What is one to say about June, the time of perfect young summer, the fulfilment of the promise of the earlier months, and with as yet no sign to remind one that its fresh young beauty will ever fade.
Gertrude Jekyll
To be honest, it has been hard to find ‘perfect’ days this past June. It started too cool and too dull, then in the space of a few days transformed itself to an extreme heatwave. Temperatures hit 35 Celsius and the high humidity made life in London pretty tough. Fortunately it ended with some pleasantly moderate summer days, but another heatwave is apparently already on the way. Such is our changing climate, unfortunately, and England wasn’t built for heat.
But the weather didn’t keep me at home, apart from on a couple of the very hottest days. I continued with my usual U3A activities and joined a new photography group, although we won’t have our first meeting until after the summer break, in September. My table tennis group challenged the other group in our U3A to a mini tournament. Unfortunately we lost (unsurprising perhaps as they’ve been playing for quite a bit longer) but we all had lots of fun and vowed to do it again. Time to get practising!
Other regular activities included my aquarobics class as well as a meeting of my main photography group in which we started to plan our September exhibition.
We had several meals out, including lunch with the small team running Plan Zheroes, thanking them for stepping up and taking over everything now Chris is no longer at the helm.
Some June highlights
Highlights this month included our short weekend break in Whitstable. It was lovely to be by the sea just as the heat started to build, but tough to return to a sweltering London. I’ll share more of Whitstable in future posts. However I couldn’t resist including a couple more sunsets here, one from each of the other two evenings we spent there, plus a few more other random shots to whet your appetite!
Another highlight was our tour behind the scenes at Charing Cross tube station, which I’ve described in a previous post.
We made our annual visit to the Astronomy Photographer of the Year exhibition at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich. In addition to being wowed by some of the images we had the opportunity to touch what the museum proclaimed, ‘the oldest object you will ever touch’. And with good reason; the chunk of the Gibeon meteorite on display is 4.5 billion (4,500,000,000) years old. A sign explained that the meteorite is believed to have hit the earth in prehistoric times. It was found in hundreds of fragments in Namibia. And we touched it – how cool is that?!
I went on a U3A outing to Reading, to see the excellent replica of the Bayeux Tapestry in the museum there (yes, the real thing is coming to London but is likely to be overcrowded and difficult to view properly). We had a really good guide who spent well over the allotted hour telling us the fascinating history of the replica and taking us through all the scenes.
At the cinema we saw Disclosure Day (which I thought was really good though I’ve seen mixed reviews). And I joined the Kew Gardens membership scheme, so we visited twice to see the current Henry Moore exhibition, with thirty of his sculptures installed throughout the grounds.
Finally, on one of the hottest days we had tickets for a VR experience showcasing life aboard the International Space Station, so we braved the Tube to Camden. The VR space was thankfully air-conditioned and we enjoyed ourselves, although it was less immersive than other VR events we’ve been to as it was a series of short 360 videos rather than a continuous experience.
Technical notes
I bought a new Panasonic Lumix compact camera this month, as my old one had a bad habit of switching to video without me asking for it. Because I insist on having a viewfinder and the newest compact Lumix model doesn’t have one (I hope Panasonic rethink that for the next one!), I bought a refurbished TZ90 and am very happy with it so far. I tried it out when I received it on some shots in the garden, and on a short walk around the Trafalgar Square area of London. I also took it to Whitstable as well as on the second visit to Kew. The remaining photos in the slideshow below were all taken on my phone.
As always most of my photos have been edited in Photoshop Elements, many also with Nik Color Efex and one with Nik Silver Efex.
And again as always, I’m linking my selection to Ju-Lyn’s and Brian’s Changing Seasons challenge, and to Natalie’s Monthly Wrap-up.
Please use the arrows to navigate the slideshow if you want to see all the images.
57 Comments
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Brenda's Thoughts
Your photos are gorgeous as always, Sarah! Visiting galleries and museums is a great way to avoid the heat, in addition to being a lot of fun. I hope the temperature has gone down a bit for the month of July. I had never heard of u3a and looked into it a little. A wonderful thing, especially with local chapters so groups get together in person for activities and not just online. 🙂 Wishing you well!
Sarah Wilkie
Thanks so much Brenda 😊 We had a short-lived dip in temperatures, then another heatwave started – not as hot or humid as the last one but still too much for London, and lasting longer (we’re still in the midst of it). Yes, U3A is an excellent organisation. I don’t get involved in the online stuff a lot (too busy!) but my local group has so much going on. Just yesterday I went on a lovely guided walk in Regents Park in London, which I hadn’t visited for years – photos of that will no doubt appear here soon!
wetanddustyroads
I can totally understand that 35°C must be very hot for London (along with the humidity) … hopefully your temperatures are more moderate now. Lovely slideshow – of course I love your sunset photos, but the flowers are just as beautiful!
