Open Day at the cemetery

People in places like Paris will understand that cemeteries can be tourist attractions. In London, there are a few famous ones - Highgate in particular, which contains the graves of many famous people, including Karl Marx.

As the churchyards filled up, Victorian London expanded to take its dead further and further out. There was even a Necropolis Railway to take the dead to their final resting place.

Nunhead Cemetery in south London is not so far out and not so famous, but it is a protected site, and there is a Friends of Nunhead Cemetery group which has an open day every year.

This is the chapel, which is roofless now.

Most of the site is a nature reserve, the graves overtaken with brambles, nettles and young trees and bushes. Several years ago - perhaps 9 or 10 now - when I started on my family tree, and rediscovered my cousin Percy, he told me our grandfather was buried in Nunhead Cemetery, and gave me some documents he had acquired that showed where granddad's grave was. It was a communal grave, and as such had no headstone, just a marker tablet. I found out where it was and located it, moved with others against a nearby tree. Later I took Percy to see it. We planned to move it to our grandmother's grave in a north London churchyard.

It never happened. But today I decided to go to the open day and have another look, and maybe find someone to help me lug the heavy lump of stone to my car.

Alas, I couldn't get anywhere near the cemetery in my car. The road was too narrow to allow to cars to pass for most of its length, and the number of visitors' cars parked nearby was huge. I parked in a nearby street and limped my arthritic way to the gate.

Sadly, the relevant part of the cemetery is now even more overgrown, and in a skirt and sleeveless top I couldn't have got near it even if I could have recognised it without serious injury.

Oh well, all is not lost - tomorrow is another day.

Sweetest Thing Ever

Before the death of little Tiny, I had promised a couple of friends to take them to the zoo. I could barely bring myself to enter the place, but a promise is a promise.

They had a good time, and it was interesting to learn from a well-informed anonymous source that the baby gorilla was put in with the adult male at the insistence of some high mucky-muck self-styled expert, against the will of the keepers. I have contacted ZSL and suggested that this person or persons should be put in with big Kesho and left to fend for themselves just as the poor little baby was. I won't hold my breath.

Meanwhile, one friend who had not been to the zoo since her childhood wanted to see the tropical bird house. We couldn't believe our eyes when we spotted these two baby crowned plovers with their parents.

They are very well-camouflaged. One is in front of the bird on the right, the other is between the adults:

Here are the two little soldiers marching in a line:

They decided to snuggle up under the parent's breast, and just after I took this photo, all that was visible (just) was two pairs of little legs:

Squee or what?

Boots On The Ground 4

Four More


Hand in the pocket, jacket splayed.



Manhandled by The Man



The eyebrow thing



Guilt and regret

A Peaceful Afternoon in the Garden

The day's work is done, the shopping in the fridge. The hens are having a dust bath,. Nothing to do but relax in the garden with the gentle twittering of the birds:








Er, make that the screeching of the baby starlings begging for a feed.

Bless. Their numbers were seriously depleted a few years ago. Glad to have them back. Even in the early morning...

Boots On The Ground 3

Three for free.



Hand to mouth


The Goren Dip


Support your local wall

Boots On The Ground 2

And yes, it's a twofer (two for the price of one in case any non-Brits aren't familiar with the abbreviation).

Bobby perched on the edge of the desk adjusting his trousers...



...and offering a tempting glimpse of the Python in its pants:


Shame about that shadow.

By the way, I've edited yesterday's picture for colour so pop back and have a look.

Boots On The Ground 1

A single iconic Bobby picture per day, this week.

Today, the smile.

Ruthless Rhyme

Mr. Jones

"There's been an accident!"they said,

"Your servant's cut in half; he's dead!"

"Indeed!" said Mr. Jones, "and please

Send me the half that's got my keys."

The Good, The Bad and The Dreadful

Alex's party went with a swing last night. He was surrounded by friends and family in a local hall, with bands and disco.

This morning, I got a surprise in the post (no, not Alex's signed photos from Liverpool Football Club, they arrived yesterday at his home Special Delivery). I was amazed to see this on one of the envelopes the postie delivered:



And inside it was this:

Which one of you lovely people made this happen? I am so delighted, I want to give you a big kiss!

