The Royal Observatory in Greenwich Park
So I have this great house sit right in Blackheath which basically sits infront of Greenwich Park – the oldest of the Royal Parks.
Max - one of my charges - I love this picture
Ollie - the smarter half brother - not looking overly impressed
Blackheath is a quaint little village with a huge heath where locals love to fly kites. I am in charge of two cats – Ollie and Max. They have quite the characters. Oh yes, I also am in charge of two goldfish – but they don’t say too much. I have only a hop, skip and a jump to the train station which is all part of the London transport, and about a 15 minute walk to Greenwich Park.
The All Saint's Church (built in 1857) on the heath at Blackheath
My Aussie friend, Justyne, came over Tuesday night and cooked me dinner, which was very kind of her. On Wednesday we both headed to the Park to do what everyone must – stand on Longitude 0 degrees. By straddling this imaginary albeit marked line, you are straddling east and west. That is kind of like what I did in Berlin straddling the old wall – ergo east and west Berlin.
Justyne stands on the Prime Meridian
We also heard an interesting talk on the invention of a time keeper for ships which was finally accomplished in 1759. The individual responsible for that achievement, John Harrison, took much of his life designing this time keeper and went through 5 variations. Ultimately he did receive the sum of 20,000 pounds, which in today’s figures would be about 6 million pounds. But he started in 1714 I believe if I recall correctly. And he had to fight to finally receive the 20,000 pounds only 3 years before he died. These clocks however solved the problem of determining longitude on the sea. It was very interesting.
The H2 clock - the second in John Harrison's efforts to get the sea clock perfect
What I love about Greenwich park is it’s history. It was first established in 1433 and is now a world heritage site. Throughout the Park are ancient heritage trees – sweet Chestnut – which were planted in the 1600s. They are gnarly and thick and impressive.
Two of many heritage ancient trees
Mother Nature is so amazing
The Observatory built in the 1700s offers a planetarium and of course the Prime Meridian.
Looking up at the Royal Observatory
From there I headed to Greenwich Village, which was okay, but there was a lot of construction going on, especially around Cutty Sark, the famous now land locked sail boat. So after a brief walk around, I had to experience the foot tunnel that goes under the Thames and takes to you to the other side. That was pretty cool. After that, headed back to Greenwich, back through the Park, and back to Blackheath which had the kind of energy I felt like sitting in.
Under the Thames - the foot tunnel
It has been a great house sit so far and I could really live in a place like Blackheath.
Just around the corner from me - spring blossoms
Your house sit sounds just perfect – cats look like Ash.
Yes they do and my old cat Stanfield. I can’t remember the name of the breed that they are. Tony, their owner told me – it has blue in the name, that’s all I remember. Blackheath is beautiful. If I lived in London I would want to live in a place like this – just outside of it but close enough …
Once again, thanks for the fascinating history lesson. Greenwich Park sure does look beautiful and I can see myself walking through it, especially this time of year…..
Not sure, but Max and Ollie look like Russian Blues. I used to have a grey cat and I pretended that it was a Russian Blue, because it is such a gorgeous breed.
Yes – it is wonderful for a stroll especially in this amazing sunshine we have been having.
Afterthought: did you ever find out what breed Max and Ollie are? I’m curious now….
Blue something – can’t remember the rest