27 May 2015 - The Natural History Museum and other explorings

It is always a bit tricky trying to plan each day to be fruitful and fit in a balanced amount of schooling, activity and exploring.  As we were awake quite early Tim, Annika and I walked back to Little Venice just because it is tranquil and lovely.  We saw the rush of people and traffic which seem to dominate our local area and then after a couple of kms, a right hand turn changed the whole atmosphere and there were the still dark waters of the canal and the pretty little canal barges moored along the banks.  Good for the soul!  

Canadian Geese by the Regent Canal

After lunch the big kids decided to go to our local park and workout on the gym equipment and then dedicate the afternoon to school work rather  than going to the Museum. Luke, on the other hand, loves museums, takes his time and asks a thousand questions and he was more than keen to go to check out the exhibits.

Mum and Dad Moorhen with chick - on a pile of rubbish in the canal!  He was diligently swimming around gathering more floating rubbish and she was arranging the nest.  Home sweet home!

I did school with Luke in the kitchen today which was less distracting for the big kids.  Luke had the incentive of a trip to the Natural History Museum to do his work today.

The Albert Memorial

Karl, Luke And I set out to walk to the museum, about 6 kms from here along the canals and through Hyde Park so it is a pleasant walk.  As we drew closer to the museum we saw the Albert Memorial and the Royal Albert Hall!  And then the Natural History Museum!!  It is free to go to this fabulous museum and the building itself is a beautiful example of 1880 Victorian design.

Terracotta tiles were used to address the sooty climate of London (it is still dirty!).  Many of the tiles feature reliefs of animals and plants and I spent quite some time actually admiring the building!  Luke spent most of his time admiring the dinosaur skeletons and exhibitions.  He walked past some saying that he knew it already!  His eyes were shining throughout as we saw ichthyosaurs, mosasaurs and countless other dinosaurs.  It was certainly a great display.

The grand exterior looks almost like a cathedral.

Luke dwarfed by the dinosaur at the entrance!

The Museum is a lovely building

Impressive stairway

Luke launched straight away into his scientific mode where he was sensible and interested and drank in the whole experience with vigour.

Ammonite

Petrified wood

A cabinet of tiny hummingbirds - probably my favourite exhibit today.

A megatherium! (Giant sloth)

Ichthyosaur upon ichthyosaur - amazing collection

Copper in a rock

Relief of bird on a pillar

And there's monkeys climbing up the wall...

And goats in odd corners...

And triceratops!

T Rex versus Triceratops!  They lived at the same time...

Mighty club tail....beware....how ever did they lift this lump of bone?

Charles Darwin

 As we live close-ish and the museum is free, we didn't see the whole museum.  Just before we headed out the door, at Luke's request, we went to see the Dodo at his request.  There were a few other animals that are extinct as well such as the Auk.

The now extinct Auk - no thanks to mankind

And the dodo

I kept thinking of the David Attenborough special filmed here

Fabulous afternoon

As promised, we took the tube back home.  We had walked far enough!    After dinner we headed out to the local park again for a play and throw of the frisbee.  Tim threw the frisbee, which as a wobbly one from the Pound Shop in the direction of some dogs, not once but twice.  "Frank", the boxer, thought it would be fun to jon our game and took off with the frisbee.  His owner had no control over him but we finally got the frisbee back and headed elsewhere in the park!