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Diary – 2017 October
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All my diary pages going back to 2009
DRAWING & PAINTING:
2 October
Today we are by the river at Kew. Through this key-shaped hole in the
stone you can see another stone that fits in it and on top of that is
carved the
explanation - the name Kew means key shaped spur of land.
We are walking from Kew to Chiswick. A river island is called an ait
or eyot, there are quite a few of them that we have passed on our
previous river walks.
This is the railway bridge. The girders underneath are curved, making it
look like it is sagging!
Brown Teddy is glad he had an early night, with all these long paths to
walk along. We came to a open area with wide steps down to the river,
for the row boats to be launched from.
This is a very nice area to live in but there are planes coming in to
land at Heathrow all the time. At last we reached Chiswick Bridge.
Then we went on to Chiswick House and Gardens. In the playground are
these sphinxes you can ride on. We went on to the Italian garden.
We sat by the long glasshouse. This is the view we had while we ate our
sandwiches.
I really like this greenhouse, very long and bright with heating pipes
going along. It is full of ancient camellia plants. Brown Teddy usually thinks of grass in pots as weeds, but
these blue ones are very decorative against the other greens.
There are lots of statues around the garden, and several sphinxes. By
this sphinx we lost a crews from the sunglasses. This lion is saying, "O no, it's too
small to find in the grass" and he was right. It will be there in the
mud forever now. Don't worry, lion, our optician is good at mending
them.
With the bend in the river, we were still quite near Richmond so we took
a bus back to there and walked by the river.
Some of the pigeons were walking around in the riverside mud, and we
wondered what they were finding to eat. This snoozing pigeon is full of
crumbs from the visitors sandwiches, and lots of other pigeons were
lazing around like this, on the warm paving stones. We wondered how
close we could creep up to him, it was about 4 foot before he shifted
himself!
3 October
Woody is enjoying the early morning wet grass and warm sunshine. We went
shopping and the autumn leaves have decided to only stick to the black
stripes on this new crossing, they must be made of different stuff or
they are rougher.
4 October
We are still on the lookout for autumn colour. This is Well Hall
Pleasaunce in Eltham. Last time I seem to remember the shield was a dull
green, but now painted. The gardeners were tidying up the rose beds.
Brown Teddy found this brilliant red leaved bush. The crab apples were a
sunny yellow in the old orchard area, which is now a rose and fruit tree
area with seats.
From a distance these looked like daffodils, but no, something else I
don't know the name of. The sun dial says just gone 10 o'clock.
4 October
Today we have been clearing up the garden. There are still some apples
on the Spartan tree.
6 October
We went to Morden Hall Park which has the river Wandle flowing through
it, I think that must be why there is a fish on the wind vane.
This bike stand is a great idea, a heavy plant pot with large handles
that you can tie a bike to. This stream going through the rose garden is
my favourite part and there are two crossings like this, if you don't
mind wet toes.
In the steam we saw lots of shoals of tiddlers, and they went diving
after the tiny crumbs we threw in.
This is part of the river before it gets to the mill and weir. This grey
wagtail is right at home with so much river and muddy banks around.
8 October
I like to sweep all the leaves at the end of the garden onto the soil,
so the birds have somewhere to poke around in when the ground is frozen.
A kind friend gave us a load of pansies and I have put them in two big
pots with lots of crocus bulbs underneath.
The apples are thinning out now, and I have a tray of the ones we have
to eat next. There are Spartan apples, Conference pear, and the four big
ones are Bon Chretien pears. One of them has already gone yellowish and
getting soft.
9 October
We walked through the park and the geese decided to march towards us in
the hopes of some food. The lawns are looking smart with stripes and no
leaves.
12 October
Promising to be a fine day - we hope.
The sun came out as expected and I found three wood pigeons all trying
to share the bird bath, as well as two others walking about on the lawn
looking for crumbs. The blackbird has his own private shallower bath by
the fence. The water gets fluffy and dusty after all that.
14 October
We went to Purley for some shopping. We saw these lovely paintings by
local school children in the subway in the railway station, showing all
the main landmarks of the town.
On the way home we went to Caterham Station. This window seems to be a
load of lost property and lost toys.
15 October
Today we are walking from Chiswick to Hammersmith. Here we are leaving
Waterloo Station once again. There are lots of workmen about, as there
is a lot of engineering working going on, and these ones seem to be
having an early morning tea break and getting their orders for the day.
This is Chiswick Bridge. This piece of tree has grown completely around
the wire fencing.
Lots of people were out in their canoes, having a great time on a Sunday
morning.
The riverside path is quiet and green, with no traffic. Another tree
growing around the metal parts of the fence.
At intervals are little sets of steep steps, so anyone can get off the
river. Brown Teddy said they were interesting but not really safe for us
to go down.
This is a launchign area for the boats. I like the little boot wiping
arrangement with bits of broom heads. Barnes Bridge is in the distance.
This is Barnes Bridge, with several lines of railway track and a
walkway. The river here is quite wide.
Blue Parrot found more of the little steep steps. Brown Teddy noticed
the bracket fungus at the base of this tree, we thought it probably
meant the tree is not going to last much longer.
Wow, this ginormous humongous tree next to the riverside path has come
down, it is at least two metres across the base. What a noise it must
have made, and the torn wood looks quite fresh. It must have come down
during this spring or summer, as the branches were full of dead brown
leaves.
