Birthdays and an outing!
Today all Lady, Tippi and Zero are 12 years old (cartoon from ani_mama). They are a constant delight, although I could do without the mice, birds and occasional leaves that get brought inside the house... They were rehomed as sibling kittens from an animal shelter (as all our cats have been) and I think we have given them a good home - and they certainly seem happy (although Lady is avoiding me at the moment for some slight I don't even remember).
Today I have been in London with some friends to see the Japanese gardens in Holland Park. More under the cut.
Holland Park used to be the grounds of the (now) ruined Cope Castle which was later known as Holland House in Kensington and Chelsea. It's a large green space and since the destruction the House during the Second World War has been a public garden since 1952.
The Kyoto Garden was designed and installed in 1991 near the centre of Holland Park as a 'little oasis of calm' for people to enjoy. It is a gift from the people of Kyoto to the people of London. It's very small, but it's very pretty and we decided that it would look amazing in the Spring because of the rhododendrons, and in Autumn because of the maple trees. In Summer it looks lovely, but it's mostly green, but it's is very pretty. The waterfall was lovely.
The water was a bit green as they were having issues with one of the filters, but there were some HUGE Koi in the water.
Another view.
There's another Japanese garden which is the Fukushima Memorial Garden - which opened in 2012 to commemorate the help and support offered to the Japanese people by Britain after the Tsunami.
Frustratingly we weren't allowed to go up to the stone circle which looked very peaceful.
There's even a video of the gardens which gives a better impression here
Click to viewWe had a very nice lunch in a nearby Greek restaurant and then we wandered home on the train. I've caught up with Mr Cee and Youngest Cee (their days have been uneventful, and they remembered to get the laundry in from the line outside so that's good!). Later Mr Cee and I have our Pilates class so that will be good.
In the meantime there's today's question: 1 - World Wide Web Day: Think about how much of what you do each day you do online. If the internet disappeared tomorrow, how would that impact your life? How would you have to start doing things differently (or go back to a pre-internet way of doing things)?
I lived without the Internet for a very large part of my life, and I could go back to being without it, but I wonder if society would be able to catch up with the demand for real paper maps? Would libraries have to buy more reference books (would more reference books have to be published?). Would the text service on the TV (remember Ceefax?) have to come back?? We'd have to read newspapers! LOL!
Short answer - I could cope, but I'd rather not.