Life in London – June 2010

My Sixt Blog for June comes out in the middle of a London heat wave! We get very excited in London when it gets really hot as it’s a rare occurrence especially as last year’s summer was so brief and disappointing.  In June we had the final elephant parade, the Trooping of the Colour, deer in the park, ballet in the square and some football match we can’t mention at all, ever!

The elephants have been a feature of London life for many weeks now and have graced this blog previously too. If you missed it, there have been over 250 life-sized baby Indian elephants each one individually decorated placed all round London to raise awareness of the plight of these wonderful creatures in India. The London ones are now all gathered together in one spot for viewing ahead of the fundraising auction at the weekend. So I headed down to their parade ground and the sight of them together was truly delightful and hundreds of Londoners were there with me with cameras and lists to catch them all. Here are just a few highlights: Sherlock Holmes (yes!), a full row with Battersea Power Station behind them, taxi, grassy and an international one. I miss seeing them on the pavements already……

Here are some photos of the elephants all together…

The Trooping of the Colour is a major annual royal event when the Queen and most of her family gather in Buckingham Palace and she inspects her troops to mark her official birthday – being Queen she has two birthdays and the real one is in April. This event has more marching bands than you can imagine and more men, and women too now, in uniform than you can count. If you get there around 9am you can bag a good spot and see it all happen really close up. After all the marching up and down the Mall to Horse Guards Parade  there is a fly past as the royals gather on the Buckingham Palace balcony and with a good zoom you can catch them all. 2 photos here show you how close you can get to the Queen and one for you to see how many of the royals you can name!

The Queen and Prince Philip

The Royals watch the fly past at Buckingham Palace

One cultural highlight to mention was the live screen of ballet from the Royal Opera house to a massive screen in Trafalgar Square. The first ballet blew us all away with its raw power and driving musical score. It was Chroma by Wayne McGregor, a mesmerising ballet with dancers in singlets and no ballet shoes performing extraordinarily fluid and extreme  movements and we had the benefit of TV close ups. These photos give you some idea of the dancing and how the screen looked within the square when showing the inside of the ROH – spooky shot eh? Shame the heat wave hadn’t started by then as it was a bit chilly but well worth the effort.

Chroma Ballet on the big screen in Trafalgar Square

Chroma Ballet on the big screen in Trafalgar Square

Last month I talked about Richmond but failed to mention one of its great delights – the amazing Richmond Park and its deer herds.  The park is just 30 minutes drive from the centre of London and you enter a very different world as you drive into and around this wonderful and huge park although I always feel I should be walking, running or cycling but certainly not driving! However with the car you can track down the deer more easily as they do roam some distances but are not at all afraid of humans or cars. Here are a couple of photos to show you just how lovely and accessible they are!
I’m off to the USA for a couple of weeks but will be sure to have enough London stuff to report back to you from the other 2 weeks!
Sue
www.itsyourlondon.co.uk

Related posts:

1. Life in London… a look back at 2010
2. Life in London – May 2010
3. Life in London – August 2010
4. Life in London – October 2010
5. Life in London – April 2010