Finally we came to Hammersmith. This is Hammersmith Bridge which we will
go over to get to our station.
It is covered in ornament.
The bolts are the biggest I have ever seen. What must the spanner have
looked like!
There were pigeons in one of the towers, what a safe and cosy place for
them at night. On the station this lovely white one was strutting
around.
This is the entrance to Hammersmith Station, it shows the bridge as a
reflection in the water.
This is Charing Cross Station, from where we travel home. Blue Parrot
and all of us like our oat biscuits on the train home, to keep us going
until tea time. You definitely need to bring a bottle of water with dry
oat biscuits.
16 October
This is Waterloo Station, not cannons but the buffers at the end of the
track. We went to Kingston and the bus station. We had the bus to
ourselves until we came to the next stop in the high street where it was
very busy and crowded. It was an hour's bus ride to Box Hill just before
the town of Dorking.
Here we are at Box Hill again. This time we decided to take the steps up
the hill. Dino likes being up high, and he is looking to see if there
are any dinosaurs roaming the countryside and eating the trees.
The remains of storm Ophelia meant it was quite windy and the sky orange
coloured from the dust. Blue Parrot was very impatient to get over the
stile and see what was down that path.
We eventually got to the picnic area. Dino likes his soft cheese
sandwiches and he needs a bit more than us as he is quite big. As the
weather was windy, there was no-one at the viewing platform, so we all
got our photos taken in front of the panorama.
Brown Teddy is looking towards Leith Hill in the distance and Blue
Parrot is looking towards the town of Dorking nearby.
Back in the picnic area, this tree trunk is marked up with the events in
its history, it was planted in 1813. Dino says this tree might be even
older but this one will fade away and disappear. He is sure it was
probably eaten and then trodden on by a passing dinosaur which is why
there is not much left.
Blue Parrot just loves the wind and here he is trying his wings. But he
sensibly kept his feet clenched and stayed with us and not up in the
sky! We went back down the hill, it is very steep towards the bottom,
you have to look at your feet rather than the views.
The sky got darker with the storm clouds and dust, and on the bus home
we went under trees and it looked like night, although later we came out
into daylight again.
17 October
The weather is cooling now but the fish are still eating. When it is
really cold they will not each much at all, and nothing when it freezes,
as they can't digest when it is cold.
I nearly missed this lovely rose, as the garden is closing down for
winter. These are the last apples on the last tree, and we will eat them
all, even the very tiny ones.
The winter jasmine is out but I was hoping it would wait until January
to brighten up that month, and here is aubrietia and primrose, a little
early as well.
We went to Hall Place Gardens, and found some winter colour in the
bushes and this crab apple tree.
The cut flower garden still has some clumps and areas of flower. This is
helichrysum (everlasting flower), dahlia and zinnia.
21 October
A reasonable rainbow, and out the front it was a half circle over the
house tops.
22 October
Today we went to the October Plenty celebration in Borough Market
underneath the old arches near London Bridge Station. The "Corn Queene"
is made of wheat stalks, carrots and other vegetables. There was an
apple display and I spy some lovely brown Russets in there which are our
favourites.
Borough Market is all about speciality foods. This cheese stall has a
notice "No such thing as too much cheese". People were walking about
eating the food and snacks. We went up to the riverside, where the
procession started with a Morris dancing display.
Here is the procession arriving at the Market. At the front is the local
Mayor in red, and the green Berry Man. We watched some Cautionary Tales
on the little stage, with people dressed as animals.
This is a not very likeable Red Riding Hood, and the actor is wearing a
grotesque mask to show her mean character. Later on by the riverside we
saw these two chaps with typewriters, producing short poems on demand
from passersby.
This is a side view of the Millennium Bridge, which leads over to St
Paul's Cathedral. This face on one of the ornamental lamp posts look a
bit like the Berry Man, but I think he may be Old Father Thames.
23 October
An unusual visitor in the garden, a jay who was bathing in the bird
bath.
24 October
I like going to to the garden centre to see the aquarium fishes, I just
wish they had more weed to hide and play in though, but some of them do
have log and coral type things to swim through and behind.
25 October
We went up London and just as the train approached London Bridge I saw
this old air raid siren on top of one of the pillars. Later on, on the
bus, we went past the park railings full of paintings for sale.
Here we are at Hammersmith, continuing our Thames Walk. The river is
quite wide here and it was low tide. I prefer high tide as it makes the
river bigger.
This is a straw bale hanging from the bridge and there was another one
at the other side. It is a very old custom that a bale must be hung from
the bridge when there are repair works going on, to let rivers users
know. The riverside path is similar all the way along, trees on both
sides with open bits where there is a wider view of the river.
The path goes round the outside of the Wetlands Centre. These metal
swans let you know what birds live on the other side! We also saw metal
birds passing overhead on their way to land at Heathrow Airport.
Finally we arrived at Putney Bridge and had our sandwiches on a
riverside seat. I like the name of this shop, Putney Pies, I am sure
they do a good trade when the wind is blowing off the river and everyone
is getting cold and hungry.
30 October
Jacket potatoes tonight and it was my job to wrap them up. I let someone
else unwrap them, as it has to be done quickly. We like to have bits of
cheese on top which melt straight away.
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 https://whiteboomerang.com
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