Settling in

We used Guy Fawkes night as an opportunity to get rid of the piles of garden waste and builders debris left in Mum's garden. We had two big bonfires over the weekend and have managed to get rid of the lot, including a big pile of thorny shrub which had inch long spikes and would have been a nightmare to transport to the tip. It looks like this now - not brilliant, but a big improvement:-

This is the front garden, showing the smart new driveway and the flower bed which we have planted up with perennials and 190 spring  flowering bulbs:-


Mum has been in for just over a week now and is gradually becoming accustomed to all the new gadgets and putting things where she can find them.

Conservatory:-


 Mum in the Living room watching her new 42" TV:-


 

Downstairs bathroom:-


Mum's Bedroom:-

 

 
Study area:-


Cara's room:-

The kitchen:-

The Joys of City Living #1

Drunken idiots testing their strength on my wall:-



The twerp must've tired himself out as he only managed one coping stone on the next house along. Oh well, I guess that after a year and a half, I was due some more wall damage. Fresher season will hopefully be over soon.

Nearly there

I visited Mum's new home on Wednesday and took these photo's. Fitting out works are progressing well and will soon be completed. Carpets will be fitted on Monday. The kitchen:-

Lounge:-

 Downstairs bedroom:-

 Upstairs bathroom, there were 2 plumbers busy on this when I visited. The painting was nearly completed, with 2 painters finishing off the glosswork:-

 Upstairs front bedroom,with a feature panel in "Sarah & AJ" blue:-

Upstairs rear bedroom:-

 Front garden, cleared and levelled, ready for the imprinted concrete driveway to be laid:-

Francis Upritchard Exhibition

I had a look at this exhibition at the Nottingham Contemporary - primarily to see the Alfred Kubin drawings, but the sculptures were good as well.

Gallery 1: "War Dance" - A collection of sculptures depicting medieval soldiers in martial arts poses:-

Gallery 2: "Hippies and Holy Fools" - more figures, in psychedelic colours:-

In the other two galleries there is a collection of 60 drawings by the Austrian artist, Alfred Kubin (1877 - 1959). The drawings in the exhibition were all made when he was in his twenties, shortly after his suicide attempt on his mothers grave in 1896, and subsequent nervous breakdown.  Unsurprisingly, the  drawings are very dark, showing monsters and visions of hell.

Bestwood Mill Lakes

The dogs enjoyed meeting up with Diane and Otis today for a circuit of the lakes and then a pub lunch. We exchanged the usual pleasantries with this dog walker......and resumed our walk half an hour later knowing the life history of each of his dogs, past and present.

The Womble Trap

One of the minor irritations of City living is that, on most bin days, and in particular in the summer when the student houses are cleared of their unwanted belongings, a small group of scavengers hoik through the rubbish looking for treasure, pulling bags out and scattering their contents all over the street. I politely asked the main offender, "Mrs Womble" to clear up the mess that she had made the other week and she merely looked through me, as if I were a ghost.

As I have been clearing brambles from my garden this week, and as I saw another regular, the "ginger womble" rummaging through one of my neighbours bins the other day, leaving this mess:-
 


I decided to make a womble trap.

Step 1

 Take a large carrier bag and insert a base layer of vacuum cleaner dust then add chopped bramble cuttings

 Step 2

Bulk out bag with some household rubbish

 

  

Step 3
Top off with some bait, here I have used a couple of VHS tapes and an old playstation game. All that remains is for me to lay the trap in one of the student house bins and sit back on bin day twitching my curtains

Pagan Parade

The annual pagan parade passed by

Dog's Dinner

I will be holding my nose, and the dogs will be eating liver and rice for the next couple of days, courtesy of the supermarket bargain shelf.

A short ride on the Emirates Air Line

 I stayed at Stuart and Deirdre's house last night and commuted into London this morning with Matthew, who was on his last day of work experience with a firm of Chartered Surveyors. I nipped outside at London Bridge to take this shot of "the Shard", which, for the time being, is the tallest building in Europe. The buildings inauguration ceremony took place last night.


Matthew got off the tube at Canary Wharf, and I carried on to Stratford. I had a wander around the recently openedshopping centre:-



Wenlock and Mandeville, the Olympic mascots:-

 The Olympic park was sealed off like a prison camp, with soldiers guarding the entrances. I went up to the top floor of John Lewis which had a viewing area looking out over the site. This is one of the landmark buildings, Anish Kapoor's "Orbit Tower" - resembling a giant helter skelter:-

 The main Olympic stadium:-

 I took a short tube journey to the Emirates Airline, which opened earlier this week, and rode over the Thames to the Millenium Dome:-

 I walked down the length of the Greenwich Peninsula, through the millenium village:-

 I took a look at the Cutty Sark, for the first time since the fire:-

 I crossed back under the Thames to the Isle of Dogs via the Greenwich pedestrian tunnel, then took the Docklands Light Railway back to South London:-