Beautification

                              Where a tree once was 22nd Street

Spring brings with it a great urge to improve and prettify things. An excellent idea. Some people do indoor projects like putting in new carpets or recessed lighting  or things like that. Other than ordering some Le Crueset cooking stuff (for when I feel ambitiously domestic) my thoughts turn to outdoors. Since I don't have a garden I long to take over a little plot of something outside and adopt it in a sort of guerilla gardener sort of way......

....just as Luis Lujan has done on the corner of 25th Streetand 9th Avenue. Petunias rule! I look forward to following his project. Buster is pretty impressed too!

This morning I met Shin Shin from California who pastes huge photos

 of fruit from her garden onto other graffiti. She wants to make things a great deal prettier.....

                              22nd St. between 10th and 11th Avenues.

.... and somehow succeeds.

The new park at the  west end of 23rd Street now has a carousel 

with lovely decorated creatures to ride on. A great hit on a late spring Sunday. 

Things that Go

A rather usual sort of day..... subway downtown.

A walk in the new park at the end of 23rd Street

and a visit to the Museum of the American Indian in the former custom house at One Bowling Green which used to be a custom house. Here a mural makes the Hudson look much busier than it does today.

My main blog is now here 

Family Reunion, Wimbledon, England

Circa 1937

A cousin who was at the reunion with his mother.... who was not

2010

Most people, including me, are already up on the stage waiting for the group photo. The reunion is held in a church hall where they have lots of tables and a kitchen and toys and things for the children to do. 

My great grandfather had fourteen children -- or rather his wife did. (Gosh!) Two died very young in the First World War. There are tables with lots of photos of relatives  -- my father,  aged two, wearing a dress --they did in those days...... and Auntie Rose looking glam on her wedding day.

All generations tumbled together (we wore name tags).  I met several people I hadn't talked to in almost forty years.

And the newest generation played around and had lots of fun......

....dancing .....

...or just looking.......

Surrey Vegetation

The beech trees' delicate leaves...

above a narrow path. We go on a healthy walk in Guildford.

Clematis in a suburban garden.....

and very fancy bark at Wisley...  

...where camellia blossoms form a sort of exotic confetti.

American Mother's Day in London

 Most mothers would enjoy an astounding cake from Patisserie Valerie  on Old Compton Street.

I'm not sure that anyone needs marzipan animals, but they are certainly fun to look at.....

Upstairs an attentive waitress brings our tea.

(Most mothers need tea.)

Real tea, the kind you need a strainer for......

Flowers from Liberty would be a great treat too, of course.

My present was three new Persephone books to be gobbled up gleefully.

Wandering Round London

The weather very dreary for May, so an umbrella a useful item to tote about.

 Instead of a brolly, I carry my camera to observe: people walking to work

on Morocco Street near London Bridge......

 ....three business types round the back of St. Martin-in-the-Fields passing

 a woman who looks as if she is camped there for the day.....

....four people in rain jackets emerging out of the Underground at Paddington Station....

(The roof of the station still gives me a sort of sinking feeling

 that reminds me of going back to school from here several million years ago.)

.....Five workmen (one partially obscured) doing important things to the refurbishment

 of the splendid public baths in Kentish Town......  

Such absurdly ornate architecture!

Yesterday evening we followed a woman and her two little dogs as walked to supper. 

And, yes, I did gawp, tourist-like, at Tower Bridge before we ate.

And it was very splendid.

And it was still splendid after I had eaten yummy steak and kidney pie.

Lots and lots more pictures (of course).......

Trip

I'm off to London this evening. These photos are from a previous trip.

Obviously, lots and lots to do. Family to see and museums and restaurants and hotels 

and all the sights and buses and bookshops.............

The sepia tone is meant to indicate nostalgia.......but really London

 is  much better nowadays than when I was growing up when it was

 grimy and a bit grim before it got to be fun in the 'swinging 60's'