London Greens

I was sitting with Vicki drinking pink tea whilst discussing our various impressions of London and Paris.

 Vicki said,
"London is so much greener.
Paris has grandeur, but London is the greener of the two cities."
It gave me pause. Vickie lives half in Provence, half in London, so I'll take her word for it. London is incredibly green.
Hedges here are huge.

Both literally. And figuratively, hedges seem to be highly desirable. Mini-hedges for your window box if you don't own a manor house surrounded by huge hedges.This pub uses their hedge as a sign post:
"Those who give up
smoking aren't the heros.
The real heros are the rest of us,
who have to listen to them."
There's a ton of London greenery at the new Royal Academy Summer show like this is a tree-size painting.

Painter Olha Pryymak took me along to the private view as her guest.  This is the second year she's hung a painting in the show. More to come on the exhibit later.
I met photographer/author Sue Snell by chance, foraging at a framers. We got chatting. Sue invited me to a book signing at Rococo Chocolates on Motcomb Street. You don't pass that up under any circumstances. Sue's book on the Vanessa Bell/Duncan Grant Gardens at Charleston is green, green and more luscious green. Note hedges outside Rococo Chocolates.

Owner Chantal Coady started making deluxe chocolates around 1983. Here she's smiling behind a cocoa plant she grew from a pod. Chantal wanted to give me a pod to grow my own chocolate plant, but I'd rather eat her chocolate bars thanks very much. I do not have 'green fingers' as they are called in the UK.

 I brought a box of Rococo chocolates to Ian Sidaway's garden party today. He immediately hid them from the guests. I'll have to return to London to properly taste these chockies.

 After the signing, Sue let me tag along to the 'wild garden' in the Natural History Museum where she's showing her photographs.

Every single region of England is represented in this wild garden, weeds included. Sheep are brought in several times of the year to trim these grasses right in the center of London. Who knew?
Fun gorgeous apple-green shoes. Do not ask me to order them for you.  
BONJOUR LONDON GREENS!