Kew Gardens

Today I went to Kew Gardens, which is quite a tube ride away (at least I had time to read... or fall asleep and drool on the shoulder of the guy sitting next to me, take your pick), but it is quite pretty if you're willing to make it all the way out there.

Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (which is what it's officially called) covers over 300 hundred acres and now possesses approximately 1/10 of known plant species within its seed library. You can find plants here that are nearly extinct. Kew isn't just a lot of pretty plants; it's also a research facility that tries to preserve as many plants from extinction as possible, figuring out how they grow in order to keep them alive. Species of plants go extinct every day and part of the responsibility they have taken upon themselves is to prevent that from happening, as much as they can.

This is a view from the promenade when you walk in. The green house you see is the tropical green house (there are internal photos later). The architect wanted to build something original, something he would be known for, so he did a few things that almost nobody did in the Victorian era: he used curved glass panes and wrought iron (as a support structure, which nobody had done because they weren't sure how well it would hold). He also wanted to provide the maximum amount of internal space without a lot of support beams getting in the way. The designer who helped him was essentially a ship designer and so was used to providing a maximum amount of storage space. Basically, they ended up making an upside down ship, which you can see better in another picture of it.

This is a Tulip Tree, one of the oldest ones in Kew Gardens. It's been here since the 1770's.

They look a bit brighter here, because of the sun, but this is the colour red that I imagine the rose from Beauty and the Beast being. Not the cartoon version, but the classic, where the father picks a rose from the Beast's garden as a gift for his youngest daughter, and must sacrifice her in his place, as punishment for having stolen the prized rose. Also, I know they're not roses, I just meant the colour.

Cacao tree!!! This is where chocolate is born!! Actually, it's quite a long process, where the pulp is taken out of those beans and then there's a bunch of other stuff done to it, but the chocolate we eat is mostly sugar and milk powder. Cacao beans aren't sweet. Never realized they were bright orange before, though.

This plant isn't in bloom just now, but it will be in a week or so. I'm grateful I won't be there when it does. It blooms for approximately forty-eight hours, during which time it gives off the scent of rotting meat, in order to attract insects to pollinate it.

This is a lace tree.

These little flowers were only saved from extinction because they were pretty. It turns out that they are extraordinarily useful in fighting Luekemia and Hodgkins disease. They originate in Madagascar.

This is the oldest potted in Kew Gardens (and possibly the world, although that is under debate). It arrived at Kew in 1775, and luckily it grows very slowly, or it would've broken the roof already.

Better view of the upside down ship.

Hairy Highland Coos

This one's the baby. Isn't he adorable?

Faery Glen

"Take nothing," he said. "For if you do, you'll be taking the worst kind of luck. You're taking people's wishes and dreams. Leave what you will, but take nothing."

Loch Cluny

Loch Cluny was named after Cluny Macpherson. It is a man-made loch, but I think it really adds to the natural beauty of the mountains around it.

Cluny Macpherson was one of the soldiers who fought with Bonnie Prince Charlie against the British monarchy. When they lost the battle, most of them fled the highlands for their own safety (the British were killing and torturing just about whoever they could get their hands on) but Cluny was an old guy, around 60, and he didn't feel like leaving.

So he took up residence in the caves and apparently Bonnie Prince Charlie gave him a significant amount of gold to get information and keep tabs on the British (no one's ever found the gold, by the way, it's still in those caves).

Cluny was ok living in the caves, but he got lonely... so he would kidnap redcoat soldiers to play cards with him. The scared little redcoat would have his blindfold untied only to see a huge, scary Highland Chieftain in a cave in front of him. And so they'd play poker.

And while they played (and Cluny literally won everything from the Redcoats, including their money, clothes, horse and saddle) he would extract information, like where they were going, how many men they were fighting with, who they were meeting, what kind of condition their regiment was in.

After the redcoat lost everything, he would be blindfolded again. Cluny didn't kill them, not necessarily because he was a nice old man (although I like to believe he was), but because he knew that it wasn't really their choice to fight. The British Army was made up of a lot of conscripts and he also knew that they had families and children waiting for them.

