St Andrew's Day sky

I looked out of the window this morning and immediately thought of poor martyr, St Andrew. Then, on starting the computer, I knew for sure - it is St Andrew's Day, patron saint of Scotland. As the legend has it, he chose to be crucified on an X-shaped cross, finding himself too humble to die the way the one he followed did.That makes me think of pretty Queen Ann Boleyn, who gave birth to to the first of reigning Elisabeths, but fell out of her virile husband's favours and was sent on a one-way trip to see the Tower lions. She was granted a privilege: to be beheaded with a sword, not a brutal axe!

I could enjoy more of the sunny sky on the way to get my knee looked at and then to work, just a leap from South Ken Station!

 Actually, a fortune had to be invested in the examination, but to my luck, it could all be done straightaway, not in a vague future when the damage gets more severe. During the specialist test I went through, just as I was put flat on a special bed and the leg placed in a kind of, what to call it? troth ;-)))), and I was to be left there for over twenty minutes, out of the blue and uninvited, a big, fat black black fly emerged from somewhere in the room and leisurely hovered above me, 'immobilised' in the whole complicated futurist-style equipment. The man who was looking after me seemed a bit embarrassed, but on the insects next appearance admitted, that it had been the third one they had there and had no clue where they came from.
Two hours later I was back in the sunshine, enjoying a typical street scene.

 Warned by the doctor not to overdo walking I caught a bus to South Ken and took a picture of The Natural History Museum just as we were turning right.

 After the renovation, the former Grosvenor hotel is no longer red and has a different name, starting with "A". Maybe, not to be associated with the death of radiation poisoned spy a few years ago....

 When I left work it was dark and rather 'Christmassy", with the trees illuminated as usual, outside The Natural History Museum.

 By The V&A front wall somebody has left Big Ben on the pavement.

 This immense piece of green glass work in the entrance hall always makes me a bit uneasy. What if it falls?

 It was very crowded in the entrance area, people waiting, queuing for tickets or drinks, hanging around. I quickly ventured towards the Fashion Gallery and snapped the dress in the style I would draw as a little girl.

 You can see a few more items in the V&A fashion collection:

Quite surprisingly, I managed to meet and catch up with a few friends and, got a lift home from one, which was jolly nice!

Good night!

Clear blue sky and this crispiness of the winter air this morning. Out of curiosity, over the morning coffee, I checked out The British Museum websiteand my eyes fell upon this: http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/themes/money/communicating_through_coins.aspx. Then I clicked on 'Money' and discovered tonnes more about money: http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/themes/money.aspx  I'd love my brother see this exhibition with me. On the one hand, the British are often condemned for taking away these treasures and artifacts from where they belong, but on the other, often owing to that, they survived and are now accessible for vast numbers to see, admire, ponder and learn about the legacy of humankind. What do you think?

It's tea time and I'm back home, ready for a nice hot cuppa. Abu Jabal it will be, from the Saudi Arabia provisions. I do like it, I must say. Right, I've tea and now having strong coffee in my favourite blue Denby cup. It should re-energise me!

From this morning I shall remember a Portuguese man with his mother from Lisbon who bought three beautiful art books, one on oriental carpet patterns, the other on Portuguese art around the world and the third one on a Spanish visual artist whose name escaped me. I took a picture of one page from the artist's album.

Actually, the first nice encounter of the day was with a lady I know who is celebrating her 74th birthday today and is most comfortable about her age. She is energetic, fit and carefree, went on a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela earlier this year and I've never heard her winging.

There were many other nice people crossing paths with me and a friend I met for lunch told me her art dealer boss has a painting by Gustave Courbet exhibited in Paris right now. This led me to an interesting article: htttp://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/3620948/Courbets-gypsies-march-again.html

And, I must not fail to mention the friendly canine encounters:

Snow White got persuaded to sit for the portrait by his Serbian owners:

The lady hidden behind this newspaper 'boy' didn't mind my taking a picture and nor did he!
 Now we can see who takes away our jobs! ;-)))

London's current climate is illustrated by the two pictures of trees taken on the way home from Chelsea to Earl's Court:

Little Black Gallery

 Hollywood Road blossom

When the sun is going down....

 Road sign, incognito:

I've always been telling new guests to look for the school sign on the way to visit me and one day recently I noticed it wasn't there. What happened? Did they close down this little school round the corner? No, I looked closely another time and noticed that now it faces the houses' fronts, not the traffic.

I must save this link to get back to: http://eveonalimb.com/journey-on-a-limb/

Good night! :-)

Time is what you make of it!

