Holland Park

And particularly the Kyoto Garden inside. Constructed as part of the Japan Festival 1991 on the occasion of the centenary of the Japan Society in Britain.

It's a very quiet place, set inside the more wooded part of the park. Designed as a "tour garden" (typical traditional garden style in Japan) because it symbolises and emphasises on natural elements.

Ocean, forests, steep mountains, gorges: recreation of the grandeur of Nature.

The stone path guides us through.

Tsukubai (stone washbasin)

 

I can't remember the exact name and signification of this Japanese practice to tie keys and messages to the trees. Can anyone light my toro?

Toro (stone lantern)

 Shishi-odoshi (bamboo alarm for animals, and in our case it is more specifically a sōzu): When the right part (it's hollow bamboo) is filled up almost to the brim by the water trickling from the left part, it rotates forward and empties itself of all the water - but in the process it bangs sharply against the stones, therefore scaring any animal in the vicinity. Hence the name shishi-odoshi, which literally means "scare the deer".

First day of Spring

 Hampstead Heath

Hampstead Heath 

Writer and dramatist, best known for having penned The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

This man needs no introduction 

I haven't mentioned yet that all the pictures have been taken at Highgate Cemetery,
and this cemetery has got many eyes...

Holly Village, Highgate, North London, Henry Astley Darbyshire, 1865 

 View of Central London (a bit far out, I know) from Parliament Hill (Hampstead Heath)

Another view of Central London from Primrose Hill

All of the above are wooden sculptures in Regent's Park (near to London Zoo) 

In Regent's Park 

Roman Catholic Church of St Edmund of Canterbury, a stone throw from Kelsey Park,

Beckenham

Kelsey park, Beckenham, London

Mandarin duck, in case you were wondering 

 

St Paddy's day, London 2012

Quoting the Bard

"To carve out dials quaintly, point by point,
Thereby to see the minutes how they run,
How many make the hour full complete;
How many hours bring about the day;
How many days will finish up the year;
How many years a mortal man may live."


Henry VI, part III, act II, scene 5 (circa 1591)