Chelsea Physic Garden, London

There is a unassuming, almost anonymous looking, walled four acre area of gardens and pathways in Chelsea, near the Thames River. The name on the plaque attached to the plain brick wall says

HORTUS BOTANICUS SOCIETATIS PHARMACEUTICAE LOND. 1686

This is the site of the Chelsea Physic Garden, a botanical garden dedicated to researching the medicinal qualities of plants from all over the world.

We visited the Garden in 2004 and when I knew we'd be in London in June 2008, I declared to The Professor that I didn't much care where else we went, I did want to return to the Physic Garden. One afternoon, after we had wandered around downtown London, we took the tube to South Kensington Station and wandered around Kensington and Chelsea and waited until the garden's afternoon opening time. We checked our backpack at the entrance, and I grabbed my camera.
We strolled up and down and around, remembering the areas we'd explored four years before and finding new places we didn't remember seeing on our previous visit.
The garden is laid out in sections with titles such as Garden of World Medicine, Edible Plants and Poisonous Plants. I was very interested in the plants the Society had identified as herbal or medicinal.

The Yerba Mansa plant (Anemopsis Californica) is native to California. The root stock is used by California Indians to prepare an infusion to treat malaria and dysentery.

Another plant that is used in China for the treatment of malaria is Sweet Wormwood. I wish I'd known about Sweet Wormwood when I lived in Indonesia. The medication I took to prevent malaria break-throughs gave me nightmares and I still got malaria. I eventually switched to an Indonesian folk remedy of an infusion made from the boiled leaves of the papaya tree.

Feverfew (Tanacetum Parthenium) is a highly effective remedy for migraine. Gardeners in the Pacific Northwest could become wealthy selling the Fewerfew that grows perniciously in their gardens every spring.

Opium Poppy (Papaver Somniferum) Seeds for these poppies were NOT for sale in the Chelsea Physic Garden gift shop.
Just so you know.

We took a little tea break before we went back to exploring the Edible Plants area, the Pond and the Rock Garden.

And so shall I take a break and return tomorrow to share the rest of my visit to Chelsea Physic Garden.

London Memories

When I was talking with MamaMia last week while we were packing boxes of dishes in her kitchen, she mentioned my photos of London. That was all it took for me to start thinking again about posting another London Memory.

One morning The Professor and I found ourselves walking along the Thames River. We had bought our morning coffee and stood on the bank gazing at the Tower Bridge.

We strolled down to the Tower Bridge Piazza, enjoying being tourists, gaping at the buildings of flats and shops that lined this street by the river.

We decided to cross the bridge, just because it was there.

Then we walked back across, just because we could. We walked up and down on both sides of the Thames.

We saw the HMS Belfast.

We passed London Bridge.

We descended some crazy diagonal steps.

We didn't descend the steps that led directly in to the water.

As we strolled, we looked across the river to the other embankment.

We crossed another bridge, just because it was there and just because we could.
We walked and walked.

We walked back and forth across the Thames on different bridges.

We walked and crossed until we were back where we started.

And it was time to walk away from the River Thames and explore another area of London.

Friday Fave Five

Yes, it's already 2009 and Susanne is back hosting Friday Fave Five. Here is my first submission for this year.

1. Watching Our New Boy celebrate his first Christmas!

2. Having all the immediate family at our house for Christmas Day and inviting a couple of others to share the celebration. Dessert was served to 14 people. (Well, 13, because The New Boy doesn't eat pie and ice cream yet. He had extra Cheerios.)

3. MamaMia and I received the same Christmas gift from our family. Everyone got together and presented both of us with identical new sewing machines! We are looking forward to Sewing weekends with Kiti this year.

4. The Professor and I had a lovely drive south to San Diego again earlier this week. We stopped in San Juan Capistrano, intending to pop in to Jumbuk Fibres until we realized that the store wasn't open on Tuesday. So we picked up a cuppa at the Starbuck's across the street from Mission San Juan Capistrano, Queen of the Missions. We didn't have time to go in and tour the mission so I just clicked a quick photo over the wall of the older section of the mission buildings.

4. The reason for our trip to San Diego was to help MamaMia and The Marine move to their new home!

5. Our neighbors dropped by Monday evening with a bag of tangerines (mandarins) and oranges from their trees to share with us. We have a mandarin orange tree too and we've been faithfully eating fruit every day, but this seems to be a year for bumper crops on all our citrus fruit trees so we all have an abundance. I'm certainly not complaining as I love mandarin oranges.

