Bluebell Woods

Tucked away here and there throughout the country, and even in parts of Greater London, such as Wanstead Park in NE London, are "Bluebell Woods" like this one. The flowers only show for a few weeks each year if you're lucky... I'm sure most visitors to the park don't even know these plants are here: there is plenty of other stuff to see, such as lakes, ducks, grass, trees...

I took several photos: some of them can be seen here.

Bluebell

I took this the other day near the Welsh Harp reservoir in North London. It appears to be a garden escapee: the Spanish type of bluebell, or possibly a hybrid. Still, it looks nice enough! Some true blue Brits will be posted shortly...

The Day After...

The day after all that snow... it was Spring again.

Oak Tree

Well, I haven't posted for a few days as I've been feeling a bit lazy or tired - so I'll make an effort to catch up a bit this weekend. The picture above was taken on the same day as that of the previous posting - in fact it is the same tree that you can see in the upper right foreground of the previous photo. It seems like an archetypal oak tree - pedunculate oak I presume.

The weather the next day was sunny and Spring-like... although still a bit chilly.

Snow in Springtime

It seems almost impossible to avoid going on about the weather in this country! Anyway, this morning's snow was most photogenic, so I couldn't resist, really. My girlfriend, who is from Russia, says it is most strange to see this as she has never seen so little snow, and so clean! At least in dear old Blighty snow is something of a novelty I suppose.

Asia

Well, it is snowing today in London... but enough of that. On a sunnier day, I took the above photo. It is a picture of the Asia statue decorating the Albert Memorial opposite the Albert Hall, both of which you can see in the title photo of this blog. The memorial was opened in 1872 and the chief sculptor was Hugh Henry Armstead. The above statue is one of four, one at each corner, depicting Asia, The Americas, Africa and Europe. There are also another four representing manufacturing, commerce, agriculture and science, plus a frieze showing 169 artists of various types.

The Naughty Tree

Well, here it is: the Naughty Tree. What can I say? Shouldn't be allowed!

The Duck

The promised duck - a female mallard I suppose, standing beside the tiny pond in Hendon Park, North London.

If you're good, I will soon post a picture of the naughty tree...

Hendon Park

Well I did manage to get out and about a little bit on Easter Monday - to Hendon Park, in NW London - nearest tube Hendon Central on the Northern Line (Edgware Branch). The photo above is of the Holocaust Memorial Gardens, a quiet little corner of the park. If you look closely, near the centre, you may spot the subject of the next photo... a duck!

In London the weather is improving a bit now that the Easter holiday is over. Mysteriously, traffic wardens were handing out parking tickets yesterday, I noticed. Strange. I had thought that parking was free on the bank holidays. I suppose nothing stops Rip-Off Britain from functioning: be warned if you hire a car for your visits here.

Meanwhile, French President M. Sarkozy is to visit London tomorrow: about 300,000 French people live in Britain, mostly in London, so maybe they can say "Bonjour" to him or something. Other than that, the London Eye (a big ferris-wheel popular with tourists) broke down yesterday, trapping maybe 400 visitors on board while it got fixed. Make sure you go to the toilet before boarding, I reckon!

More Snow

Well... it has been snowing again this morning. It is gradually turning into "wet snow" though; that is, it is melting as it falls and turning into drizzle. Oops - now the Sun is coming out! But it is still snowing a little. The photo above was actually taken on Friday morning, before the ice storm.

And what's new in London today? Well there's nothing much in the news: a couple of murders, some suspected child trafficking (in other words, slavery, which really ought to be abolished or something, don't you think?) and not a lot else. Nothing cheerful or positive anyway. Elsewhere the Chinese government continue their thuggery in Tibet yet expect people to see them as civilized... Ah, there's a King Tutankhamun exhibition at the "O2 Bubble" (er... That's the old "Millennium Dome", re-named and privatized now because the old owners (the British public) couldn't afford it).

Massive Snowfall Hits London!

Well... as you can see from the close-up of my roof, "massive" amounts to about 2mm. Oh well. Of course, it all melted within a couple of hours.

What Spring Should Be Like!

Well I'm not taking my camera out in this weather! So far this morning we've had sleet, snow, drizzle and er... sunshine. I don't want my camera getting wet! Anyway, I don't think I shall be updating this blog every day - I aim to add pictures maybe a couple of times a week, since I'm busy at work much of the time. There is a protest going on in Trafalgar Square today about China in Tibet, but I'm staying in.

The picture above is how it was in April last year, 2007. Hopefully our current Arctic breeze will have passed by then this year too. It was taken at the Welsh Harp Nature Reserve, also known as Brent Reservoir, located in NW London. You can see a couple of mallards with a yellow flag iris in the foreground. Bye for now!

Any Icy Easter In London!

Well, welcome to my new blog! I plan to upload pictures I take in and around London, England, and chat a bit. There will be pictures of the sights of London, Nature, sunsets, clouds and so on as I take them, plus some from my archive from time-to-time. At the moment I am using a Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ7 camera for those of you who like to know such things.

One thing we Brits chat about a lot is the weather. That is because our little island is halfway between the European continent and the Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, so we get both types of influence on our weather. This makes it pretty changeable. Anyway it is always something we can talk about when we can't think of anything intelligent to say, which, let's face it, is most of the time!

Anyway, today, Good Friday, the Easter Holiday weekend when it should be sunny and warm, officially the second day of Spring this year, and what happens? Ice happens, that's what. This was a view of my attic window just after this afternoon's icy thunderstorm.