Rose Garden at Regents Park

Enter through the Jubilee Gates

into the Inner Circle of Regent's Park. Mike and I took a walk through this historical 410 acre park last Friday before heading back to the States. Regent's Park is located in northern central London and was originally designated as hunting grounds by Henry VIII. For him, it was a short ride from the Whitehall Palace. Then in 1811, the Price Regent (later George IV) directed John Nash to come up with a master plan for the park. Today it includes a lake, canal, restaurants, the London Zoo, sporting fields and two villas from the original design.

In the summertime, my favorite part of the park is the Rose Garden, which has 30,000 roses (wouldn't you like the job of counting them) of 400 different varieties.

The colors, the smells and the textures are breathtaking.

Enjoy some of our photos. You can always click on them to take a closer look.

Among the wildlife there, are some fascinating black swans. You remember from an earlier post who owns those don't you?

Alas, I wish I could leave you with a Scratch 'n Sniff application. Imagine....

London in the Summertime

London in the summertime--my favorite time to be in the city. Walking around town without a jacket is liberating and the city comes to life.

Part of the summer energy comes from the hordes of tourists

who often stand in long lines such as this one at the Natural History Museum.

Eating outdoors every chance you get

Summer uniforms for the kids

Little girls playing in the fountains

Big girls too

Track and field day at the Duke of York square

School shoes left behind

Ice cream sales multiply

And new frozen yogurt shops open nearby.

Even Hermes has "ice cream"scarves in many colors. What flavor would you like?

Hats off to you!

Let me introduce you to my two daughters-in-law, or daughters-in-love, as I like to call them. If you'll indulge me in one more posting about their recent trip to London, I'll show you the pictures of the day we went hat-shopping at the Peter Jones department store near my house in London. Hats are so much more popular in England than in the States. Weddings, teas, garden parties, all provide the perfect opportunity for adornment. Scroll through these photos and pick out your favorite hat that each girl is modeling, and I'll share the results with you in a future posting. Allison is on the left, and all her hats will be designated with a letter. This is hat A. Cristen is on the right and all her hats will be given a number. This is hat number 1. You can pick two favorites--one for Allison, and one for Cristen. Here we go.....

Cristen wearing number 2

Cristen in number 3 and Allison in B

Number 4 for Cristen

This would be C

Cristen in number 5 and Allison in D

This is 6

And now 7

Hat E for Allison

Number 8

This is F

Cristen modeling number 9 (I'm surprised we weren't asked to leave by now--we were having so much fun!)

Cristen in 1o and Allison in G

Number 11

Finally Allison wearing choice H. So there you have the "hat parade." Which ones are your favorites?

Fashion Show at the V and A

While my daughters-in-law were visiting in London last week, we decided to spend a few hours at the Victoria and Albert Museum. It's the closest museum to our house, and one of my favorites. I could spend all day there looking at the furniture, jewelry, fashions and studying the evolution of design through the centuries. While we were there, we were given tickets to visit a fashion show for Giles Deacon.

Not being familiar with the Giles label, we sat in the Raphael gallery surrounded by Raphael cartoons anticipating what we might see when the show would start. The flyer on our chairs said that we were going to see a collection of his favorite pieces from the past 5 years and that Mr. Deacon had previously worked for Bottega Veneta, Louis Vuitton and Gucci. In 2006, he had received the Designer of the Year award and his clients include Drew Barrymore, Scarlett Johansson and Mischa Barton.

Let the show begin, and what a show it was! A mixture of "glamour and grit," as his resume phrased it. This first outfit had a little pillow bow at the bodice. Nice for giving hugs, I suppose.

Then these furry creatures came out in a threesome.

How about this leather skirt that looked like a cone, and boots that came up above the knee?

Notice the fur on the arms?

Not the best picture quality since the lighting was low, and they were flying down the runway with the 5 inch heels, but do you see the knee high hose in full display?

This was Cristen's favorite dress.

And Allison picked this one.

A big fat red sweater scarf topped this bright green dress.

Feathers were the extra feature of this outfit.

The finale brought the models all out again. Do you like the "Pac-man " statement in the foreground? That was Cristen's impression.

We were amazed, exhilarated, shocked, and fascinated all at the same time. We were glad the boys had not come along with us, because several of the dresses were absolutely see-through, and that was not the type of art we had come to see that day. If you're interested in picking up something from his line, I read online that it's available at Barney's New York and Nordstrom. Hmmm....isn't Nordstrom's having its semi annual sale right now?