Hopes and Goals 2009

I do not usually make New Year's resolutions because I don't want to make 'promises' that I can't keep. So I like to make 'hopes' and 'goals' for myself. For many years I have written personal goals for each year and I have been able to go back through the years and see what I have accomplished, even though it seems like I don't make the progress I hope to make on projects.

Last year I posted some goals. These are the ones I accomplished:
1. Exercise more. Walk more consistently. Get the bike serviced and ready to ride again. Finding Ellen as a walking buddy was an answer to my prayer!

2. Resubmit the Knitting Guild work for review. All that is left for me to do is rewrite the aran sweater pattern and double check one of the swatches. I received my master hand knitting certificate and was officially recognized as a master knitter at TKGA convention in September!

3. Use my yarn stash instead of buying new yarn. I did buy some yarn but mostly I knitted and crocheted my way through some of my stash.

4. The Professor and I also saw the completion of a major life goal. All of our children have graduated from college with a BA or BS in a field of study that will allow them to make their own ways in this world when MamaMia graduated this month with a degree in Anthropology from San Diego State University.

5. Read or reread the books that are on our bookshelves. I've plugged away at this goal. I have read several of the Newberry Award winners that I've collected. The Back to History Reading Challenge kind of fell off my radar screen in March although I did finish reading The Bounty by Caroline Alexander and Faith and Treason by Antonia Fraser.

6. Be more intentional about my spiritual life. Pray. Memorize Scripture. I want to learn about the Church Year, the daily and weekly prayers and readings. The Professor started leading a study centered around the Church Year and I am looking forward to continuing to deepen my understanding of the history of Christianity and also make it more personal in my own life.

7. And organize the photos. Declutter. Simplify. Live Green. Hope for world peace. I've done the decluttering, simplifying, living green and hoping for world peace fairly consistently again this year. The organization of the photos is still a work in progress.


So my Hopes and Goals for 2009 will be similar to those of 2008:
1. Keep on exercising- walking, hiking, and biking.



2. Continue using up the yarn stash, including spinning the bags and bags of fiber I've collected through the years.

3. Use what I learned in the master knitting program to design and sell my own knitting patterns. Knit more bunnies! This is Maggie who has gone to live in Georgia.

4. Read, read, read!

5. Make consistency in prayer, meditation and looking at the world and my own life through God's perspective. And this includes striving to live at peace with all men in as far as I am able.

6. Maintain my commitment to living in voluntary simplicity, eating organically and locally, and limiting our possessions.

7. Organize the photos. I really want to do this. But I am still completely overwhelmed by the prospect. Fortunately, The Professor is supporting me in my endeavor. He gave me a scanner for Christmas!

8. Be the best wife, mama and grandma I can be. Our New Boy is so precious and I love to watch him grow!


9. Improve my photography skills. I love to take pictures!

What are your hopes and goals for 2009?

End of 2008

Last year during the last week of December I posted four of my favorite photos from the year based on the four elements, Air, Earth, Water and Fire. I have been going back through my photos from 2008 the past few days and honestly I haven't been inspired.

Then this morning I suddenly thought, "Oh! Four photos from the four seasons. Maybe that will work." So I think that's what I will do, show you four favorite pictures based on Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall."

The Professor and I have been traveling again this week. We drove to Chula Vista (five miles from the Mexican border) to help MamaMia and her Marine move to the home that they just purchased. Cleaning the kitchen cupboards, packing the Bavarian china that was a gift to my father from his brother at the end of WWII.

OK. So. Here are four photos. They're not the best I've taken this year, but they show the seasons and what happened in my life during those seasons this year.

A late winter baby boy.

In the late spring/early summer, a memorable visit to London.

The essence of a Southern California summer beach.

Fall leaves and spring born mule deer fawns with their mama that Ellen and I often see on our walks.

And finally a photo of Christ Church in Oxford which evokes all I love about travel--beauty, adventure, experience!

Here it is--a recap of 2008!

A Tea Party

Last Sunday I went to a birthday party. My good friend decided to celebrate her special day with a tea party at The Tea House on Los Rios in San Juan Capistrano. Los Rios is the historic district of this picturesque old mission town where Mission San Juan Capistrano (of the returning of the swallows fame) is located.

You can borrow a hat to wear or bring your own.

Everything inside and out was decorated for Christmas!

Tea time included tea (or coffee), heart-shaped scones with cream and jam,

tea sandwiches and fruit,

What a perfect place to celebrate a very special birthday girl!

Red velvet cake from Torrance Bakery!

AND! Look what is located next door! Could that be a knit shop? Oh yes!

Another reason to visit Los Rios in San Juan Capistrano!

I am sure I'll drop in to San Juan Capistrano again soon. There's a knit shop that carries Australian yarns to visit and an old California mission to tour...