Of course, the Royal Mail being as incompetent as it is, an envelope which had travelled across the Atlantic in pristine condition, got as far as my door before being folded to push it through. Luckily no serious harm was done, but I see another complaint coming on. Not that they've replied to the last three yet...

Today was the Kensington Dolls House Fair. After the Christmas one, I did a post about Mulvany and Rogers and their fantastic houses based on real life palaces. Here's a picture of their latest exhibit, which is a fantasy scene set in one of the Palace of Versailles luxurious outhouses:

The dreadful news is that the darling baby gorilla I've been visiting and cooing over for months has died after being introduced to the new male, who injured him during an introductory session. How could they have been so careless? They knew the risks, they should have been taken proper precautions. I'm not the only one who'll be devastated:

Time's short

I have to get ready for Alex's party, so just a quickie.

Don't poke your tongue out at me, Mr D'Onofrio. I might have to force it down my throat ;-)

Thanks to news.com for the picture.

The Consoler - Batch 4

Getting ready to spend the night with Eames.

Working, of course.

Happy Birthday Alex (no thanks to Royal Mail)

Today is my student's 18th birthday. He's had 10 unexpected years - most children with ALD die within months of developing symptoms, and Alex was not yet 8 when he was first noticed to have a problem.

Alex is a great fan of Liverpool Football Club, and as well as the gifts from their shop the hospital school and I have bought him, the club agreed to replace the signed pictures that went out-of-date soon after he received them at Christmas, when the manager resigned and their most valuable player was sold.

The pictures didn't arrive, and today I took the tracking number to the local sorting office - where they announced that the parcel had never been sent! I was given a (wrong) number, found the correct one, had three lengthy tries before finding an option that eventually connected me to an (alleged) human being, who reiterated that it cannot have been sent as it was not in their system. When I asked how the sender got the number in that case, she hung up on me!

Funnily enough I've sent in a complaint.

Of course, that won't make up for Alex's disappointment. Apparently he can make it to 18 under such dire circumstances, but Royal Mail can't even get a parcel to him.

Tomorrow there is a big party to celebrate the birthday he might never have reached, and I know all your good wishes will be with him now, and then.

The Consoler - third batch

His acting just gets better and better.

The Consoler - next batch

Still not happy with the piccies, so I'm going at it slowly. I'm just going to experiment with screen capture, trouble is, I can never remember where they get saved!

The Consoler - taster

After downloading, putting on to DVD, then starting to cap our latest treat, I find I've run out of time to finish the capping, watermark, then upload to Photobucket. I'm not very pleased with the caps either. They are not nearly as bright or clear as the episode as I watch it on Cyberlink PowerDVD. Don't know what's gone wrong. Any ideas, anyone?

Meanwhile, it seems we didn't miss much by way of reintroduction of our pair into the squad. Goren was of course magnificent thoughout, and Eames has clearly picked up some of his skills.

Gorgeous Gavin

Wendy tells me she has an electronic book short story set on a beach, with a hero called Gavin...hmm, wonder where that name came from!

I've just downloaded it, and think it will make suitable bedtime reading. You can download it just on to Adobe on your computer if you don't have a Kindle or other electronic reader.

Here's the link: http://www.portiadacosta.com/glint.html

At the bottom of the excerpt, there's a variety of links so you can get your preferred download method.

Don't forget to lay in extra tissues. No, not for your eyes.

Ruthless Rhyme

This one's my favourite.

Appreciation

Auntie, did you feel no pain

Falling from that willow tree?

Will you do it, please, again?

Cos my friend here didn't see.

Add to the pure selfishness of the rhyme - who knew they shortened "because" to "cos" over a hundred years ago?

Sleeping Beauties

I couldn't resist two of my lovelies as they basked in the sun.

First there was 15-year-old Beano, spark out on top of the chicken coop:

Then we have 17-year-old Jaspa, luxuriating in the warm conservatory (garden room), still looking like a sweet young thing:

Gotta love 'em.

Rispetto - Memorable Moments 5

Bobby holds up the wall.

Rispetto - Memorable Moments 4

Remember Undaunted Mettle? There's a classic half-turn by Bobby in the architect's office, just before he points with part of the model, that looks just like this: