Trip to London Sept 2010 Part 2: The Gardens




Yellow Rose at Holland House

 

The yellow rose is a symbol of friendship. It was the obvious choice to begin this post.

Trip to London UK Sept 2010 Part1:The Flat In London

Geraniums at the neighbour's flat


 

This trip just happened to "drop into our lap" so to speak. Jerry has a friend who decided to let us use their flat in Earl's Court, London UK for 2 weeks so we grabbed the chance and booked a trip for September 2010. It was a little past the prime time for gardens but lovely just the same. I should add that the same friend also gave us airmiles!!  Amazing when you think about it! Jerry had done him some favors before this, but it was still an unexpected delight!



Earl's Court Road, and just around the corner to the flat!



We didn't have that much lead time to plan things but it was fun to imagine where we might be staying, sight unseen and what the neighbourhood would be like. It turned out to be wonderful! The flat was in an area of London called Earl's Court, near Kensington. It was a 7 minute walk from Earl's Court tube station and the route passed by Marks and Spenser Simply Foods. That store was awesome! The foods were always fresh and delicious. I still miss their "peaches and cream tarts" and also their produce section. It is 2 months since the trip and I still find myself thinking about what to buy at M&S when it is time to cook.

Just around the corner from Earl's Court Road, we found number 44.Redcliffe Square.  It is the third porch from the right in the picture below.

Our steps were to the right of the bicycle.



Old and impressive St Luke's Anglican church was directly across the street along with some interesting trees which had been pruned back hard in the spring. I assume this was done to allow a better view of the beautiful stonework on the building. The view out the front window was of this church and also jets taking off from Heathrow making jet trails across the blue sky above St Luke's.



Front door to the flat


The flat itself was on the first floor of a block long row house. There was a basement below us and 3 floors above accessed by stairs. We had the prime location with only a few stairs to climb to the front door.














Living room ceiling





The ceilings were 12 feet high with beautiful plaster crown moldings and 3D circles of flowers. They were so beautiful that I found myself staring up at them often.

There was also a marble bathroom and a modern kitchen with granite counters. The gas stove was fun and fast to cook on. The window over the sink looked out at a brick wall but as you can see, they had an interesting trellis to look at, as well as a mirror behind it.

The master bedroom had very tall built in armoires on either side of the bed. There was a leather headboard in a color that made me think of, and crave, dark chocolate every day!!  The duvet was so nice I was wondering where they bought it. I later found it in a large Peter Jones department store.

 I loved the view out the master bedroom window, the inner courtyard gardens of the block of flats!! Lovely lush green vines and butterfly bush still in bloom. Heavenly smell! The basement flat beneath us had a dear little courtyard garden(above) that I wanted to visit. Sigh....only got to take it all in from the window above.



This is the street that the flat was on, Redcliffe Square. The architecture was beautiful.

Our stairs were just past the red geraniums. The porches were lovely!



Number 44

St Luke's church was an interesting place. They had parishioners from more than 25 different countries. When I was out walking, 2 people on the sidewalk invited me to an international lunch. I went "home" and got Jerry and we had a great time! Very interesting food from 4 countries in Africa, Japan, Russia and many European selections.



Inside St Luke's








Our front window and porch looked directly to the church.



Nursery school children

 The church had a nursery school in the basement. Each day we watched the little children playing outside in their school uniforms

Most days we watched jets taking off from Heathrow airport leave jet trails across the deep blue sky above St .Luke's church.

When we walked just past the church, there was another long row of townhouses. Such lovely buildings! And such pretty balcony gardens! I could not stop wanting to walk further to see more homes and gardens! It was so tidy and pretty everywhere I looked! Hydrangeas in a pot can overwinter in London! Imagine it!  If you look closely below, you may notice it is the same balcony.






One day we walked to the Brompton Road library. What a treat! As many of you know, I LOVE libraries and reading! I was delighted to find out I could get a city of London library card, which I still have, and sign out books!
It was a small building but bright and pleasant feeling. There was a nice Internet section where I checked my emails some days. The room on the left was the children's section.
Below you can see desk number 7 where I used the Internet.

Don't you love the high windows looking out at trees! So unexpected in a huge city!