m sure having fun with everyone here. So far everybody we have met has been friendly and very helpful at “showing us the ropes.”

I thought I would show you pictures of a couple of my plants. This ivy is doing very well, even though it’s been moved around a lot the past couple of months.

And look! Even my orchid has buds on it! It bloomed for one year straight from July 2021 until August 2022. After all of the flowers fell off, I cut the stem down to about an inch, as several people advised. It was put in a fairly cool room in our apartment while the Christmas decorations were out and I was afraid that would kill it, but this happened instead! It’s back in its spot in the living room and I hope it blooms before I go on my trip so I can see the pretty flowers.

Here is the current version of our front door. Again, it’s two photos because I can’t back up the phone up to get everything in one picture.

Since I don’t have the kitchen island anymore to hang my crocheted garlands on, I thought over the door might be a fun place to hang them.

I didn’t make it in time for my Christmas socks this year, but maybe by next Christmas they’ll be done! I took them with me today to the DMV because we had to change the address on our drivers license. Would you believe I only had time to put one row on them before I was called up to the window? I guess going early in the morning pays off. I will take them to the dentist with me tomorrow and maybe get a few more rows knitted.

And with some of my Christmas money from Dennis I bought the yarn to make myself another “Portage” sweater. After I finished Mandy‘s, I decided I wanted another one too. I’ve worn my original sweater as my winter coat so far this year. It’s actually warmer than my winter coat is! This new Portage is my incentive to lose weight. I thought this yarn would look great with blue jeans and I refuse to buy any jeans until I lose weight. Do you think it will work? It is Hobby Lobby “I Love This Yarn” and the color is “Firework Show.” My first sweater was also made with the same yarn but in a different color, and it’s held up very, very well and washes and dries great.

How many of us does this apply to? I raise my hand high. It’s me! It’s me!

And here is what the living room looks like as I write this post. I’m watching a crocheting video on YouTube with my fairy lights on top of the fireplace. I decided not to put them away with the rest of the Christmas decorations. I really enjoy the little twinkling lights in the evenings when it gets dark so early.

I really hope you are all having a good week. I pray that all of you that have been sick are now on the mend. I still have a bit of a lingering cough, but it is slowly improving. The worst thing is the tiredness. I still find myself falling asleep if I sit down in the afternoon. This evening Dennis and I were going to watch a video and I slept through 3/4 of it! I never did that before I had Covid last month. Hopefully it will go away soon. 

I can’t believe the time is almost here for my trip. I haven’t even begun getting my list together of things to pack and I leave in a little over a week! Once again, I won’t be able to comment on anybody’s blogs for the entire time I’m gone because I need to leave my laptop home with Dennis. He needs it for Zoom meetings. I will be reading your blogs though, as I’ll have my phone and my iPad with me. I should be able to post on my blog too while I’m in London. Hey, if you send me your cell phone number I can even text you while I’m gone! Just kidding. I’m sure none of you are that anxious to hear from me, but I can text if you want me to. 🤣😂🤣

I pray that you all have a safe and wonderful rest of the week and stay healthy. I’ll be back soon.

Blessings and love,

Betsy