Hello The World!
It's going to be a good day!Off to meet you, World!
:-)))))

However, the day didn't start smoothly for these roofers trying to park while working next door. They were targeted by a merciless traffic warden and had no choice but drive away.:-(  

When I got off the tube, I had to wait for the bus and then took a picture of this, usually unnoticed item:


Midnight here in forty minutes. All in all, it was a good day, as expected! Met a 'long time, no seen' colleague at work.
Later, asked  to see and snap some drawings of a justifiably frustrated proper English architect, John Mead, who has been looking for a job for two years with no luck; my friend in Poland may wish to talk to him.

Towards the evening, made a woman happy by finding really lovely children's books for her son.
This one is still for sale: 

After dinner had a great chat with a friend on Skype and then, late in the evening,  took back the spare key set, which made a lovely change in the evening routine! I've always liked the sight of this stained glass bay window just round the corner:

Good night!

More random encounters

Once I've seen a little book about a hundred excuses for those who cannot make it on time. I was sure I'd make it this morning, but you won't guess what happened! As always, I grabbed the rubbish bag waiting on the door handle, left the flat and shut the door behind me, went downstairs and then realised that the hold-all backpack stayed behind. Luckily, I managed to get hold of the landlady pretty soon and got the spare set from her place.

Today I met another woman who makes her own jewellery. It was fun to help Vanessa find a belt to match a cricket jumper she was lucky to find! She allowed me to take a picture of her earring and I gave have her the address of my little blog. Let me know, please, if you do venture here, Vanessa. :-)

We agreed with another lady that this piece of fabric must come from Mexico. She bought it and was going to frame it and hang it in her house.

I like this kind of old cityscapes; snapped it in a hurry and cannot quite tell which city it depicts:

A display unit that resembles a transatlantic ship to me:

I wonder who will want the dolls and where they will go:

I made a correct guess that the  young male customer was from the United States. Of what he knew, his great-grandparents were of distant Polish-Russian descent. He couldn't say much about it. That's what I remember about the American education. Specialisation begins quite early and most students, even if they make it through the high school and college - wouldn't be familiar with the seemingly elementary stuff outside their chosen subjects. Many years ago, in the mid-nineties, living in the States, I was really surprised to discover that my truly educated in the humanities friend would only distinguish between a coniferous and deciduous tree, but wouldn't know an oak, birch or pine.  Who needs that unless they are a gardener or a forester, though?

Having mentioned the States, somebody today talked about  Samuel P. Huntington and the invaluable Wikipedia has just opened its resources for me. What caught my eye was the criticism he received from some reputable mathematicians who accused him of misusing mathematics and engaging in pseudo-science. I thought my recent guests from Poland, mathematics teachers, might like to explore the topic, hence the link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_P._Huntington, and one more: http://thoughtcast.org/politics/samuel-huntington/  (BTW it looks an interesting website). My thoughts go back to our dinner in the spectacular settings of Sarastro in Covent Garden last Sunday.

 We talked about teaching and I remember saying something about the danger of putting off the student but making mathematics too theoretical rather than practical in many schools. My friends strongly disagreed and unanimously said that mathematics is the most practical of all the subjects! I cannot agree more; just some teachers seem to forget about or ignore that fact....

Anyway, once I got to thoughtcast.org, I came across a number of materials I'd like to read or listen to, but I shall leave them for later; just adding the link on James Joyce, as we talked about him on our Sunday hike around The West End and I referred to the annual walk in the footsteps of his most famous character: http://thoughtcast.org/literature/in-dublin-with-james-joyce-and-editor-maurice-earls/



Good night!

Walpole Park on a rainy day!

I've taken multitude of pictures in the picturesque Walpole Park in Ealing. It may be to do with a quotation from William Blake, the one to be seen on his tomb in St Paul's Crypt. These are the result of my today's walk home  in the hope that I'd find a monkey puzzle tree cone to snap for my dear friend who's keen on trees.

 No luck, like on every previous occasion in the recent two or three years. However, I got this nice picture of a nearby tree with a black bird on its branch.

 One of the two ponds in the park.

 Dramatic skyline looking towards Pitshanger House and Gallery fronted by these imposing trees

The hedge lines the area by the second pond:

Sir John Soane's former summer retreat through the trees by the pond. He was such a remarkable man.

 The pond nearer to the house, as seen from the little ornamental mock footbridge.

One of the immense cedar trees carefully looked after by the park management:

Let me add a few more of today's snapshots:

 Warncliffe Viaduct, Brunel's first major work for the railway

 The Brent River

 These shoes reminded me of some street mimes in Covent Garden yesterday:

 On the way home, I spotted two parakeets on on apple tree, having first heard them. They flew away too soon.