This week’s CFFC is: LANDSCAPES or WATERSCAPES.
Self has lately been thinking of adding a water feature to her garden (though, she is worried about Lucia falling in, so maybe not until she learns to swim). Here are examples from various gardens she has visited in the past month:
Self just returned from a loooong trip overseas: Northern Ireland, London, and Oxford. It was her first overseas trip in three years.
In 2020, The Penn Club closed its doors forever, ending 100 years in its Bloomsbury location. Self mourned! This building was her home-away-from-home whenever she was in London. A haven. Just off Russell Square.
As soon as she got to London, in early May, she rushed to Bedford Place. She found that the building remained unchanged: the red door even seemed freshly painted. She walked right up to the door and peered through the glass: she saw the narrow lobby, the stairs leading to the upper floors.
She took a picture of the main entrance: who knows if it will still be there, the next time she’s in London:
Posting this for Clare’s Cosmos’ Share Your Desktop Challenge.
This week’s CMMC is: Pick a topic from Cee’s photo.
Possible topics frame within a photo, window, square, silhouette, restaurant, bushes, trees, table chair, green, red, brown, parked, vehicles, looking through, etc. What else can you come up with?
Have fun this week.
Topics self picked up on: trees, green, red
She took this picture at the end of May. She was on a walk with Old Map Man. We met at Trafalgar Square and walked to the foot of the Jubilee Bridge on the Victoria Embankment.
Self loves these embankments. Her love of London grew with her awareness of them: Southbank because of the Millenium Bridge, anchored at one end by the Tate Modern and at the other by a narrow funnel to St. Paul’s.
Recently, she’s become more aware of the Victoria Embankment: more staid than Southbank, but so historic! Samuel Pepys’s house is on the Victoria Embankment.
Self wondered aloud how old these embankments were. Old Map Man said, mid-19th century. Wow! All this time, she thought they were constructions of modern London.
Later, it began to POUR, so the walk had to end rather abruptly.
alive and trekking‘s Which Way Photo Challenge is another fun one; it’s been a couple of months since she last joined.
The picture below was taken end of May, in the Oxford University Botanical Garden
There is a permanent installation of San Francisco artist Ruth Asawa at the de Young Museum in Golden Gate Park. Just happened to be in Oxford when the Museum of Modern Art did a show on her, in May. Saw the exhibit with two American friends, Amy and Sam. In one word, stunning.
Posting for Travel With Intent’s Six Word Saturday Challenge.
This post is about exhibit banners (at the British Museum) and store window mannequins.
In her explorations of East London, self discovered Wall and Jones. It’s a clothing and jewelry shop on Hackney Road, across from Hackney City Farm, that sells the most lovely, unique items. Beautiful jewelry by Eve, clothes by Ali Wall.
Posting for Mama Cormier’s Thursday Trios.
It has been a very, very busy month, but here’s a picture of a racing crew during last week’s annual Oxford crew races (called “the Bumps” — self should explain, but no time right now). This crew is at rest, waiting for the start of the races. Very exciting — all the Oxford colleges, men and women, participate.
Posting for Cee’s Black and White Challenge. Theme for the week is PEACEFUL.
The Merton Borders were sown in November 2011. The purpose was to create a natural plant environment by sowing, directly into the ground, seeds of plants that would not require intensive management (i.e. no artificial irrigation, no fertilizer).
This is how the Merton Borders look today. Posting for Cee’s Flower of the Day:
Self is so happy she is able to participate in the PPAC Challenge this week! The theme is Honoring Fallen Heroes & Sheroes.
She is currently in Oxford, UK. The last trip she took before the pandemic was also to Oxford, to listen to a reading by Oxford’s first ever female professor of poetry, Alice Oswald, Nov. 2019. She was in the company of friends Jenny Lewis and Joan McGavin. It so happened she was here on Armistice Day, Nov. 11.
She attended a service at Christchurch. No tourists, but she told the guard she was NOT a tourist, she was here to attend the service. So he let her through.
The service was very moving. The names of all the men of Christchurch who died in World War I were read aloud. Later, she saw a wall on the side of the chapel, with all the names inscribed in stone, a single wreath leaning against the memorial.
How very, very restrained.
I took this picture yesterday evening. Poet Jenny Lewis is an old friend; we met in Hawthornden Writers Retreat back in 2012. Last night, Jenny and I had dinner in Chiang Mai on High Street, then walked around a very quiet section of Oxford, around old courtyards bursting with spring flowers. It was 8 p.m., the light was otherworldly. Jenny knew her way; we walked down one twisted lane after another, me following. I hung back to take a quick picture.
Posting for Journeys with Johnbo’s Cellpic Sunday.
Kanlaon 