We drove up to Marylebone to collect a painting and three photographs, framed by Railings. They are to be highly recommended as framers. The day was unsettled and on the way home we were racing against a stormy sky on our left, whereas out to the right, brighter weather beckoned. Driving westward, we were chasing the setting sun.
Going west out of London …
Westway 2
Westway 3
Westway 4
As we sped along the Westway towards Shepherd’s Bush, I took these photos. The sky promises somewhere exotic like canyon country in Arizona but the cars and then the English church tower give it away. Quite dramatic for a usually grey February in London though …
I had to include this atmospheric blur of the 33 bus on Hammersmith Bridge! I was chatting on the bus with a neighbour recently. As we crossed the bridge over the Thames into Barnes, he heaved a sigh of relief. ‘I like the centre of London’, he said, ‘but I’m always so relieved when I cross the bridge back into Barnes’.
Part of the charm of Barnes is that it’s so easy to get into central London – within 45 minutes or less – but at the same time we’re somewhat hidden in that bend in the river without a tube line. And with plenty of greenery, the common, the pond and the Wildfowl and Wetlands centre for camouflage, plus the tow path, we seem to enjoy the best of both worlds! A sort of garden city. Barnes used to be one of the market gardens for London and our house is built on former apple orchards. We saw physical evidence for this when we built an extension and unearthed broken bits of white irrigation pipes in the garden. We do still have one ancient apple tree.
Crossing Hammersmith Bridge …
Home high and dry with all the pictures intact. This is one of them. An illustration by Darren Hopes – which, given our love of both books and bees, puts them together in odd but pleasing symbiosis.
Books and bees – ‘The intellect is a dioecious plant and books are the bees which carry the quickening pollen from one to another mind’. J.R. Lowell: 1849
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