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Diary – 2016 November
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All my diary pages going back to 2009
DRAWING & PAINTING:
1 November
We went through the park on the way to the shops. Some residents are hiding food
in the leaves and some are finding food under the leaves, but one is nuts and
the other is worms, so they are not in competition!
We can't resist doorways, even though we know exactly what is through them!
2 November
We took a walk along the riverside. This is the man-made channel. The
ducks are on the more natural part which joins the channel further down.
It was all very quiet with no-one about. The long shadows made it more
interesting.
5 November
We went to the vintage motor show in Regents Street. This is a racing
car simulator and the cab was lunging about all over the place. This is
an electric car to encourage people to take an interest.
This is a railway charabanc, fine for summer, but chilly in winter, plus
if you are zooming along there is even more cold wind in your face. In
fact, all the cars are draughty, they come from before a time when the
cab was enclosed and with windows.
This is an old rusty vintage car frame, looking too far gone to restore.
All the other cars though were in perfect order with smooth paint and
shiny brass-work.
Every car was polished to perfection, and you can't miss those enormous
headlights and side lamps.
Most of the cars had baskets for luggage and food. I like this
basket-weave umbrella holder, although I can't see how you can have an
umbrella up whilst on the move. You would probably hold it more
in front of you to keep the rain off. This old coach looks a bit more
comfortable to travel in, especially with the roof windows, but
it might be a rather bumpy suspension compared to what we have now.
This is a vintage truck from a removals firm. The band was playing music
that suited the era of the motor cars.
Ted is ready for the journey, well wrapped up against the windy journey.
These police motorbikes were very popular with the children who were
allowed to sit on them.
I like electric buses, as they run almost silently and very smoothly. I
am glad that there are going to be more of them around. On the way home
we stopped off at Tottenham Court Road Tube Station to see the newly
refurbished vintage mosaics, which we had seen on a television programme
a few weeks ago.
It is all very colourful and makes the commute more pleasant for
everyone.
In the evening we went to the fireworks display on Blackheath Common in
south east London. This is the church and village area where there was
some light to see by.
It was very dark walking across the heath and we headed for the bright
funfair.
No lack of light here and plenty of noise and music.
The crowd joined in the countdown to the start and then there was about 12
minutes of wonderful fireworks.
Not seagulls flying away, just a slight shake during the slow exposure in the
dark!
Patterns and colours warming up the sky
We really enjoyed it all and I am glad we have it all on camera as well to see
again. We put some money in the collection buckets to pay for next year's show.
Here is our Youtube of it
https://youtu.be/4jQDDyMKoqs
7 November
We went to the Museum of London today. Outside is this mural commemorating the
Great Fire of London in 1666.
There are lots of prehistoric exhibits. I was interested in this case of tools
such as stone knits and hammers and loom weights. The wooden handles are all
modern replica parts. This little knife and a replica woven sheath look very
useful to carry around in a prehistoric world when you are gathering food from
the countryside.
These are costumes for a Pearly King and a Pearly Princess, which is a
costermonger tradition in the East End of London, to raise money for charity.
I think these gold shoes have been to some interesting parties! This room is
covered in maps, which is one way to stop a map being just flat, as you can walk
right inside it.
This is a photo of a poor child working as a crossing sweeper, they cleared the
ground of mud and horse mess so that the wealthy pedestrians could cross over
and were paid for it. The second picture is a tactile version of the painting,
so that a blind person can enjoy the picture as well.
I like this painting of the River Thames looking towards St Paul's Cathedral,
the gulls look just like this when there is something happening on the river.
The second painting is wonderfully light and clean looking, the lady has
obviously done her laundry on a lovely spring day, put it out on the line and is
now finishing of the washing up, before putting her feet up and admiring her
beautiful modern kitchen and house. The blue spots are the museum lights, not
bits of the paintings.
Outside the museum but within its walls is this small round garden, for special
visitors only. Further down the road we saw this old police call box for the use
of the public, not now working and only left there for tourists' interest. It
was from before people had phones of their own, either in the home or mobiles
like we have.
