Wednesday 23 May 2018

Chelsea Flower Show, Royal Wedding, and other thunderstorms

London is having epic thunderstorms recently.
 It was midwestern USA level of lightening.
This was the calm before the storm.


Millie does not like the storms.

I really feel for her.
If it continues, I am thinking of getting her a thunderstorm jacket to comfort dogs.

But on the day I visited Chelsea Flower Show, the weather was superb albeit there were those flying thorns all about poking everyone's eyes.


This year there were more bonsai stands than other years.

The standout plant for me was this wisteria bonsai.
I am surprised it didn't win an award though the stand as a whole did get a gold.
This year was better than last year but there were many more selling stands and the show and artisan gardens were still lacking in the numbers and were replaced with people flogging man caves, greenhouses, and champagne.
We all love a Japanese garden but each year they seem to go OTT in the Japanese token tea ceremony hut. They really throw every single element and now I find this a bit schmaltzy.
The one thing I noticed this year as a trend was the sparse planting with lots of visible dirt.
I think they refer to it as Queen Anne planting?
It isn't my thing.
Seeing dirt like that makes me feel a little flat.
This winter has been tough so was just thankful that my plants came out.
Except for my jasmine which only bloomed one flower so I am nursing it.
 Native roses always do well.
Hardy stuff those roses.
Clematis came out but I find them a little complicated.
Meanwhile, the sunken garden in Kensington Palace is really becoming a feature more and more.
 These boughs brought in a while back is really coming into its own and I love walking through them.
 Such great vantage points from each aperture spaced about 5 meters apart.

 This year they opened a tea cafe on the far side of the sunken garden.

It is very touristy but it does give you this view of the palace and gardens.
 Speaking of royals, I went to watch Harry's wedding at a club.
Think kind of like a sports bar but for weddings.
 It was a chic central London club but this duster broom stood out to me.
 The duster looks better face on - its good side.
Don't have anything too unique to say about the wedding.

But then I don't buy into kool-aid nor hopium.

As you all well know.

It was very entertaining to watch but when people were saying things like,

 "Oh my gosh - look how he looks at her! He must love her!"

I did wonder how many weddings these people had gone to where the groom punches the bride?

But the U.K. has gone all weird.

Look at this poster I saw on the tube.



Holy crap.
Most of us don't bother talking to some family and friends.


On one hand, think tanks and government funded initiatives are trying to make us speak to each other.
But about what when everything is twisted, accusative, and one is constantly being told rather than engaged to speak to one another?

According to an article in this weeks FT, 
asking a working woman with a family how she manages to do it is to be added to the long list of things you are not allowed to mention.

Sorry about the pic alignment here.

Apparently, Uranus is in Taurus which is a huge thing.
Don't know what really - I am learning.
But Kim Kardashian is speaking prison reform with President Trump.
Can you believe that KK will be the Jacqui O of her generation?

I might have to watch all the backlog episodes of the Kardashians!

Hope you had a great May and see you in June x


12 comments:

  1. Great to hear from you. The bonsai are lovely. The looks of love comments are hilarious. The best part though was all of the side-eyeing going on during the sermon. Zara was hilarious. Worth getting up early for that. Also, thank you for the Gary Janetti link: Gold. I hope Millie settles with storms eventually. I hear those shirts actually work. KK as Jackie O, indeed. XO

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    1. Hope your eye is feeling better Jen. The sermon could have been so great but he was slightly incoherent in the end and wish it was a bit more articulate to have "converted" some! Zara cracked me up too ;P also Prince Charles and Camilla going red to stifle really was one of the highlights for me. How good is Gary??? xx

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  2. Good morning!
    Thank you for the recap on London’s events & happenings. Been good to read your take on things.
    Liked your comment re weddings, I can just see a t-shirt with the motto:
    “At her wedding, she punched the groom!”
    Well done on your roses and other blooming plants. It is the first day of winter and finally cooler 17 degrees Celsius and my frangipani is still blooming in Sydney. Who would have thought?
    Have a wonderful summer. Den xx

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    1. This season for up north and down south might be unusual Den. Do you feel it too? Such odd weather patterns and the air seems heavy. I think reason we all love weddings is that one day - grooms and brides both genuinely are cute while other days they may not be. Wedding photographers concur and say the staged pre wedding or post wedding dont have the same glow. Hope you are well Den xx

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  3. Hello Naomi, Thanks for all of the updates; I hope the storms aren't too bad. The wedding comment sounds like a line from a parody show--but what about the wedding doesn't? I liked the bonsais, especially the wisteria one, and I agree with you about the sparse plantings. They look like vacant lots. Not that I have anything against vacant lots--they fascinate me, especially the wildflowers that grow there, but they do not deserve prizes in flower shows.
    --Jim

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    1. True about parodies and wedding Jim! I love a bonsai but could you imagine getting one that took 50 years to trim and then you kill it - the responsibility it too big!

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  4. The flower show photos are lovely. Never had much luck with bonsai myself ( who has time to "train" a miniature tree or trim its roots?) but they are fascinating. A good friend swears by the thunder vest she bought for her dog who is terrified of storms. It calmed her down immediately.

    I enjoyed watching the wedding if only to see something happy and not tragic. It was the same week as yet another horrific school shooting here in the states. But yes, the commentary was less than edifying. One forgives such silliness and just concentrates on the pageantry.
    Best,
    KL Gaylin

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    1. Hi KL, Yes I think a thunder coat is good also for other situations too for dogs.

      Yes - the event was a fun diversion and better than anything morbid. I used to love pageantry too except North Korea does pageantry a tad better :)

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  5. That poster on the tube is truly bizarre. No one wants to talk on the tube. You can't make eye contact, it's a rule! If you strike up a conversation people will start to move away in case you're crazy. Why would they waste money on producing these stupid posters? No one talked to each other on the tube before mobile phones were invented?!
    I really loved that wisteria bonsai, and laughed at your take on the dirt gardens (I've never heard of that term before as Queen Anne garden... over here a garden in that style is more of a dry garden for people living on the edge of water access and everything has to survive without hand watering).
    Well, now on to the wedding. I'm so sad you're not going to write a post. I know it would have made me laugh a lot, but understand it's a very loaded thing and sometimes you can't be bothered with the fallout. I found the whole thing fairly curiously odd, and making a lot of Statements. xx

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    1. I mean what do you talk about? The royals and brexit? LOL.

      I was going to write about it but then it seems like people took it a lot more seriously than i thought so it would be like me talking about someone's religion...But I think you know I really enjoyed it :) xx

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  6. Hi Naomi just read this piece and loved it. The commentary on the royal wedding was crazy in the US and I ended up turning it off. The theme was that now that Harry was marrying Meghan she will be the catalyst for change in the royal family which will undoubtedly spread across England and the world. Anyway one commentator who managed to connect every element of the wedding to this, and I'm paraphrasing "you can see how Meghan can do this by her wedding dress. It is normal for royal brides to wear a dress with long sleeves and Meghan's has three quarter sleeves. This is the subtle way that Meghan will bring change to the Royal family etc etc." I hope this commentator got to dissect T.S. Elliot Wasteland for his school final exams - he would have nailed it.

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    1. OMG - dying about the 3/4 sleeve comment LOL. Although those white tights didn't make the UK republic...I know the journos love hyperbole but that is hilarious Yvonne!!!

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