Sarah Wilkie
Thank you Corna 🙂 More moderate yesterday and today, but back into the 30s this week!
equinoxio21
35C in London? Very hot indeed. Worse of course in the city.
Is it better now?
Sarah Wilkie
It got much more comfortable for a week (mid 20s) but has been climbing again over the last couple of days and is predicted to hit 34 by tomorrow, although thankfully it’s less humid and the nights aren’t as hot and sticky. But England wasn’t built for these temperatures 🙁
equinoxio21
Definitely not built for that. France has just barely realised that. (Which of course will take 20 years to do something about it… 🙄)
grandmisadventures
beautiful pictures all around, fields of wildflowers are so beautifully summertime
Sarah Wilkie
Many thanks Meg 😊 Those wildflowers are planted in our local park and the grass left long through the summer, to attract bees and butterflies – such a great idea!
Jim Earlam
Sounds like you had a varied and enjoyable month Sarah. I know the in-laws struggled with the heat of a few weeks back in London, I certainly wouldn’t have wanted to brave the tube! I’ve had a TZ200 for years and like you need a viewfinder. I did think my new IPhone might replace it when out hillwalking, but despite the hype surrounding phone cameras the Lumix is just better at taking certain pictures. We saw the Bayeux tapestry in its home town a few years ago and it was fascinating.
Sarah Wilkie
Hi Jim 🙂 There seem to be a lot of keen photographers wanting a viewfinder on a compact camera so I wonder if Panasonic will get the message and include one in the next iteration? I’d love to see the actual Bayeux Tapestry but I’m sure the BM will be mobbed and it will be very hard to see it clearly, as it’s a ‘limited run’ so to speak. Reading was a very good alternative and they closed the gallery to the public so it was just our group of 20 looking around.
Monkey's Tale
You packed a lot into June. We’re in Poland now so also experienced the heat wave. Thankfully almost all our apartment/hotels had air-conditioning. It’s the humidity plus the heat here that makes it tough. Maggie
Sarah Wilkie
Yes, I heard it was pretty bad there, and indeed all over Europe. We had very high humidity too. Thankfully the heatwave they tell us is on its way (and arriving later today apparently) is forecast to be less humid, which should help to make it more tolerable. Enjoy Poland!
Melissa
Glad you got your camera issue all sorted, your photos are always stunning. Seeing that chunk of meteorite gives one a bit of perspective, no? We’re all just stardust, trying to find our way home. That doll in the tree, though, she’s got one job and she’s taking it *very seriously 😉
Hope your July is off to a wonderful start!
Sarah Wilkie
Thanks so much Melissa 😊 Haha, yes, you’re right about that doll. She was part of some sort of trail aimed at children exploring the gardens, I think. Glad you enjoyed the slideshow!
Alison
Sounds like a very busy month for you even in the heat. I enjoyed your slide show. I can’t seem to take decent photos with a camera anymore.
It’s so easy to just whip out a phone.
Sarah Wilkie
Thank you very much Alison 😊 On the whole I find it easier to use a camera than a phone as I often can’t see properly on the screen – I prefer to have a viewfinder for composing most shots!
the eternal traveller
Yes, we find when we’re in UK the buildings are made for keeping the heat in and that makes conditions uncomfortable on hot days, even for us. Hopefully the rest of your summer will be more pleasant. Here we are enjoying a stunning mid winter day today with sunshine and a maximum of 20. Perfect!
Sarah Wilkie
Yes, exactly, our country was built for cold winters not hot summers! Unfortunately we’re apparently heading back into another heatwave from tomorrow, our third (already!) of this summer. Your winter sounds wonderful, much milder than ours 🙂 Enjoy!
the eternal traveller
Our winters are mostly very pleasant here in Queensland although we think some days are quite cold. It’s all relative, isn’t it.
Sarah Wilkie
Yes, very 😀 But when the climate shifts and you start to get weather that’s not normal for you, that’s when you really notice it.
Image Earth Travel
I love the deep, rich blue in your meteorite photo, Sarah.
Sarah Wilkie
Thank you Nilla, though credit should go to the museum for displaying it so well!
ThingsHelenLoves
Lovely captures of the bees in the flowers. The heat has been something, hasn’t it? I’ve been grateful for the slight dip in temps between waves of heat.
Sarah Wilkie
Many thanks Helen 😊 Yes, the last week has been much more pleasant – a shame it won’t last!
Klausbernd
Hi Sarah
Wow, you touched the Gibeon meteorite. We envy you.
Happy weekend
The Fab Four of Cley
🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂
Sarah Wilkie
Yes, that was quite something! Thank you, and have a great weekend 🙂
Egídio
Beautiful art and flowers! We are also experiencing some heat, but the worst is yet to come in July and August.
