Photoblog and image gallery
Spring was gently doing its bit for the flora and fauna when suddenly summer popped its head around the door. The combination was an electric week of sunshine and freshness in London that showed off the new growth in a stunning fashion as evidenced by these cherry blossoms in Regent’s Park.
If I had to answer the question “when were you happiest?”, the answer would be “every year about this time”. Spring has that effect on me and I can’t let the week go by without a spring picture. There were other things happening this week so there is another picture of the week. See Silent Protest..
Although it is not St Patrick’s Day yet, it’s Sunday and a good excuse for a party in Trafalgar Square. I spotted this leprechaun joining in the festivities.
I’ve been to church twice recently and while both events were very different in location and style, they were similar in their blend of prayers and performance. In December I attended a Christmas Carol Service by the Friends of Columbia for Social Aid featuring a performance by Venezuelan pianist Clara Rodríguez and today I went to the Joseph Grimaldi annual memorial service featuring some clowning by Mattie, Sonny and Rainbow, Susie Oddball, Salvo, Franco et al. The former service took place in St Martins in the Fields with music by composer Ariel Ramirez. The latter took place in the tiny Church of the Holy Trinity in Dalston with kids sitting in the front pews laughing at the clowns’ antics during their short performance interludes. The congregational clowns appeared in Sunday hats that perhaps wouldn’t look out of place at Ascot. We then retired to the church hall for some fine clowning and generous posing by the clowns for the many photographers. Visit the clown gallery to see more pictures of Sonny and Rainbow, Susie Oddball, Mattie and others. The amazing 92 years young Garibaldi, the oldest member of Clowns International, features on the clown page of this website and Franco is the clown featured in this post.
St Giles High Street and the new Renzo Piano construction “with winter gardens on every floor and over 17,000 sq ft of roof terraces. More than just an office building it’s a workplace (sic). Connecting people to the outdoors” … and so the promotional copy goes. Maybe it’s time the urbanscape started connecting the outdoors to the people. We could just skip the building bit.
Some winter colour as provided by the vibrant Midwinter Fire or Cornus and willow by the lake in St. James’s Park on a cold January day.
Today I took a walk through a relatively quiet Camden Market. My friend Nicole suggested it. It wasn’t like a normal Sunday. The tie stall wasn’t open, for one. It was a quiet Sunday. But it was a pleasure to wander through the stalls in all their variety.
Pond Life. Floating leaves, St James’s Park, London. While I wasn’t too successful in capturing the leaves turning on the trees, I have been amazed by the beautiful colours of the freshly fallen leaves in the parks of London.
