Buckingham Palace, St James Park, and Tafalgar Square

This forecast for today was for no rain and higher temperatures.  I put on my raincoat instead of my 5-10 winter coat and we started off.  We passed all of the usual scenes on our way to Buckingham Palace.  As we got close we came to a group of the Household Guard out practicing wheels and turns. As we were approaching Earl saw one of the soldiers fall off a horse.  Something neither of us has ever seen before and I assume that it happens rarely.  Earl said that he thought that the horse had actually reared up causing the rider to fall.  I noticed them when there was a riderless horse, a man standing on the ground and one of their supervisors holding a sword. 

No idea how much the "armor" that they wear is but I imagine it is awkward at least. After a moment the unseated rider was given a "leg up" to help him get back into the saddles. 

Of course, the photographer could not take pictures without getting me into at least a corner.  Hat hair and unruly curls included.

The band leaving the palace grounds.

Waiting for soldiers to pass.

Household guard seated on horses and wearing cold weather gear. 

Police making sure that the crowd is back off the road. 

The band approaching.  A group of musicians was playing some type of reed instrument while hanging off their shoulder was a trumpet. When I was a child, we called my father's winter gray uniform coat a "great coat." 

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If I remember correctly the Pochard ducks were imported from North Aftrica in the hope that they could repopulate the bird hunting areas of England where hunting had diminished the ducks.  However, it took awhile for the experiment to succeed since none of the imported ducks had ever faced a winter before. 

David Shrigley's giant thumb

 Canada High Commission  Historically Canada has been a part of the British Empire.  Although the ties are less clear, Canada still does not have an embassy in the UK.

a 711a England - Canada - Canada House

Canada House is a Greek Revival building on Trafalgar Square in London that is part of the High Commission of Canada in London. Canada House hosts the cultural and consular sections of the High Commission, while the political, trade and administrative functions are carried out from Macdonald House in Mayfair.

Gate to Chinatown