I loved our recent visit to the Tower of London where we enjoyed wandering through the Tower through a moat filled with wildflowers.
Superbloom celebrates the Platinum Jubilee year of Her Majesty the Queen. 20 million seeds were planted and the result is astonishingly beautiful and moving. Superbloom will be on till September 2022 – so hurry to book if you’ll be in London before then!
I always love going round the Tower. On this occasion we were able to enter the Chapel Royal, St Peter ad Vincula. This has such resonance for those who have read of the final hours of Anne Boleyn Lady Jane Grey and Catherine Howard who all lie beneath the altar pavement. I have never forgotten the accounts I’ve read of Anne Boleyn’s death, both in fiction and non-fiction: when it was clear her execution hadn’t been expected and no coffin had been made ready. So her ladies had to hastily bundle her decapitated body and her head into an arrow chest, and take it into St Peter ad Vincula and deposit it unceremoniously in the crypt beneath the altar pavement. Later, Lady Jane Grey and Catherine Howard both joined her, and they were both probably only about 16 years old. What poignant and horrific associations this church has, and yet of course, today, it is a place of serenity and peace.
We were lucky to be there to hear the organist rehearsing royal music for a wedding – before the Ravenmaster ushered us out so they could prepare for the wedding!
The ravens were well on display too, so pleased their time of isolation is past, and that they can once more strut around amongst the visitors to their hearts’ content.
scskillman.com 
Lovely photos and interesting and informative post. Thanks, Sheila
Superb photos of the Tower’s moat wildflower meadow and most importantly attract bees and insects,so essential for biodiversity in our environment.
That’s right, and it was very much part of Superbloom’s original vision. Such a perfect idea for this location, in the heart of London.