The River Ravensbourne

Just around the corner from me runs the Ravensbourne, just before the River Quaggy (love that name!) joins it. For a lot of their length the rivers are culverted (someone built over them and turned them into the equivalent of sewage pipes). Even the open part near me was between concrete banks because of a flood in 1968, when my own house was under several feet of water. (I didn't live there at the time, but I bought the house from the parents of an old school friend, so I knew the place even then.)

As part of their improvements (most of which are definitely anything but) the local council has decided to return the river to something like a natural waterway, with a park alongside. Yesterday it was so sunny I decided to take a few pictures.

This is the view either way from a footbridge halfway along the newly landscaped stretch.








You can just see the fish all lined up where the sunshine and shade meet. I've seen some that were up to 2 ft long.

This is a shot of the length of the opened up length of river from the road bridge towards the park and the main road. You can clearly see some of the picturesque litter people are already using to decorate the river and its banks.

At the far end the council (and especially the mayor) is determined to build flats, shops and shops to overshadow and eclipse the lovely new environment they've created, not to mention make the already crowded and congested area even more crowded and congested. No-one seems to have told them that they are OUR REPRESENTATIVES, not people who can impose their own half-cocked ideas on the local populace.

Sweet Suite Sorrow

I only captured about a third of this episode this sunny morning, but it's still a real hand and eyelash fest.

Keeping Things Private

I really like to keep individual disagreements out of the public domain. Someone started off a not-very-pleasant exchange on the Yahoo group, which I continued privately, but has dragged it back there and on to her blog. I apologise for this. I have removed her from the membership list. I will not inflict further details on you on this blog.

I want to join his Legion!

Mind you, I still find it odd that Goren, Carver and Deakins were all familiar with Marcus Aurelius's works. I studied Latin to A-Level and they got past me!