Of Queens and Chihuahuas

As much as I love our garden, we gotta get out and about in today's post. So it's time for another roundup of random photos from my phone.

First, a picture I took because of a debate with Dave. He said he saw an article about the millions of pounds it would take to change out all the post boxes in the UK when Queen Elizabeth dies, because her royal insignia ("ER") is on so many of them. I told him that was crazy, because many old mailboxes bear the insignias of past kings and queens -- like this one around the corner from our flat, bearing the initials of George VI, Elizabeth's father. In fact, we still use mailboxes marked VR for Queen Victoria! So I'm sure no one is changing mailboxes for Elizabeth. I think whatever he saw must have been some kind of spoof.

An intriguing little sticker I saw near Royal Free Hospital. I can't find any references to it online. Maybe someone is just celebrating their chihuahua. The latin phrase translates to "and there was light."

I'm not sure what happened here but it doesn't look good. I'm guessing the wine was involved.

Lost baby Croc!

We don't have any burdock in our garden this summer -- at least, I don't think any of it re-seeded. But Olga found an impressive example in the cemetery. This is probably a relative of the plants we grew, actually -- they came from seeds from a gigantic cemetery burdock.

Remember how I said every time I go to the cemetery I find something new? Well, on our most recent walk I spotted this sculpture. It seems to be inscribed with the initials SUS -- perhaps the sculptor? I don't see any other wording but it faces a headstone for Isabel Wallis, who died in 1923 at age 70. So I'm assuming this is a portrait of Isabel.

These bizarre alien growths are known as nail galls. They form when mites feed on the leaves of a tree -- in this case, a European lime (or linden) -- and secrete chemicals that cause the leaf to grow these spiky projections. They don't hurt the tree and apparently they're a harmless natural phenomenon.

My boss, who is from Minnesota, went home recently and brought a bag of Dot's Pretzels back to London. Apparently they're a thing in the upper Midwest, though I'd never heard of them. In fact I don't even like pretzels, so I wasn't all that enthusiastic -- until I tasted them. OMG, these things are addictive! (And no, Dot is not paying for my endorsement in any way, though if she wants to send me some bags of pretzels I would happily accept.)

Finally, a child's artwork in the window of a local real estate office celebrating the Queen's 70th jubilee. We get Thursday and Friday off this week to celebrate. I guess that's a corgi? I like the bejeweled effect and the felt flag and collar!