MISS ELAINEOUS VISITS KEW GARDENS...

Yesterday I visited Kew Gardens, flying solo as my SuperDean was unwell.  I'm quite happy to do these kind of things alone, as it means I can go at my own pace- which tends to be fast!  There was no way a sickly boyfriend could have done anything other than go to sleep under a tree.  I practically RAN around parts of the gardens, my only gripe being that it could be a bit better signposted and they need to include EVERYTHING on their map- I did get quite frustrated when I couldn't find The Ice House, but then the sign for it miraculously popped up in front of me.  I still have to argue with travel sites that say this place can be traversed in 2-3 hours- it took me about 3 1/2  hours to see everything and that's with The Temperate House closed for refurbishment and me being familiar with the gardens and not exactly walking slowly.  Put it this way, I can feel it in my thighs and bum today!  My butt cheeks are as tight as hell and could crack walnuts!

It was a glorious day, travel was trouble-free and here's my pictorial account of it.

Here is the view over the lake, looking to the left.  The minuted I entered, I sat on the steps and scoffed my meal deal, with the swans for company.

Here's the view to the right.

Next, I headed into The Palm House, which has a tropical temperature.  It's full of jungle plants and is fertile and almost alive with energy.  

Another interesting palm.

I don't know what this tree was, but it has a kind of Star Anise smell (the active ingredient in Sambuca- I would know that!)

Here are some views from the high level walkway.  It was so, so hot up here.  The minute I climbed the stairs I stripped off my cardigan and said to a guy at the top, 'God, I've been to Cape Town and Las Vegas and even they weren't as hot as this!'

A view of the windy, spiral downward staircase.

The banana tree.

I'm not sure what this is, but Little Miss Mucky thinks it looks like a deformed testicle.  But then again, I would!

Poker plants.

Beautiful ebony tree.

I then wandered into The Waterlily House, which is my favourite place in the whole of the gardens.  It's sooooo peaceful and elegant in there.

This is a pretty flowerbed, taken as I left the beautiful waterlilies behind.

I then made my way into Kew Palace.  I'm not sure that photography's allowed in here, so I abstained.

I saved the piccies for the Queen's Garden.

Little lake.

A walkway next to the garden.

And another...

A pagoda in The Bee Garden.  I didn't see any bees, though.

Back view of the palace.

I then made my way to The Royal Kitchens.  I was very excited as this was one of only three attractions at Kew that I'd not seen before, on any of my previous five visits.

Rustic shed.

Sunflowers.

Pumpkins.

Very gloomy pantry.

The bakery.

The scullery.

The kitchen and the spit roast.  There was a cookery demonstration going on in here, but I tried my hardest not to include much of it in my photos.  I don't like people messing up my shots!

Here is the actual bathtub used by King George III.  It is so old that it's rusted and has holes deep down at the bottom.  Still, I'm glad this piece of history has survived for the likes of me to enjoy.

Storage barrels and meat hooks on the ceiling.

I left the kitchens and took a walk to The Secluded Garden.  Here's a very cute little bridge.

Sculpture.

I then walked to The Hive.  This is a fascinating new structure and I wished I'd have been able to view it in the dark, as it's covered with LED lights.  There are two different levels to it and it offers you a multi-sensory introduction to the life of bees.  I found it very relaxing.

Looking down from the upper level.

Looking down from the centre.

Me in the centre- this floor appears to be made of the same toughened glass they use in The Blackpool Tower viewing deck.

The view up towards the sky.

The view from the ground level.

This view is taken from the ground level, right at the centre.  Don't wear a skirt if you're planning on walking over the glass floor- people will see yer drawers!!!!

My camera then died on me... But I'm organised, so I found a bin, took the old batteries out and threw them in, then took replacement batteries from my bag... only to find I'd brought the wrong size- grrrr!  I went into The Princess of Wales Conservatory and took a couple of piccies with my phone.

More waterlilies, with someone's big swede in the way!

I then tried to find The Ice House, having been told, 'It's near the hive, ask someone there.'  But Kew officials seemed to be thin on the ground, and it wasn't shown on my map so I had to go by my memory of a map I'd looked at online the day before.  I quickly got frustrated and was trying to Google it, when the sign for it popped up in front of me!  I'm glad I saw it, as it was the third thing I'd never seen before at Kew, and I would've been annoyed if I'd gone home without viewing it but... after popping my head in I had to ask why I was getting my knickers in a twist over it- there was not much to see apart from an ill-lit but refreshingly cold chamber.  This is how my photo came out...

Here's a trio I inserted at a later date...

Alleyway into the ice house.

View over the railing, plus the SuperDean was with me.

