Only One Post Again Today,

as soon as I post it I will be out to visit Duncan,

back to Tuesday, it was Diana's day off, so we were out for the day, glad rags on,

and we were walking past the snail mail box, 

to Beckenham Junction station,

and here was our train, 

not really, it was not stopping, 

here is ours to Victoria,

we settled down for the journey,

as the train raced to Victoria,

and here we are, next a tube, 

to Notting Hill Gate station,

over the road I saw a nice mosaic, 

I am not sure of what, but it was certainly colourful,

we then passed a stature of Vladimir the Great, the former Grand Prince of Kiev, the statue was erected by Ukrainians in Great Britain in 1988 to celebrate the establishment of Christianity in Ukraine by St. Volodymyr in 988,

we carried on walking, in this area it is almost impossible to see small houses, all are this size or bigger!

and here we are, Holland Park,

into the park,

which is 22.5 hectares or 55 acres of peace and tranquillity almost in the centre of London,

lots of mature trees give dappled shade, so many of them that you really can not hear any traffic at all, 

now we know where to go,

along there, 

along a deserted pathway,

 

and here we are, the Japanese garden known as Kyoto Garden, 

a few rules before entering,

up the steps,

and we are greeted with this legend, 

in the distance the lake, 

we passed a bamboo water feature, 

and there a fake heron,

 

it looked quite realistic as it happens,

on the other side of the pond visitors admiring the waterfall,

looking across the lake, 

we started walking around the end of the lake,

just before the waterfall,

a portrait pose,

and a landscape,

looking back to where we entered, 

one more of Diana,

and a couple,

of the waterfall,

I was snapping away,

caught by Diana,

and here she is,

as you can see by the reflection in the lake it was a glorious day,

looking across the lake, 

the heron, and it moved, it really was a real one!

a look to our right, 

and left, 

we could just make out some large koi carp,

looking back, it was so peaceful we decided to sit at one of the many benches laid back from the lake, just to take in the ambiance, 

and then as usual Diana was asked to take a visitors photograph, 

picture taken Diana re-joined me on the bench,

what a lovely day, in landscape, 

or portrait, 

a moorhen was looking for food, but it is not permitted to feed the birds, 

it walked straight towards us, 

covering ground so fast I could not keep up, 

it was literally at our feet, no sign of being afraid at all, after sitting for some time we made a move to another part of the garden,

past a nice stand of bamboo,

on the left another part of the Japanese garden,

The Fukushima Garden, 

we carried on walking, 

to a walled garden,

where a game of chess was taking place,

lots of flower beds in this formal part of the garden,

in the distance a water feature,

which looked rather nice,

at the end a covered walk way, with paintings depicting the area as it would have been many years ago,

behind Diana a part of the scene which was painted here, the originals have been removed as they were getting damaged by water, 

but the copies looked so realistic I would have believed they were real oil paintings,

looking back to the fountain,

and the picture wall, Diana mention in the literature there was a peacock here,

and here he is,

by now we were both hungry, 

so through a gate, 

into the courtyard for a bite to eat, but after quite a time Diana returned, the queue to take the order for food was so long, she decided to try elsewhere, 

so a walk it was, 

we passed one of the few remaining green boxes, 

known as Cabman's Shelters, the story behind them is here,

 

we were walking towards the Portobello Road Market, 

and here we were, 

I started taking photographs, 

of some of the many shops,

 on normal market days these would be hidden from view by the crowds that shop here, 

this was an intriguing shop, Iris Galerie, the shop takes close-up photographs of your iris and then prints them for you,

using a concave mirror and side lighting you can see what the finished photograph looks like, Diana tried it, after some time she stopped looked around at me and said, "I have got brown eyes", I guess she never knew, 

another shop, 

in a side street we saw these, the last time we visited here we took a few photographs of the multi coloured houses in this street, 

just what we were looking for a pub to eat in, the Earl of Lonsdale, 

Diana made her way inside, 

going through these low doorways,

and they were low!

as I found out, 

we made our way into the dinning area,

meal ordered, 'Cheers!',

and here was our lunch, vina schnitzel and chips for Diana,

fish and chips for myself, 

the meal with a small coke for Diana and just the glass of wine for myself was £44.80,

we carried on looking at the shops,

as we walked, 

we were hoping to find the shop we bought our blue candles from the last time we were here,

but try as we might, we could not find it, 

this looked nice, 

as we had just last month returned from a sunflower farm, 

through the barriers that stop cars, 

this stall a bit of fun,

selling rubber ducks, 

it amazes me how popular rubber duck collecting has become,

we made a move to the number 53 bus stop, 

opposite which there were some imposing terraced houses, 

off of the bus at the same station we arrived at, 

and here we are at Victoria, 

across the River Thames,

of at Beckenham Junction and into the park, 

past the snail mail box and home, where we were just in time for a Deadliest Catch as we ate a small snack, after which a Antiques Road Trip before a Midsomer Murder, strangely enough one we had not watched before, Diana was off to bed, work tomorrow, for myself a Have I Got A Bit More News For You, before I too was off to bed.