London Out-Takes, 1

There are always interesting people
on the London Underground...at least
he's masked!

On our Bloomsbury Walk, not the first "shoot" we've walked into

End of tracking shot with famous actor and actress for a show
we didn't get the name of...on channel 4, I think

Hey, everybody makes mistakes! But the Russell
family still own much of Bloomsbury, including,
presumably, much of the University of London...

Tough times for churches

A current events book display at Waterstones..."things can only
get better"

It is July 11th, the day of the final contest of the Euro Cup at 
Wembley, and even in Bloomsbury there are roving bands of
already inebriated young men, boisterously singing the songs 
that football fans sing; every venue in the city has been booked
for weeks for giant TV viewings of the match; sadly, after a
valiant effort, their best since The Age of the Beatles, the Three
Lions lost, in an over-time penalty shoot-out to Italy, who
brought a 33-win streak into the tournament

When doing signage, always hire a spell-checker

Every weekend for a month the hospital facility across the street
has been packed with young people in line for their 2nd jabs...
good on 'em!

Urban camo at St. Pancras

The first rule of Flight Club is you do not talk about Flight Club

So we are out walking to Camden town and its
garden center when we pass by St. Pancras' Garden
and decide to go in for a look

Wonders were awaiting us: first, the Hardy Tree...long story 
short is that young Thomas was working for an architectural
firm tasked with moving the cemetery out of the way of the
train tracks being laid to Kings Cross; he piled the leftover
tombstones by the closest available tree; and there they remain!

Thus; click to enlarge and you'll see the tree has actually grown
into the stones

And it was here in 1968 that the Beatles did their famous Mad Day
Out series for the White album

Me, there; only part of the bench is shown; the other part is
occupied by a person who very kindly moved his beer bottle
out of the frame...strangely, he didn't ask us for money

At a City of London office tower

From the book of manners and etiquette at Hampton Court's
Great Hall; no Beano in the Tudor Age

All across London, there is no signage more often seen than this

Perhaps not what was meant...

Tree vs. iron, episode #419

At the British Library; don't gum up
the pages

This is what happens when everything must go

But you still have to wear a mask

We have learned a new word, "mudlarking"; look it up

Doing my part to support British gardening: Cori Anne, Venus,
and Basil XXIV

My world is forever changed...see previous post...I'll never be
able to see this favorite T-shirt in quite the same way

Kew Royal Botanical Gardens, 2021

We visited Kew in 2016, and I did two longish posts (https://roadeveron.blogspot.com/2016/09/kew-gardens-1.html and https://roadeveron.blogspot.com/2016/09/kew-gardens-2.html) that pretty much capture what we saw that day. If you like plants, gardens, and such, and the science that goes with them, you have to see Kew. There's nothing better. I'll try to keep it shorter this time, just what was new to us or otherwise special. We pretty much opened and closed the place July 23rd.

Kew is colossally huge: we could go a couple more times
and hardly see it all

New to us department: the Marianne North collection and gallery...
an intrepid Victorian woman who traveled the world more or less
solo for many years, painting the scenes, mostly plants, that she saw;
not that she was poorly connected...her dad was an MP and an
associate of the director of Kew...she visited Australia and New 
Zealand on the advice of one Charles Darwin...anyhow, about a
thousand of her oil paintings are on display at the building she
funded and built; it is the only permanent solo display of art by a
woman in the UK and well worth some time, even at the expense
of other wonders at Kew

Also new to us: the "temperate" building(s) were closed for
renovation when we were there in 2016--they were closed for some
years, and one can understand why, looking at how all the plants
work themselves not only into the ground but also the structure
itself; it's back open now, but we suspect the "palm" building is
in even greater need of renovation

Emerging tree fern frond; we've seen cousins in New
Zealand

Golden lotus banana (flower)

Also new and startling to us: the kiwi is not a kiwi after all:
the Chinese gooseberry was exported and first planted in New
Zealand in the early 20th; WWII personnel stationed there
picked up the name and carried the association with NZ; my 
world is forever changed...

Interior of the Temperate House: the plants are
already taking back over...

Back outside traversing the enormous grounds, admiring the
enormous trees and such

London plane trees are popular in London...our Bloomsbury
neighborhood is loaded with them--this is a particularly large
and old specimen; the 2nd largest and oldest is about a block
away from our flat...

