A Full-time Life

RAINVILLE ROAD

THIS edited re-run (with re-done pictures) is linked to SIGNS SIGNS. We were lucky to spend Spring in London five years ago.  

While we were there, our son Geoff wrote that he had come across a reference to a Rainville Road in London.  The rest of this post is what I wrote in our original blog, while we were there.

 

 
 As he said, what are the odds?  Our last name's unusual enough that we were intrigued.  (Maybe if it was Smith or Jones, we wouldn't have immediately planned to go there.)   It turned out that Rainville Road is located in a very pretty part of West London in the borough of Hammersmith/Fulham.  We had another place we wanted to visit in the area of King's Cross, which was the nearest tube stop, so it made a great daytrip.

 

And, wow!  "Our" street runs parallel to, and just a building's width away from, The River Thames --  it's east, across the river, from the new Chelsea Stadium.  It's a mixed use street, starting with some stores, a couple of good restaurants and a pub, and a nicely located architectural office.  There's a block of flats -- Rainville Court -- that have views of the river on the back side.   We walked through a little alley pointing to Dorset Wharf to get to the River Side of the street.   

Sure wish we had more information on the  history of the road's name -- we haven't yet been able to find out anything more about it.  Maybe if we have time, we'll go back to the Borough and see what we can learn.

*****************************************************************************************************************************

Added note, 2012:  We never did have time look up any further information while we were there....  And when we got back from England we started this blog and did more traveling and .......... but someday maybe ...... 

*********************************** *******************************************************************

Here are comments from two of our sons on the original post:

Right after I suggested going there I started getting worried it was in a really bad part of London. So huge sigh of relief. If you go back, knick the sign for me.Posted by: Geoff | July 08, 2007 at 09:31 PM 

 

I bet Rainville Road comes from the time of William the Conqueror.It would make sense, we are from Normandy. As a matter of fact the largest Cemetery from D-Day, mainly Canadian and British Dead is called the Cemenar-de-Rainville.(Or however you spell it in French).Posted by: Pete | July 25, 2007 at 12:39 AM
 

 

 

 

SIGNS OF EATING

 SHARED WITH LESLEY'S SIGNS SIGNS MEME.  Sign up (click on the links or add your own).

 

Seasonal activities are over here at our Winter home in Florida.  I'm using some of the extra time to work on my never-ending photo sorting project. 

I found these memories in our London file and thought they'd work well for Signs Signs - the pictures are from 2007 -- too many years ago now!    

We shop at Farmer's Markets everywhere we go and London was no exception. 

The Borough Market was Paradise for food lovers -- and for sign lovers.  We bought fresh fish, fruit and vegetables. 

 And, occasionally, we tried some foods we'd never heard of:

(Black pudding wasn't bad actually.)

BOSQUE BIRDS (Flashback to New Mexico)

World Bird Wednesday  and Skywatch Friday...because I have no wonderful new sky pictures this week.

  

This post is shared WITH WORLD BIRD WEDNESDAY. and SKYWATCH FRIDAY.   Some of these pictures will be old stuff for those who have been following our Full-Time Life for a while.  But they were posted way before we ever heard about Springman's wonderful WBW meme.  Go visit it to watch birds all over the world.

 

I think it's worth a repeat, because we love remembering this special place. 

And because  -- for all you birders out there -- if you ever have the chance to go to New Mexico in the Fall, you really should try to visit beautiful Bosque Del Apache.  The flyover of the snow geese and sandhill cranes is simply amazing. 

 

 

 

 

LONDON SIGNS

 

THIS POST IS LINKED TO LESLEY'S THURSDAY MEME:  SIGNS SIGNS.  Go click on the links.  You'll laugh or learn something -- or maybe both. 

This sign is from our trip to London, but it pretty much tells you what kind of week we've had here at Upriver RV Resort in Florida.

     

It's been a busy week with a lot of activities, but none of them have been photo oppotunities. (Because I can't even walk and chew gum at the same time, I'd rather do the activity than photograph it!) 

Most London signs were much nicer than the sign above, which was in an alley near London Bridge.  We were far more likely to see one like this:

 

And here is the iconic London sign:

 

We still love looking at pictures from our 2007 trip and I'm glad I remembered these signs. 

KEEP SMILIN'

 
THIS POST IS LINKED TO MELLOW YELLOW MONDAY, a meme hosted every week by Drowsy Monkey.

 

I've been working a little bit to clean up our photo files.  And so from the archives here are a couple from Regent's Park in London.

 

I think this is the name of the rosebush.  In any case, it's easy advice to follow, whether busy with activities here in Florida or looking at pictures from past adventures. 

HAMPTON COURT AND KEW PALACE

For RUBY TUESDAY here are a couple more pictures from the archives.  We went to London to celebrate our Golden Wedding Anniversary, so that kind of fits into the Valentine's Day Theme that most people will probably share this week.  (Awww!) 

We planned to see as many historic palaces as we could while we were staying there, but it was a wonderful surprise to find so many beautiful gardens everywhere we went.  We loved them.

This is Hampton Court Palace and part of the formal gardens there. 

WHAT WE SAID ABOUT IT THEN  (Click here to read our blog post about Hampton Court.)

 
Below:  KEW PALACE, LONDON.  This is the smallest one of the Royal Palaces and was once the home of King George III.  It is on the Thames up from London.  Both palaces are part of trusts now and are open to the public. 

 

CLICK ON THE BLUE LINK IN THE FIRST LINE TO SEE MORE RUBY TUESDAY POSTS at Work of the Poet.  Or to add your own. 

ON DUTY

 
This gentleman is  a royal guard at Windsor Castle.  His bright uniform jacket stands out against the lovely old stone building.   We were lucky to get this picture without crowds of other tourists around.  We were somehow surprised at how young all of the royal guards were.

  

(Both of these pictures are from our 2008 trip.)

Here is a less-subtle red icon from London. We lived without a car for the three months we were in London, so we used these double-deckers often.  Our favorite seat was the top front one. 

 

CLICK HERE FOR RUBY TUESDAY.  Click on where it says "Mr Linky" and then on any of the links there to see more red pictures from all over.  Thanks to Mary at Work of the Poet for sponsoring this meme.  

CANAL BOATS, LONDON

Still sorting pictures for that digital frame and this group really fits the  WATERY WEDNESDAY theme.

These canal boats are from our three-month trip to London in 2007 (a trip we took to celebrate our Golden Anniversary Year).  We took a canal cruise on this boat, the Helix. 

The rest of the pictures are a few of the other canal boats we saw on that cruise or when we were walking in the parks around the canals.  We love to imagine what it would be like to live on one of these boats.

 

      

Just like in any neighborhood, some of the homes are better kept up than others:

  It is no surprise that so many of our pictures of London have the River Thames or ponds or canals in them.  We always seem to seek out watery places wherever we go.

Click the Blue Link on the top to see more Watery pictures from bloggers from all over the world.

Click this blue link to see what we wrote about Regent's Canal while we were there.