January 13: Later

          Well, not much going on this evening. I had a History of London class this afternoon, and that seems like it will be a good course. We'll be going on several field trips, including to the Tower of London, so I'm very excited for that. After class a friend and I stopped at our favorite Waitrose grocery store for cheese and fruit...we felt so very European! I heated up my tacos for supper. Looks like I'll get at least 4 meals out of those, which is great. Since nothing else is really going on, I thought maybe I'd post some of the pictures I took this morning at the park. Besides the parrots, I saw lots of other birds, some early flowers (lots of hardy pink cyclamen), and some pretty stuatues and art works, and of course the Albert Memorial and Royal Albert Hall. The Albert Memorial has 4 statues at the base dedicated to each of the 4 known continents at that time, Europe, Asia, Africa and America. My favorite is, of course, America, with its formidible-looking buffalo, and Africa is interesting, with Cleopatra-esque headresses and sphinxes. Enjoy!

I'm finally HERE!!!

A statue just a block down the street...I'm not sure who it depicts, though, because the traffic has always been too bad for me to get close!

Royal Albert Hall

Albert Memorial (And that's real gold up there!)

More of the Albert Memorial...locals jokingly call this part of town "Albertopolis" for the many tributes to Queen Victoria's husband Albert.

"Europe"

"Asia"

"Africa"

"America"

I just thought the pigeon made a nice addition to her headdress

This is a statue called "Physical Energy" located in the middle of Kensington Gardens by a very famous artist from the 1800s

These swans were posing so nicely!

But then a third swan came in and chased the other away, so I just missed that absolutely perfect heart-shaped swan picture. I think they're being territorial this time of year.

There are LOTS of swans in the Round Pond...these aren't even half of them!

I just love this pigeon's expression! It's like he was saying "It's raining and I'm wet, so sod off!" (Being a British pigeon, I of course imagined him having a British accent and vocabulary)

I'm so HAPPY to be exploring Kensington Gardens!!!

Pretty cyclamen are blooming everywhere! I'm SO jealous!