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Diary – 2020 January
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All my diary pages going back to 2009
DRAWING & PAINTING:
3 January
A shopping day on the trains. Tiny Ted was very pleased with himself at surviving the long dark tunnel on the way to London bridge. He has changed his coat from Christmas Red to January Winter Blue.
9 January
Very heavy rain and the fish are loving it, they come up to see what has washed in, in the way of snacks.
Today we opened the big tin of sweets, just the thing for a rainy day. The cellophane wrappers are fun as well.
We have been making some cosy Ted Beds for some of our other Teddies, and it looks good with a lacy edge, to look like the top of a lacy sheet. The smaller version of this is on the page Knitting Tiny Ted. I am keeping some of the lights up to brighten the winter afternoons.
11 January
We went to Crystal Palace Park in south west London. There were lots of big muddy puddles. This is the transmitter and the last surviving piece of metalwork from the Crystal Palace building that was destroyed by fire in 1936.
We brought some bread for the crows. After throwing a bit for the one crow there, soon there were loads of them. It needs one person to throw a handful of bits and someone else to take the video. They were jostling and cawing, and beady black eyes watching our every move. They came quite close, so they are much more used to people than in some other parks.
These huge steps would have had thousands of people going up and down, but it is all deserted now. This is Joseph Paxton who designed the Crystal Palace. He was head gardener at Chatsworth where he designed and built the Great Conservatory.
We went over the bridge, which has dinosaurs and dates carved into the wood. This is "Pterodactyle" at 90 million years ago. Just then a modern dinosaur strode up to us, this very bold pigeon, craning his neck upwards in expectation of some crumbs, which we gave him.
This collared dove and wood pigeon are not scared of the dinosaurs in the lake, they are just convenient perches.
More of the dinosaurs have been renovated and repaired, and this part of the lake is now clear of the choking plants that we saw last time.
The sun came out and we walked around the big lake. At the far side, someone was throwing lots of bread to this crowd of pigeons. They have an easy life here, at least when there are people walking round.
Another person was feeding the water birds. The seagulls were fighting noisily over every bit of bread they could get.
By the cafe is this old water fountain, with the bottom bit for dogs drink. The cafe walls have been painted with magnificent dinosaurs. I think the dinos are queuing to get some fast food in the cafe. Being residents, they obviously get a discount and large portions, which is why they are smiling!
The left hand side of the cafe wall has some sphinxes, looking just like the real ones further up the hill, which were recently painted red. I like the Egyptian reed column, and the similar trees with squirrels, staying high up in the branches away from the friendly dog.
We went to Penge West Station, where they still have summer flowers. The tubs are sheltered here and we have not had any really freezing weather yet. Whilst waiting for our train to London Bridge, we watched lots of others going past, and the fast trains thundering past on the middle tracks.
12 January
It has been quite frosty at night and early morning, and the fish are all staying down the bottom of the pond. If the sun comes out, some of them might come up. They like to gather under the foam leaves that we put in every winter.
The birds have eaten most of the cotoneaster berries. The winter jasmine is doing well in spite of the frosts.
15 January
We went up London for the day and looked around the Tower Bridge area. These cormorants are drying out after a time of fishing.
Tower Bridge has a lot of rivets holding it together! We sat on the other side of the river to have our sandwiches, and the sun was reflecting a brilliant gleam off the top of the Shard.
We had a walk round St Katharine's Dock. This plaque describes all the activities that went on here in the past.
Back on Tower Bridge this pigeon and bold seagull were just standing still as the crowds went by, hoping to be noticed. Someone gave them something. We stopped in the middle of the drawbridge, with a foot either side of the gap. You can see the water through the gap.
I like the mossy tops of old stone walls by the river, it looks like a stand of trees seen from an airplane. We went back to London Bridge station and on the side of Tooley Street is this brass 3D map of the area, showing all the big buildings and the river.
18 January
Today we went to Woolwich where we saw these two very old cattle drinking troughs. Old troughs are always planted up with flowers nowadays.
