No snowman making today!

Let me start with a few pictures from yesterday morning. It looks similar today, but there is a significant difference which, I'm sure, you'll be able to spot later, when I add today's pictures.

A friend e-mailed me on Friday suggesting that we could meet up to make a snowman today. That's not happening. No snow, just very cold and beautifully sunny. Please see below and spot the new breed: a tree cat! May be related to a vegetable lamb to be admired at The Museum of Gardening History next to Lambeth Palace...

'Our Man in The Middle East' has supplied me with a few pictures he took while driving through the centre of Riyadh last Thursday.

Winter cold strikes here as well as the desert!

December has started appropriately - there is still been some frost outside. The sun is coming through the grey layers and all begins to look better. Beware! Winter cold is arriving everywhere.Yesterday, 'Our Man in The Middle East' invested in a proper goose feather duvet and pillow yesterday and this morning reported that the purchase proved useful! No pictures to illustrate his recent report, but I can share some from his recent desert trip to the dry lake.

BTW, it didn't take long for the sky here, in London, to go grey again. There will be a few more pics of the exterior, taken at the platforms in Ravenscourt Park and Turnham Green; we sometimes knickname the latter one "Rotten Ham", the ham that turned green. Did you also notice how soon it happens these days? In the past, if you bought a some nice piece of cold meat, you could keep it in the fridge for much longer and it would a bit dryer, but still tasty and aromatic. Now, once you open the packet, you'd better eat it up quick or it will get slimy, shiny and greenishly-rainbowy in colour... ( I hope you are OK with my use of the language, I know I have full support from one of the EFL methodology gurus. At one of the IATEFL Conferences he was encouraging us, non-native EFL teachers to be creative with words and not to dare form adjectives almost whenever we fancy. I wish I remembered if it was Jeremy Harmer or Adrian Doff. I doubt it was someone else.)


Anyway, going back to my Saturday, I'm glad I used the opportunity to see a new exhibition on a famous English writer of Polish descent at The Polish Cultural Institute in Ravenscourt Park. I read his biography a few years ago, but, I must say, the compact and informative form of the exhibition had an impact on me. Credits to the person who prepared it. To me, it gives just enough facts and comments about his life and work set in the historical context  to make it approachable for an average visitor, whether Polish or English, or else. 

 As the Richmond train was coming first, I decided to hop on and then change at Turnham Green, instead of freezing on the same platform.

 Piccadilly Line trains from Heathrow normally do not stop between Acton Town and Hammersmith, so many people who travel farther, change there from the snail District Line to speed up the journey.

The District Line train emerges slowly in the distance:

Good night!

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! :-)