exit 2012

{this photo was taken on a commuter into london bridge railway station. as the train neared the platform it got held up by traffic and as i gazed outside at that monster of a building called the shard, i noticed graffiti on a steel girder outside my window. so! my family was here. ☻}

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here's looking at 2012, waving it bye-bye, not to ever return again. 2013 will hold new adventures and a life closer to our goal: getting this house fully functional. by which i also mean: get my studio back on the road. or rather: front room, first floor. 
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last update to london, 2012 here. 

a jingle

last year's christmas window stickers left a pleasing negative mark on the glass, before i washed it away in new year's enthusiasm. luckily i had my camera at hand to mark the occasion. this year we are flattered with rain. nonetheless i shall put on my boots today, and i'm only too sorry i can't take cat with me, at heel. a christmas day walk is imminent, followed by afternoon reading. gimme christmas any day of the year!

and a merry one to you all.

♥

reorganize and collect {renov #30}

{previously}

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what i've done in real time is i've painted the downstairs window so i could empty out the space, so i would have room for the x-mas tree that has been patiently awaiting dressing up for nigh on two weeks now. 
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then i rearranged a few bits in the kitchen. having shoved plenty of cumbrous things in the corridor for son to take upstairs (nope, he's nowhere near), i started hitting the cardboard filth underneath the studio windows. oi. 
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the more i hit, the more beige plaster & horse hair & dust from goneby decades & newspaper from the fifties fell into my lap. i'm telling you. 
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but it needed doing, i'd only been postponing the job for six months. well. i'm glad to say it 's done. 
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nope. son nowhere near in sight. 
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in fantasy time, as i hacked away at the wall... i was dreaming up words. 
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these very words you find scattered through this saturday post. before i take a loooooooooooooong bath. 
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see you again soon, loveys. this light's gone out for the day... do hover over images, for you'll find out where the lovely words come from... ♥
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favourably impressed

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little britain at its best in this curious museum of small wonders. 
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though the characters are real life people, and not some lanky men in drag, walking these few rooms ...
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... and enjoying afternoon tea served in the orangery, make for an unexpected if traditional venture. 
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the lady at the till enlightening me on the pleasures of a fan, ...
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... blinking eyes like only are you being served mister humphries ever could, starting up her story again as she concludes it. 
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do you follow? 
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her very eyes reminding me of the peacock pride.
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the man at reception playing double act as a terribly jolly and queer tea tender. 
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baritone voice raw from nicotine smoke. 
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as the orangery is frugally chilly, despairingly and insufficiently hotted up by a heat fan, {fan!}, the inside tenor is enhanced by a gardener's struggle with an electric leaf blower.
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a thought befalls me, as i munch away. 
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how small venues such as the greenwich fan museum can hold up to the national maritime museum just round the corner, is beyond me. 
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perhaps english eccentricity is key here? ☻
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corner view ≈ lights

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lights were what i went in search for on tuesday night, and i knew exactly where i was going to find them. 

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that i waited a while to go and get the lights has everything to do with corner view.

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sometimes, that's the way the cookie crumbles... ☻

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it doesn't half look like it is going to topple over, does it? 

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{which works like a give away on how images can delude without too much effort, really. 
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more on photographic manipulation after experiencing ansel adams in a maritime museum exhibition, later.} 

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while the full spectrum of the eye at night looks something like this... 

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jane's corner view, 
francesca's hosting
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fyi, there's more of london from last week, here, here and here. and of course, in my album. 
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cheerio!
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♥

tombstone talk & work that city

♦
in bunhill fields, i muse upon a day gone by,
as the old man dances amongst pigeons and squirrels,
as he chirpily approaches the animals and ignores
my unexpected attention. i leave the scene of damp stone.

in bunhill fields, a japanese~english couple converses,
holding william blake in the middle, she dances
in front, besides and beyond, chanting soft words
her man responds to, as i peel an orange.

in bunhill fields, in the shadow of ancient trees and
new sky rising buildings, i weep, as i clutch my feet.
walking the city has once over killed me gently,
as the spouse of the young japanese woman whispers,

you're a sap, to his young woman, who agrees. 
london, december 16th 2012
♦

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but no rest for the wicked when tinyWOOLF is traveling. taking it all in, she found peace and quiet on the quiet side of a sprightly sunday morning, on fulham grounds,

