The Fox and the Bear... in London

Hullo! It's just us today... the fox and the bear... on the loose in London. Let's see what adventures we can find...

Right off the bat, we found a drain cover for Beanie!! Actually several of them... but we're only showing you this one...

OK... ready? Let's go!

We walked by this really fancy gated place and thought it might be a palace or something...

Nope... it's the Royal Hospital Chelsea, where the Chelsea Pensioners live... they are army veterans and when they are out and about...

They get to wear long red coats with black hats... interesting... We saw some old guys last week with red coats... at the Guards Museum I think... wonder if they were from here?

 We also discovered this... and solved a mystery. London has NO fire hydrants (not the above ground ones we have in North America)... no... they are all underground!

We also found this one... Post Office - Telegraphs... They still use telegraphs??

Beary interesting... but it explains why we haven't seen a lot of cable boxes either (like Beanie has in Brighton). Everything is underground here...

 Our first stop is the National Army Museum. We've never been here and it's free... and on the way... so why not...

It was fairly interesting...

And we learned an interesting tidbit... this guy started out as a private and ended up as a Field Marshal - only person to ever do that in the British Army... cool... Although we did a bit of research and it sounds like he didn't have a lot of experience commanding soldiers at the front and ended in up in a bunch of conflict with politicians and other commanders and stuff... still... he was a go-getter...

We liked this display about poppies for animals who have been used during wars - mostly horses and dogs... but we think pigeons and rats should be included too...

There was an interactive section which asked... Could you be a solider? Apparently 66% people say hes when they start this display and only 33% say yes by the end of it!! Little Fox and I both agreed that we could NOT be soldiers... neither one of us likes to be bossed around and ordered to do things... nor do we like to be yelled at... and while I'm partial to uniforms, Little Fox is most definitely not the uniform-wearing type! Nor is our pal Ajdin...

We wandered down the road and passed this fantastic art deco building... cool!!!

Hmmm... the Chelsea Physic Garden... the garden that changed the world... founded in 1673... let's go in!

 It took us a bit to find the entrance but here we are... human entrance fee was £11 but stuffies are free!!

... the study of botany in relation to medicine... known then as the "physic" or healing arts... cool... they had all sorts of sections of the garden - plants for healing, for perfume, for building, for eating, etc... we could probably have spent hours here...

This section is devoted to plants useful for cardiology....

Ah... we know this plant!!!

Huh... anise... "star anise is an Asian shrub best known for its aniseed flavoured seeds, which contain shikimic acid. This chemical is the foundation of the synthetic drug oseltamivir, the basis of Tamiflu. It is used for treating bird flu, swine flu and influenza A & B." Who knew??

We are liking this garden a lot and think that Jerry & Ben would like it too!

Eh? Why do they have a fake lemon tree here???

Nooo waaayyy... this is a real lemon tree with REAL lemons on it... in London...

They had a whole greenhouse area... what an operation...

There's also a section with dangerous plants... Lily of the Valley is poisonous... don't touch...

A small little water plants area and... yes... in case you were wondering...

There were lots of bees here...

We both like this sign!

This is their little community kitchen garden...

That sign says "Herbal medicine... not weeds!"...

We figure Jerry and Ben should be able to identify these herbs... yes?

We know this one too...

Not 100% sure on this one... looks kind of like stinging nettle or mint... but we weren't going to touch it!

We know this one too!

And a perennial favourite...

Uh... this one has both us stymied... We've seen it as a weed everywhere here... and we consider it a weed back home... does anyone know what this plant is???

Small pink flowers...

After the garden, we were both famished, so stopped at this nice park...

And had a smoked salmon and soft cheese sandwich...

Whoops... drool alert...

As we left the park... we saw all sorts of tombstones along the edge of it... uh... cemetery park? Apparently - "St Luke's Gardens ceased to be a burial ground around 1857 and was converted into a public garden in 1881. The gravestones were moved to form a boundary wall that is still present today." Sooo... the bodies are still out there... under the lawn? Without their tombstones? Weird...

We ended up here at South Kensington...

And after taking a quick pic of Ben's Cookies... our pal Ben is famous for his baking!

We headed back to Hammersmith and had a delicious pile of linguine with carbonara sauce (there's pancetta/bacon in there... sorry Droopy Dog... drool alert!).