Thames Path

Today I hoped to knock off that second piece of Thanks path from Richmond to Windsor, with just a day bag, so I could train back to London and be ready to strike out from Windsor tomorrow. I made a vital miscalculation in the length of the section, expecting it to be maybe 30km but a quick check in OS maps confirmed it would likely be over 40km.
Stubborn as ever I thought I could maybe do it, and certainly 20km ticked by fairly easily, on this beautiful riverside walk. However my feet began to complain about the new shoes at around the 30km mark and when I sat down at the 35 km mark I knew I wouldn't go any further. OS maps suggested I had 6.7km left, googlemaps said 5.3 if I shortcut via the streets. Neither was going to happen. I took a bus.
Tomorrow I will start my walk-proper with multiple blisters on both feet, and sunburn. But hey, at least there's a good view.

Beautiful house-boats, river-boat, and boat houses are found all along the Thames

How to begin a 1500km Journey

How do you begin a 1500km journey? With a single step.
Or in my case, tube to London Bridge and then 20km to Richmond. Lacking the mood for another gallery or museum, yesterday I goaded myself into getting a part of my route ticked off. Though I didn't start til early afternoon I managed to get in 5 hours of walking, and cover ~20km of the Thames Path to Richmond, before having a light pub meal (and a pint of Guinness!) and then tubing back to Shoreditch.

Much of this section is along the edge of the Thames, past Bankside buskers, through busy commercial lots with people already knocking off for a pint (at 3:30!), or past residential properties. However it does also pass by some lovely parks, especially the section alongside the Wetlands, where the gravel path passes under trees and rowers sculled past on the water.

This foray highlighted an unfortunate problem. My boots press on my recently injured achilles, and retrospectively have been hurting it before, without me realising what a major issue I was ignoring. I had hardly got out the door when I turned back and reverted to my casual lace ups (with very hard soles). So today's main task was buying hiking shoes that don't come so high up the ankle. Hopefully these will go the distance.

Natural History Museum - animals and us

Early Jurassic ammonite

I thought I knew how big dinosaurs were - I've seen diagrams, photos like this, and animations. However none of that compares to standing beneath one yourself, and feeling that truly great presence.

Yes you are still allowed a favourite dinosaur as an adult - and mine is the parasaurolophus (despite the fact I've been pronouncing it wrong all my life) 

Dinosaurs suffered injury and disease just like any other animal. The bone on the left is an iguanodon hip bone and shows a fracture that healed with misalignment. I can only presume this is a non-loadbearing structure, as while I can fully expect a cat to heal from a fractured pelvis, an animal of this size is a different matter altogether. Not only that, but a wild animal must constantly be active in order to feed itself, and to avoid predators. This must have been a very lucky iguanodon.
The foot is from another (very large) iguanodon and the edges of the toe joints demonstrate osteoarthritic changes. What's impressive about this is how unusual it is for wild animals to survive into such old age, normally they die from predation or disease before such age related changes occur. That would be one hella large dose of metacam!

Archaeopteryx - need I say more

Case full of hummingbirds

Skull of a Barbary Lion - check out those nasal trabeculae

Chart of known hominin species. The timescale rather boggles the mind - 3 million years in the "human" branch alone. It's no wonder evolution has been a notoriously difficult concept to grasp, as we just can't fathom the lengths of time and minute changes involved.

Neanderthal skull showing classic ridged brow

Above are models of Homo neanderthalis and early Homo sapiens. These 2 species co-existed in the same regions for possibly 30,000 years, before the extinction of neanderthals 35,000 years ago. Recent DNA evidence supports inter-breeding between the 2 species, which may have helped Homo sapiens adapt more rapidly to the colder climate that the neanderthals had been living in for thousands of years already. Much of the shared DNA is "non-coding" but some appears to be involved in our immune system, and given how little we know about non-coding DNA I wouldn't discredit it's relevance to our development either.

Natural History Museum - building and stone

Opened in 1881, this building was designed as "cathedral to nature", completed in a gothic-inspired style it definitely gives that feeling of awe. Animals-gargoyles line the roof edges in extraordinary detail.

Filling your view on entry is the magnificent suspended skeleton of a blue whale, called "Hope". Up the stairs straight ahead is a statue of Charles Darwin in marble, much the same as memorial statues found in Westminster, and other notaries are found about the upper levels. With its soaring animal-carved columns, painted plant panelled ceiling, and stained glass windows, I could happily call this my place of worship.

Big man Charlie D. himself

Transection of stalactite, demonstrating layers of formation

Emerald in various states - while it does grow large crystals they frequently have imperfections, so getting clear cut stones from them is more difficult

I like opals

Nearly 300 cut diamonds of various natural colours, click for full image and zoom. Below are the same diamonds lit by UV light, demonstrating the change in colour flourescence

Gratuitous Flower Post

I have to admit - while I sometimes have misgivings about the image stability with my Samsung Galaxy A8, it has certainly been giving me beautiful flower close ups.