So he blindfolded them and left them in the nearest village. And when the scared (and naked) little redcoat got up enough courage to take off his blindfold, he would find his clothes neatly folded in a pile in front of him, usually with some buttermilk or cheese to help him on his way back to his regiment. Cluny kept everything else he won from the redcoats, although sometimes he would leave the horse's saddle, just to add insult to injury, so that the red coat would have to haul the heavy saddle (without the horse) to his regiment, with his story of kidnap.

Like I said earlier, the Loch was man-made, and it's actually on top of a village. On days when the water is shallower, you can see the top of the church spire of the village the sad little redcoats were left in.

Scotland

I don't think that there are words to describe how beautiful the Isle of Skye is and if there are, it's going to take someone far more clever than me to find them and string them together. It's the most beautiful place I've ever seen and it's the most beautiful place I think I ever will see. I think that maybe the Isle of Skye is where good people go when they die and it's certainly where good coos and sheep go when they die.

I don't know how to describe a place so beautiful that I almost cried when we were leaving it; so beautiful that I want to cry a bit now, while thinking about it. Scotland in general, is beautiful. And even now, when I'm completely sweaty, with furry teeth, a growling stomach and a minor headache after a nine-hour bus ride back to London, I don't regret a single second of it. In fact, if I didn't have exams to come back to, I'd probably stay in Edinburgh for another few days. I know that I'll be back someday, both to Edinburgh and to the Isle of Skye, because I think it would hurt too much to never be able to see it again.

I exhausted the life of two camera batteries, taking over 700 photos. And then I used up five disposable cameras. And still wished I could take more pictures.

I miss it already and although I know I have homework to finish, things to turn in for a portfolio tomorrow, I somehow don't want to return to Earth just yet. I want to dwell in beauty and in my memories just a little bit longer. I know I'll have to wake up soon, but not just yet.

Peter Pan

Today I finally found the statue of Peter Pan in Hyde Park. Actually, it's in Kensington Gardens, but it's all really one big park. It's quite a pretty statue (see below), although J.M. Barrie wasn't exactly satisfied with it.


This is just another photo of Kensington Gardens/Hyde Park, mostly because I think it's pretty. You can also see, here, why it reminds me of the forest between the worlds in the Chronicles of Narnia (if you don't know what I'm talking about then you can read the first bit of the Magician's Nephew).


This is Peter Pan himself, in the flesh... er, bronze. Barrie wrote his first Peter Pan story (The Little White Bird) in 1902, largely thanks to his interaction with the Llewellyn Davies family (as anyone who's seen Finding Neverland would know).

He began thinking of a statue to put up in Kensington Gardens in 1906, primarily because that was where he met the family, and where the inspiration for Peter Pan was born. He took some pictures of the then 6-year-old Michael Llewellyn Davies dressed in a Peter Pan outfit, intending the little boy to be the model for the statue.

But when he finally commissioned the statue in 1912, Sir George Frampton, the sculptor, ended up using a different model. Barrie said, "It doesn't show the Devil in Peter" and I quite agree. Despite Barrie's dissatisfaction with the result, the statue became the iconic image of Peter Pan, with several recreations of it in different cities.

J.M. Barrie didn't have an unveiling of it and he didn't present it to the city. He just had the thing put up secretly in the middle of the night, as a surprise for all of the visiting children in the morning. He ran an announcement in the Times, saying

"There is a surprise in store for the children who go to Kensington Gardens to feed the ducks in the Serpentine this morning. Down by the little bay on the south-western side of the tail of the Serpentine they will find a May-day gift by Mr J.M. Barrie, a figure of Peter Pan blowing his pipe on the stump of a tree, with fairies and mice and squirrels all around. It is the work of Sir George Frampton, and the bronze figure of the boy who would never grow up is delightfully conceived."

The statue was put up on May 1, 1912. He actually erected the statue on the part of the serpentine where he had met the Llewellyn Davies family, and people still come to the park just to see it. Although the statue did not turn out quite as Barrie imagined, it has made millions of children, both young and old, happy over the years, and I'm sure he would have been thoroughly satisfied with that result.

The statue shows Peter blowing his pipe, surrounded by fairies and woodland animals.


I thought the doves were pretty.