We took a trip on the Woolwich Ferry, and here we are waiting for it to come over from the north side. It is called the Dame Vera Lynn, and right behind it is the other one, called the Ben Woollacott.
This is a view of the walkway lowering itself onto the ferry. The horn goes off, the gates rise and the cars and passengers can then go off. As we left the ferry area, we saw this flood gate, ready to slide out when needed.
Further along the riverside are several enormous old anchors.
A boat would be going nowhere then this anchor was down! Tiny Ted could hardly believe his eyes at the size of them.
Brown Teddy was interested in this old crane on a trolley on rails. It was for unloading smaller cargoes from the river. Along the next road I was delighted to see a very long row of cotoneaster bushes, absolutely full of berries to see the birds through the winter.
We took a bus to the Pontoon Dock station and went into the Thames Barrier Park. This part is called the Green Dock, and was designed to be a reminder of the docks of the area. It is full of big yew hedges cut into wave shapes, plus other ornamental plants between. We ate our sandwiches whilst watching the boats going through the Barrier and the birds on the shore.
Right next to the barrier near the shore, these cormorants were having a rest to dry out. These seagulls had to move rather suddenly, as the waves came in from a passing fast boat.
We waited until the sun was about to set and then went on the train to Canary Wharf. This is the Crossrail building that has a roof garden.
People were drawing on this wall with a light stick, and then having their photos taken. All the trees and plants in the roof garden were lit from below and there were lots of speakers with soundtracks of jungle and bird sounds.
In the main Canary Wharf area, we went round looking at the Winter Lights displays. This is the Neon Tree. Everyone touches the displays as that makes some of them change their colours.
We went to the Pools of Light area. The garden's long series of pools and cascades has been transformed into a light show with submerged lights and a covering of white plastic balls. People were having a really great time throwing the balls around the water surface. This is the Mountain of Light, which was changing colour all the time.
Back down to Canary Wharf station and home. The station is directly underneath the pools and garden part.
20 January
Back again to Canary Wharf to see all the lights that we might have missed last time. I just love going up the huge escalator to exit the station.
This statue is called Absorbed By Light, people just looking at their phones and being illuminated by the glow. The big fountain was dancing about in different colours, matching the music.
The stepped cascade around the fountain area was lit up with changing colours.
Next we went to the end of the Crossrail building. This is a 15 minute display of shapes and sound, projected through a big fan-shaped water spray coming up from below. It is called Constellations.
Nearby we watched this display along the side of one of the watercourses. It is a projection of animal shapes, looking like prehistoric plankton swimming about, with quite eerie prehistoric echoing sound effects. I could have watched it for hours and hours. I wish I had this as a screen saver on my computer.
We could hardly bear to leave the little swimming creatures!
These twinkling red bulbs looked like a pair of big red lips when seen at ground level. This one had the lights and points of light travelling up and down in patterns.
These tree shapes were like going back to Christmas. The Squiggle rope lights had light travelling along them, changing colours and patterns at intervals.
This is a foam machine, starting to make a huge pile of foam. When darkness fell and the foam pile was bigger, there were flashing lights and a soundtrack of loud thunder cracks and rumbles. It was very lifelike and there is a walkway through the middle so you can be above it.
This big ring of pulsating light and colours was made of thousands of plastic milk bottles, hence the name Lactolight. I am glad we got lots of photos and video, as it will be a long wait until next year's Winter Lights show.
27 January
The staff at Cannon Street Station have made this lovely garden-type corner near where the tracks end, although it is behind glass. The plastic trees are covered in lights (not blossom!), the grass is artificial, but the pots of daffodils are real. Just the place for a Teddy Bears' Picnic!
We went shopping in Romford. I am not sure if these are alien spacecraft or things to shelter under, although if it rained people would probably go into the shops. Clearly some people here are not aware that going down onto the track at railway stations is absolutely forbidden!
28 January
Whilst waiting for our train at London Bridge, went walked up to see the river, the weather was both stormy looking and sunny. The boat is a Thames clipper, which is a very fast river taxi.
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