Sarah Wilkie
Thanks so much Egidio 😊 I’m sure your heat will be more extreme than hours – but I’m also sure you have a/c in your home and in all/most public buildings? Here it’s almost unknown in homes and not yet the norm elsewhere.
Egídio
Oh my! I couldn’t imagine life without A/C. Yes, it’s available everywhere. On our trip to Brazil, we struggled with cold because heating is not part of the Brazilian vocabulary. We were lucky to have hot showers, though.
Sarah Wilkie
Well our house was built in 1888 when such things weren’t dreamt of, but even in more modern houses it’s not been considered necessary. However that’s probably changing as these hotter summers become more common, so I’m sure some new homes will be built with it. It is possible to retro-fit it but not easy or cheap, so most of us have to make do with those fans that just move air around rather than properly cooling it!
Marie
You’ve been busy as always – and nice to have a new photography group to look forward to in Sept….
Sarah Wilkie
Many thanks Marie, and yes, I’m looking forward to seeing how that group works out 🙂
restlessjo
In spite of an unsatisfactory month you have a lovely collection of photos, Sarah. I have to be beside the sea for a couple of hours every day at this time of year. The temp seems stuck at 35C xx
Sarah Wilkie
I envy you being close enough to the sea to e able to do that! Thank you Jo 😊
margaret21
I love the clever use you put your second Henry Moore photo to! It looks a pretty satisfactory month to me, and proof that you don’t have to go far to find things worth photographing. I’m a Whitstable fan too, but haven’t been there for its sunsets. You show me I’ve missed out! Your Charing Cross tube station experience seems to have been an excellent one too.
Sarah Wilkie
Thank you very much Margaret 😊 I had fun with the Henry Moore sculptures trying to capture other visitors through the spaces but too often additional unwanted others wandered into my shots! Whitstable sunsets are famous because, amazingly for what counts as England’s south coast, it faces west and so the sun sets over the sea.
margaret21
Ah, I see. I hadn’t known that about Whitstable.
Sarah Wilkie
It seems all wrong but if you look at a map it becomes clearer 🙂
Natalie
I love all your flower photos, especially the close-up ones, Sarah. We’re having a heat wave this week over here but will be back to normal temperatures by Saturday. Thank you for linking up with #MonthlyWrapup.
Sarah Wilkie
Many thanks Natalie 😊 I’m glad you enjoyed the flowers. We’ve just had some lovely summer days but it’s hotting up again now!
Anabel @ The Glasgow Gallivanter
Another fine selection. We experienced some of the London heatwave when visiting our sisters and nieces 🥵.
Sarah Wilkie
Thank you Anabel 🙂 I expect you were glad to get back up further north?!
Anabel @ The Glasgow Gallivanter
It was a bit of a shock to get off the train and feel cold – and wet! One of these times I would love to meet up but the number of family visits and the uncertainty of when they were all happening left us little time to ourselves last week, and that was unpredictable. Some day!
Anne Sandler
Lovely images Sarah and a great start to my morning!
Sarah Wilkie
Many thanks Anne 😊 I’m glad to have brightened your morning!
Annie Berger
Lovely array of photos, Sarah.
Sarah Wilkie
Thank you Annie 🙂
bushboy
The opening sunset is a stunner Sarah. I guess touching the meteorite didn’t give you superpowers. The flowers are crackers especially the ones with bees as well as the sculptures in Kew. I also love that gull appearing nonchalant.
Thanks for joining in The Changing Seasons 😀
Sarah Wilkie
Many thanks Brian 😊 Haha, no, I didn’t notice any added powers after touching the meteorite! Glad you enjoyed the flowers, sunset and gull.
Smitha V
That sounds like a packed June, despite the heatwave. Hope it gets better soon. It’s great to hear you’re part of a photography group, Sarah. It must be fun to visit exhibitions with likeminded people.
Best of luck for the next table tennis competition.
Sarah Wilkie
Thank you Smitha 🙂 No, we have more heat on the way, and it’s only the start of July, so still two months of summer in which to have more of them! My photography group is about sharing our own photos with each other rather than visiting exhibitions together. But I doo that with my husband who is definitely like-minded on that subject (though not always on others 😆 )
Smitha V
Oh Lord! That sounds terrible. I was in India in April for a weak and the heat was unbearable. No better company than hubby :)…you’re fortunate he enjoys it. I go to art museums on my own. Hubby waits for me in the lobby.
Sue
Whitstable sounds good – great to be beside the sea on warm days and the other interesting thing was to see the Gibeon meteorite
Sarah Wilkie
It was lovely to be beside the sea in Whitstable – I wouldn’t mind being back there now, as the heat is building again in London!
Sue
I can totally understand that