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following a soft treaded trail through the fulham road, after which she boarded a bus, taking her all the way through the city centre and into the eastend,

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having her sniffing fir trees as if it were christmas already. the noise, the sprinkle, the tinsel town, the tiny shops, the life. 
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oh, and arnold circus, remember? {i will show that later, shall i?}

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ending it rather nicely in the {almost} village of putney, place of present settlement. images are being loaded as i write, but hotel is serving ALL of the hotel guests, me thinks. i am rather living the rises and fall of a virtual snail, and i just don't know yet where to this slowness will lead. i will add to my flickr pages as i go along, a regular check would be sound advice for the interested. ☻
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to think i'm this lucky with the weather. i feel a million dollars, walking areas i know and some that i don't. battersea park, e.g. so many times i have seen it on the map. at long last i cut right through it now. on foot. 
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albert bridge. it is called a weak bridge (trespassers should stay well below a certain weight - that's a message for lorry drivers, of course) and wholly in pastel. why pastel, i wonder? 
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the city. since i forgot to walk a strip of it on the weekend, i ended right up in the thick of monday business. monument took me by surprise. and UP! the city never looked so beautiful, and at my feet! ☻
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yep, despite the vertigo up she went, counting all 311 steps both ways, for some dutch courage. on this clear day, i found it not too difficult to convince myself of a hero{n}'s flight.
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knees shaking though. 
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talking of which, variations on a gherkin, or 30, st mary axe (official business adress)... 

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and when drenched and blue, and no other place for me to turn to... there's always nigellissima to throw about some weight in the kitchen, via venice. my image collection for the week is growing, and you find it here. 
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thank you. ♥
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when the rains dissipate, everywhere is {drawing challenge} shelter

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please find drawing challenge topic at the end of this post.

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that london mob! i faced it all day. on piccadilly it's just madness. never having been one for crowds of this size, i seem to be keeping up, soaking in, cutting right through the middle {and the chase} and shoot at the heart of it. pictures, that is. i even manage to keep the crowds out. from those pictures, i mean. 
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i traveled north in the morning and drew a hesitant sun from stoke newing-ton skies in abney park cemetery. 
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from here i moved sideways into crouch end, which wasn't the best decision i made today, apart from an excellent italian place, where the waiters spoke english with that sexy accent. 

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i jumped on a bus back to the town centre and gladly lost a good few hours in mega bookstores. 
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i sprawled down on any seats and chairs i could find. luckily in london book-shops, they don't mind avid en place browsers. 

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and now, i've had my hotel special, a local store bought and assembled take away of hummus two ways, celery and beetroot salads and pesto pasta, on black peppered rice crackers.
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today being drawing challenge sunday, i found myself a subject on the brink. my eye was caught by the english folk tale of dick whittington. one doesn't always fall from rags to riches, on a way to shelter, but it's nice to dream anyway. fortnum and mason's bring the fairy tale in some eight windows. as they would.
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in these days of drab and darker winter, my heart goes to the homeless. funnily enough i haven't seen too many people sleeping rough. i hope they easily find shelter from cold spells and loneliness. renilde offers shelter this weekend, my own i'm pretending to be putting on the ritz... {see last polaroid.☻}. images to this weekend's wanders will follow... 
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it ain't half grey, mum

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if it wasn't for the dazzling christmas billboards... i might 've mistaken my london stay today for a trot through soggy moon craters, what with water filled skies, slippery tube floors, and an umbrella short. but what are you gonna do? 

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well, what you do is you cross that {water logged vauxhall} bridge, and get on with it. 

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highlights? pre-rafaelite exhibition in the tate and one hour of bulgarian choir voices in the national gallery. not to mention amazing conversations on the christmas sweater {they are one hot item here.}

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(remember colin firth in one?), 

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a classic concert rehearsal in st martin in the fields, (notice the terrific off key {un}stained glass window in the back)

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and the {thrift} shops. oh! those london shops. 

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to be continued, and tata for now! 

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london 

sightseeing 

one. ♥