Ceiling view.

I then traversed The Rock Garden and Alpine House.  I couldn't take photos, so these are from a later date.

I then took a long hike to The Treetop Walkway.  Here are some pictures I took during a previous visit.  The buildings were inspiration for the high-rise home of one of the characters featured in my first novel, entitled The Reject's Club.  I described them as 'triple eyesores offending the skyline!'

You are right on the Heathrow flight path and the aeroplanes seem VERY close! 

Queen Charlotte's cottage was open so I nipped inside.  These were also taken on a previous visit.  

Here is the cottage sitting room.

This room is filled with Hogarth prints.

Here is the cottage kitchen.

Here's the outside of this cute thatched cottage, and it was known as a cottage orné (a rustic cottage built not as a residence, but as a country retreat).  The cottage dates from 1772 and was used by Queen Charlotte, who was responsible for its construction.  Whilst out having walks in the gardens, she would pop in with her daughters and take afternoon tea.

On the home straight; I was thoroughly exhausted as I strolled past The Pagoda.  It's currently covered as elaborate restoration work is going on, but it does mean that visitors will be able to climb to the top from next year.  I can't wait!

(This photo was added at a later date, when I was allowed to climb to the top.)

If The Waterlily House is my favourite place in Kew Gardens, then the Marianne North Gallery is my second best-loved spot.  She really was a fantastic artist, so I sat in the gallery and just looked, and contemplated for a bit.

Here's one of my favourite paintings of hers.  I had a copy of this (painted by an art student boyfriend) on my bookcase for years.  He had to visit Kew Gardens and use the plants as inspiration for a theme.  But then I came across this picture in a book and realized that the lazy sod had just copied from the same book, rather than bother to think up his own composition!  I'm in the process of decorating my flat and once I've done so I might buy a print of this hummingbird and datura photo, painted in Brazil.

I also love this turtle pool in the Seychelles.  There's something about moonlight in paintings that just draws me in.

It was a tiring day but I plan to be back soon, as my SuperDean still wants to pay the place another visit.

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MISS ELAINEOUS VISITS BROADSTAIRS...

This is one cuter than cute little seaside village!

It's smaller and more quaint than Margate but comes across as a bit more cultured and, luckily, more "occupied"- the town is tinier but what it does have appears to be thriving, whilst there are lots of boarded up shops in Margate.  Mind you, bear in mind that I visited in peak season- what it's like in winter is possibly a different matter.

Here is the attractive and busy bay.

This is the...I'll call it a "harbour" arm, but it's very small and hardly even that...

Here's the saltwater tidal swimming pool.

This is the view from the beach.  I'm not surprised that J.M.W. Turner liked to come here to paint- the skies were very moody and interesting.

We popped into the Dickens House Museum, which is a must-see for all fans- it's housed in the cottage that was his inspiration for the home of Betsey Trotwood, in David Copperfield (which I have read, albeit many moons ago).

I have also read Great Expectations (I love, love, LOVE the character of Miss Havisham), A Christmas Carol (who hasn't?) and Bleak House.  I have seen Oliver Twist performed live and on TV, but have never read it (I will do, though) and am currently reading The Old Curiosity Shop.  I will make a point of reading all of Dickens' work.

The house also contains other Victorian memorabilia and has a lovely old boy in charge.

This is the magnificent Bleak House, further up on the headland.  It was once called Fort House, Dickens lived here whilst planning the book and its appearance and position did inspire the title.

Here is the garden view, taken from the terrace.

This is the study where Dickens worked.  I'm not sure if you're supposed to, but I sat in the chair and made a wish that some of Dickens' luck with his writing career would rub off on me!

Down in the cellars there is a smuggling museum, and the site is the end of one of the smugglers' old tunnels.  This is extremely interesting- don't leave Broadstairs without taking a look at it- and was possibly the best part of the day.

Sadly, my camera decided to die (well, enough to not be able to function with a flash), so this is a PDF of a display in the Smugglers Museum.

Another PDF, and this skeletal chap had been a victim of "Redcapping."  He was a revenue informer (a business just as lucrative as smuggling), and one way of dealing with those who broke the smuggler's unwritten law was to stake him out at low tide with a red lantern by his head.  The spy would not be released until the lantern had gone out.  Nice! 

We did wonder if this is why the Royal Military Police wear red caps but no, it's believed that the colour was chosen by the wife of the Provost Major, in 1885- although another theory mentions that an Indian Military Police unit wore red turbans during the Indian Mutiny.