On our way home we went to Piccadilly Circus Station to see the new artwork to
commemorate Frank Pick, who designed every aspect of the underground network in
the early part of the 20th century, including the roundel that the station names
are written on. I am sure he would like it, all smart and clean with a beautiful
marble wall behind.
Round the other side, a gift shop company has this wonderful display of giant
knitting, something to do with filling up Christmas stockings.
Our tube train came quite soon and we had the whole last section to ourselves,
quite unusual but obviously before the rush hour started.
11 November
Today we went to Bexley Village. This is the River Cray coming under the
old mill, that went from being a mill to being a pub and it looks now
like flats. The Mill Row sign is still there and obviously the Miller's
Arms pub continues to keep the milling history alive. The pub sign shows
a windmill but we don't have them here and I think it is more likely the
water mill ground the flour.
The River Cray continues under the road and away between the houses.
Watery signs everywhere, Weir Road and Bourne Road.
We made our way to Hall Place nearby. the bright sunny day meant that there were
lots of very beautiful autumn leaves to get photos of.
Everywhere we looked were more photos waiting to be taken.
Here is a repeat picture of the new daffodil bed that I saw last month and how
it looks now, all planted and holes filled in. I could just see tufts of grass
underneath the netting but it might be the original grass or it might be seeded,
or both.
The River Cray runs through the park and this is the overflow
channel which has filled up with some shallow water. The Canada geese
were drinking it, paddling through it and nibbling the grassy banks.
We wandered around the trees. These fir trees reminded us of Christmas,
mine was a bright green and Brown Teddy's one was more bluey.
There must be lots of worms under the leaves as there was a lot of
pecking and poking about going on.
I like this new picnic table, someone has taken their inspiration from a
spider web. Here is the River Cray about to leave the park and continue
its journey to join the River Darent.
At this time of year there always seems to be a branch stuck on the weir.
Sometimes it is a big tree trunk, but they always get removed eventually by the
gardeners. We left Hall Place and walked up the parkland on Gravel Hill,
immediately opposite. This is looking down from the top of the hill along the
beech avenue. I think all this will be bare branches next time I go there.
12 November
Today we went up to London. The fog is coming down again. This is the South Bank with all the Christmas
stalls.
This building off in the distance has a Remembrance Poppy projected onto
the side of it. We are standing just by
Blackfriars Bridge on the River Thames waiting for the Lord Mayor's Fireworks display to
begin. The fireworks are all contained on a barge on the river.
We arrived early and waited by the railings for quite a time, to
make sure we had a good view. The display was about ten minutes long and all the
bangs and booms echoed off the tall buildings and the river, which made
quite a strange atmosphere. You can see our Youtube video of it
https://youtu.be/1YcNJ0uLKt8
This is Blackfriars Bridge. The illuminations keep changing colour. I am
glad we were well wrapped against the cold!
14 November
We went to the garden centre to look at the Christmas decorations. I
really like these black cards with firework displays in LED lights, but
it looks like you have to buy at least three to get all the
colours! These dragonfly decorations are very sparkly and beautiful. In
summer we get big dragonflies around the pond and we have to check the
netting to make sure they can get out.
I like this Selfie with an Elfie frame, and they have various props you
can use as well. I thought these were owls but with their red fronts
they must be robins. The eyes would really upset my garden robins and
other birds, so they are definitely an indoor decoration.
The garden centre always has some reindeer at Christmas, and I think
they rotate them, so there are different ones at different times, which
is better for the reindeer. Here are some straw ones to buy and take home.
16 November
I was trying out the camera on my new phone. The blackbirds will just
love these hedgerows around the that line the paths around the motorway underpasses, where they have lots to eat
and not many people around to disturb them.
21 November
We went to Hamleys Toy Store in Regents Street in Central London. The
whole of the ground floor is full of soft toys, too many to list!