Also new to us: Kew Palace, the sometime abode of King George III,
one of England's least popular kings (after John and the Charles, and
maybe some others); compared with other royal palaces it's just a
cubby-hole

George and Queen Charlotte had fifteen (15) children, as
imaginatively represented here

Two of them, George IV and a William eventually ascended
the throne; but you have to go pretty far down the list to find
a legitimate heir after William...the daughter of Edward, Victoria,
who outlasted and out-bred them all

A bit of the modest interior

Throne Room

Back outside, a particularly nice Monkey Puzzle

Now on the humongous boardwalk with its bed after bed...and
excellent signage

Later July, but still plenty to appreciate as we make our way 
to the Princess of Wales buildings and the Evolution Garden

In the ever-popular giant-lily-pad-that-ate-Cleveland house

New entry emerging from the primordial pond

Another emergent

Rebecca, Penelope: this is what carrots look like, above-ground

Last stop of the day was the Palm House

Emerging palm

Ebony: really is black

More emerging

Plants have completely taken over

Next time we're here we'll probably be riding around in one of
these

"Turner's Modern World"

After our stroll through British painting history I toured the Tate's "Turner's Modern World" exhibition, which, through five large rooms, examines the tumultuous times through which he lived and worked; and his response to them. I thought I knew a good bit about Turner, but this large exhibition, as the previous ones I've seen at the Tate, added new layers and dimensions to my appreciation. Turner's dates, 1775-1851, saw vast change in the world...the height of colonialism, the loss of colonies, the rise of steam, locomotives and steam ships, the growth of the Industrial Age, rapid urbanization, revolution in France, the Napoleonic Wars and a changed Europe, vastly increased travel, the slave trade and its abolition, at least in Great Britain, succession to Victorian times, and great political and social reform in the UK. To name a few. Turned experienced and painted these times and changes, to an extent that no other painter did. He was no revolutionary; his progressive political views are only subtly visible in his choice of subjects and in his work. His experience of the changing world also affected his work over the decades, with radical changes in style, an emerging new language of representation, seen in few other artists. I'm still processing all this, but below are just a few items from the exhibition, not in any particular order. Some just appealed to me, some are just famous, all support the themes of the exhibit in some way or another...

Interior of a Cannon Foundry, watercolor, 1797

A small watercolor he did in a morning to show a friend's son the
size of then-modern warships; Nelson's Victory carried a crew of
875...

The Field of Waterloo, 1818, quoting Byron's line "friend, foe,
in one red burial blent"

Ploughing up Turnips, Near Slough, 1809; new farming policies
dispossessed small farmers...Windsor Castle in the distance

George IV at the Provost's Banquet, 1822; Turner tried mightily
for Royal patronage, but never got even close

Slave Ships Throwing over Dead and Dying, Typhoon Coming
On, 1840; they also threw slaves-to-be at the approach of
any warship that might have caught them at the slave trade

Burning of the Houses of Parliament, 1834; removed explicably
from the exhibition

Salisbury, from Old Sarum, 1827; the point here would appear
the storm of reform about to break: for centuries, abandoned
Old Sarum had sent two MPs to Parliament, elected by eleven
absentees; the reforms of 1832 would change that and more

Rain, Steam, and Speed--The Great Western Railway, 1844;
Turner was the first to paint railways, steamships, etc.

Snow Storm--Steam-Boat off a Harbour's Mouth making Signals
in Shallow Water, and going by the lead. The Author was in this
Storm on the Night the Ariel left Harwich, 1842. OK, he was
not into the whole brevity thing. Muy famoso.

The Thames Above Waterloo Bridge, 1835; showing two steamships
not far away from where the first were built; there was already 
public concern about their waves eroding the banks, about smoke
pollution, etc.

The Fighting Temeraire Tugged to Her Last Berth to be Broken
Up, 1839; towed by a steam tug; Turner's favorite, which he
refused to sell, but willed to the Nation...to be displayed, as it
usually is, at the National Gallery, in Trafalgar Square

Whalers Entangled in Flow Ice, Attempting to Extricate

Themselves, 1846; perhaps a comment on the failing British

whaling industry 

War. The Exile and the Limpet, 1842; after Napoleon's death,
and apotheosis in France; displayed alongside...

Peace. Burial at Sea, 1842; commemorating the death of his
friend David Wilkie, of typhoid fever, and who was denied a
funeral and burial on land