Other sayings are also believed to have come from smuggling.  Instead of a constant light, which might have alerted the excise men, the smugglers used a flash to let incoming boats know that the "coast is clear."  "Flash in the pan" comes from smugglers signalling by removing the top chamber of a gun by modifying it so that gunpowder could be placed in it and lit, giving off a brief, bright flare.

We finished our day with a look at Crampton Tower Museum, which is dedicated to Thomas Russell Crampton, chiefly remembered as a designer of locomotives and railways, but also involved with gas and waterworks.

It's a little town with several pretty charity/ vintage shops and individual boutiques, and also a fair few places to eat.  It's a must for Charles Dickens fans but small and easy to traverse in half a day.

MISS ELAINEOUS VISITS THE WALPOLE BAY HOTEL...

I've been to the Walpole Bay Hotel and Museum before, so I decided to pop in for afternoon tea during my recent day trip to Margate, on my birthday.

We were very lucky as the owner of the hotel- a great British eccentric named Jane Bishop- was giving a very interesting talk about the history of the hotel, and her part in the restoration of it, to a group of old dears in the dining room just as we were having our tea.  It's good that someone with no background in hotel management but a hell of a lot of passion has made a go of this business.  It just goes to show that it's what's in the heart that counts, and just what drive and determination can do.

Our "Strawberry Tea" was lovely...

Here's SuperDean trying to be elegant...  Not a great photo as he's very much in silhouette.

The dining room.

The veranda.  This is a PDF as my picture didn't come out well.

Walking into this Art Deco hotel is like walking into an Agatha Christie script.  The museum is not a room as such, but housed in unused sections of this working hotel.  If you like oddities and eccentricities and an olde worlde atmosphere, then this is the ideal hotel for you.  We also got to see inside some of the rooms and they were lovely, with really personal touches.

But if you like modern style hotels in what is considered to be 'good taste' (please, I am just not interested in 'tasteful'); neutral colours and clean, sleek lines (how infernally boring) then maybe this place is not for you. 

Here is the entrance foyer with its trellis door lift.  My block of flats in Hammersmith had one of these lifts so I am very familiar with them!

Here are a couple of fashion pics in the bridal suite.  To me, they kind of summed up the shabby (in the nicest sense of the word) chic of the hotel.

Fashion dummies in the corridor.

Dressing up cupboard.

Gloves displayed behind a glass wall hanging.

This mad hat room is madder than a hatter!

Vanity mirrors like those our grandmothers owned.

The shoe room.  It HURT to leave the pink shoes behind...especially as they were my size.  My heart bleeds!

Teddy bears on display.

This room contained typewriters and sewing machines.  Many people have donated curios to the museum.

If you're like me and love the unusual then you will certainly want to have a nose around this hotel.  

Yes, it's junk, but it's interesting junk!

The beautiful ballroom in the basement. 

The atmospheric lounge next to the ballroom.  This photo is very dark- I didn't have enough battery power to turn the flash on!  You do get a sense of louche decadence, though.

A PDF of the billiard room next to that.  I love the Art Deco mirror- the whole hotel is a real nostalgia trip and takes you back in time to yesteryear.

Here's a weird selfie of me photographing a naked lady in one of the cabinets in the foyer.  I've said this before but I always seem to be wearing this pink get-up whenever I'm in a photo.  I'm sure you all think that I own only one set of clothes!

It has been said that the collection here needs "sorting out."  Yep, maybe it does, but only a tweak here and there.  I wouldn't want it to look too neat as I think that would take too much away from its charm.

There is also a napery display- where guests have drawn on linen napkins and given then back to be framed and put on the walls.  These didn't interest me that much, although if I ever stay at the hotel I want to be given a napkin to draw on- and I want it displayed! 

Here's local girl Tracey Emin's napkin, showing her portrait of the hotel owner.  I'm not quite sure whether she should be flattered by this or not!

This is the view of the back of the theatre, taken as we walked away from the hotel and back to Margate beach.

 All in all, 'twas a lovely day, filled with big smiles!!!!

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THE JEWELLER'S WIFE by JUDITH LENNOX

THE JEWELLER'S WIFE

BY JUDITH LENNOX

THE BLURB:-

1938. As England awaits the outbreak of war, Juliet Winterton journeys from the Mediterranean to the Essex countryside to begin her life as the beautiful young wife of a London jeweller.

But beneath her husband's intelligence and ambition, lies a cruel and ruthless man. And when dashing politician Gillis Sinclair comes to stay at Marsh Court, Juliet is drawn to his irresistible charm.

So begins a passionate affair that will have consequences far beyond anything Juliet imagines. For Gillis Sinclair is hiding a dark secret and, as the Winterton children grow up, Juliet fears that they, too, will be tainted by the past...

THE REALITY:-

I've read all of Judith Lennox's novels, apart from the first four- and that's only because they're almost impossible to get hold of in anything other than electronic form, and I don't own an e-reader. The only book I really struggled with was All My Sisters: I looked forward to its release, but then put it down almost immediately as there were so many characters introduced during the first few pages that the storyline got confusing and difficult to focus on. I didn't pick it up again until 5 years later. It turned out to be a good read and I got into Ms. Lennox's novels once again.

This book, for me, started off similarly uninspiring, and it wasn't until I was well past the first 100 pages that I started to feel bored no longer. I thoroughly enjoyed reading about the younger generation and their time in “Swinging Sixties” London but there were so many of these characters that this book, too, became confusing. Even though I raced to the end (which I'm glad was happy, especially for Juliet, who deserved it) I re-read the novel and gave it more of a chance. I'm glad I did as I felt I rushed it the first time. I also found the family tree, at the beginning of the book helped with pinpointing who's who (duh!)

In the middle of the first read, I went to Southend for the day and, coincidentally, looked at a map of the Essex area whilst I visited their RNLI station. I pinpointed West Mersea, Maldon and the islands of the Blackwater estuary, where this book is set, and was glad to do so, as it got the geography of the area straight in my head. Like Freya, in the novel, I too could easily become obsessed with causeways- such strange places between land and sea. I'm glad that train stations close to my home were mentioned- Ilford, Manor Park, Stratford, etc. as it made me feel “in” the story!

It was quite obvious that Freya was the long-lost daughter, and also very apparent that she was alive. This author has used the notion of a person considered drowned when they're really alive before. I suppose that, if you've written as many meaty novels as Judith Lennox has, then the same ideas will flow through more than once. With very good characters and a (mostly) pulsing storyline this made for a compulsive read which was emotional in parts. I loved our flawed heroine, Juliet. When she put up with Henry's treatment of her you wanted to shake her; when she treated Joe so nastily you wanted to shake her more! This story managed to arouse some emotion in me, and it was also nice to be taken to places outside of London (Essex and the Orkney's) with clever descriptives. My favourite parts were always about the causeway, the mysterious cottage and Frances and her twin children.

A good read- just don't rush it, and study the family tree!

MISS ELAINEOUS VISITS THE MUSEUM OF BRANDS, PACKAGING AND ADVERTISING...

The Museum of Brands, Packaging and Advertising is tucked away in Ladbroke Grove, West London, and made for a happy couple of hours behaving like a tourist!

We started our day with a meander down Portobello Road, which was quite pleasantly quiet- it was possibly too hot to have to put up with too much hustle and bustle.

The museum looked very Art Deco from the outside...

Inside, it houses a cornucopia of objects.  I especially loved the "time tunnel" which shows consumer culture from the Victorian times to the present day.  From groceries to household appliances, propaganda, magazines and toys, this is a real trip down nostalgia alley.

The pictures from inside the museum are PDFs as I believe that photography was disallowed.

I especially loved the Spice Girls Baywatch jigsaw!  Both the girls and the programme were really big commercial successes in the 1990s.

The central exhibition space (which you can also hire for events) was very Andy Warhol-esque, with its lines of products displayed in chronological order.

Harks from the past...

These are my photos, and the real gem was the peaceful cafe garden.  It's one of those hidden delights you wouldn't know existed unless you were looking for it. 

Here's a pensive SuperDean nibbling on his Danish pastry.

And here's a happy SuperDean...

Ok, I admit it.... I'm ghoulish and a touch macabre....

I've stood where John Lennon was shot...

I've stood where Gianni Versace was shot...

I've stood where Princess Grace's car came off the road in the South of France...

I would have stood by the thirteenth pillar down in the Pont d' Alma tunnel but, much as I loved Princess Diana, I have no wish to join her just yet, so I made do with a gawk from the side of the entrance.

I've been to the evocative Highgate Cemetary to gawp at the graves of the famous.

I've been to the Blind Beggar pub in Whitechapel, where Ronnie Kray shot George Cornell dead.

I've seen the bullet holes on the outside of the Magdala pub in Hampstead, where the last woman to be hung in Britain, Ruth Ellis, shot her abusive lover, David Blakely, dead.

I've been to the site of 10 Rillington Place, where infamous murderer John Christie killed his victims and stashed them in his house.

And I've seen the burnt-out obelisk of the Grenfell tower, horrifically gutted by fire so very recently.

I took Dean to see the latter two as they were in the area.  'You take me to the nicest places,' he said- a touch sarcastically! 
 The tributes to the tower victims outside the nearby church were really moving, though.

Grenfell Tower, to the left of the photo.

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