Cuddly vultures waiting for dinner and a battery operated flying cow. We
had this flying cow very many years ago and now they have returned to
the toy shops.
As the lower ground floor is under ground, the shop has decided to make
their own Underground. Just like the one we arrived in!
We were amazed to see Her Majesty The Queen all made of Lego, and her
corgi dog. She is wearing a small tiara whilst her crown is in a
separate glass case.
More life-size Lego royalty, Catherine, William, Charles and Harry,
and a Lego phone box.
I was able to drive Thomas The Tank Engine on the screen and it goes
quite slowly. These little drones were being demonstrated around the
store. They are about the size of a big dragonfly and have a
high-pitched buzz sound.
I like this T Rex Projector and Room Guard, but even better are these
Heel Skates that light up with LED lights spinning round. The young man
was whizzing around the store on them. I think they would be a bit big
on Teddy sized feet though.
After Hamleys, we went on to Natural History Museum. These are the tiles
in Kensington Station of a pterosaur and we noticed the fire
extinguisher sign was also a dinosaur!
This huge animated dinosaur was swaying and roaring, but I am glad his
feet stayed in one place! These two little furry dinosaurs on a podium
were doing the same, and I am sure they were on the lookout for lunch.
They look quite real when their eyes blink!
The whole building is covered in animal designs, they look like sand
sculptures as that is the colour of the stone. These dinosaurs eggs are
hatching, soon they will be running around the museum and growing from
chicks into monsters!
This is the marine section with whale and dolphin models swimming
through the air.
I liked this teeshirt in the shop. This horned backpack would not go
down too well in a crowded train!
Next we went to the Sky Garden for another visit, this time at night.
This is the main hall and the open air viewing terrace.
This is looking east with the river to the left. The Shard is directly
in the middle looking south and immediately below it is London Bridge
railway station.
26 November
We went to the Christmas Festival at Petts Wood, lots of noisy rides and
crowds.
More rides and people walking about eating sweets and hamburgers.
We watched the firework display from the railway bridge.
28 November
Another visit to the Sky Garden. We have made one summer daytime visit
and one night-time visit. This was going to be a sunset visit. By the
time we had queued and gone through security and up the lift, the sun
had gone down, but it was still different enough from the others, with a
multicoloured sky. We got a range of photos, from fading daylight to full
night-time.
The palm fronds are lit up under the night sky. In the distance we could
see rows of lights rising up, which are the airplanes taking off from
Heathrow Airport to the west. In the foreground are two rides at Winter
Wonderland in Hyde Park, where we will be going next. It is a long way
off, as this is a zoomed in photo.
After that we caught a No.15 bus to go Hyde Park. We were very happy
when we saw it was one of the old Routemasters again, which is kept going for the
tourists, but we had to change to another bus at Charing Cross to finish
the journey.
Here is Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park. This is
one of the streets of stalls selling food, sweets and souvenirs.
This stall had lots of wonderful snow globes. The chocolate hearts
looked very tempting but we had brought our own chocolate biscuits with us, so
we were not starving!
This is the Bavarian village selling food and drink, with
lots of wooden seating areas. I like this hut with a pan containing a log fire. People sit
around and get the warmth from the flames, depending on which way the air is
wafting.
The shape of these illuminated arches reminds me of the
Crystal Palace. It is a lot brighter in real life than in the photograph.
The ferris wheel keeps changing colours with flashing patterns going
from the middle outwards. This stall was demonstrating smoke filled bubbles,
which showed up really well against the night sky. Lots of children were jumping
around trying to catch and burst them.
The rollercoaster was very noisy, as the train looped the
loop four times on the different coloured ones. There was a long queue for the
ride.
Lat of all we watched the skating which is round
the bandstand. It is the biggest skating rink in London, and is ideal being a
circle, as that is how skaters go anyway.
You can use the space on your 404 page to help find missing people by embedding info from notfound.org See Yellow Teddy's 404 page
Where to report a lost or found teddy or
toy in
the UK:
https://www.facebook.com/LostboxTeddyBears
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