A Film Assignment

OK -- I'm going to be less perfunctory than yesterday. Yesterday's post is what happens when you start blogging at 7 a.m. and you still have to get ready for work and eat breakfast and be out the door by 8 a.m.! Sometimes time is not on my side.

Last week I had a slightly awkward situation arise with a student. An eighth-grade boy who is very into photography -- and who knows I take a lot of pictures as well -- wanted me to shoot a roll of film so he could develop it. He was going to loan me a camera and do the processing. Initially I said I would, but after giving it some thought it seemed a little too personal -- borrowing his camera and taking even harmless pictures on the street that he would then see before I did.

So I went to a principal and asked for advice, and she suggested I shoot the film at school, not including people in the photos. That seemed like a good compromise, but then finding time to do that -- when I didn't have to be at my desk and when there weren't many other people around -- wasn't easy. Finally, Monday afternoon, I tried to shoot a couple of pictures in the library and I couldn't get the film to wind.

I finally gave the camera back to the kid and said I'd tried. He showed me that I was winding the film incorrectly, but by that time I'd lost what little enthusiasm I had for this project. I told him I'd be happy to continue talking about photos with him but I'd rather not borrow his camera!

The whole point was that he really wants people to shoot film rather than digitally, and he and I have had an ongoing debate about which method is better. As someone who struggled for years with the constraints of film, I love digital photography. But as someone who grew up in a digital world, he enjoys those same constraints and finds the limitations and chemistry of film challenging.

Anyway, it was kind of a strange situation for me and now that I look back on it, I probably shouldn't have agreed to do it in the first place. You want to encourage students but at the same time there are boundaries!

I downloaded the garden cam again last night and I still didn't have any nighttime shots, which is very strange. I discovered that the batteries were low. Apparently when that happens, the camera shoots during the day, which uses less energy, but it stops doing nighttime infrared filming. That's why I didn't have much content the last few times I downloaded the videos.

Anyway, I made a short compilation of what little worthwhile footage I've collected over the last two weeks, including some images of snow and passing foxes and cats (Tabby and Pale Cat). And now I've recharged the batteries and I'll set it up again this morning. Hopefully next time around I'll have more interesting nocturnal images!

(Top photo: Graffiti by Abotz in West Hampstead. I've blogged Abotz before here.)

A Perfunctory Post

I heard from our landlords yesterday about our flat. Apparently they're planning to do some minor maintenance and painting sometime soon. We knew something was up because the management company had been sending around contractors for estimates -- we let them come in with keys while we're at work. They want to "redecorate" the living room and the bedroom, which basically means repainting and repairing some hairline cracks in the ceiling in both places.

The landlords didn't even realize the Russians -- our erstwhile upstairs neighbors -- had moved out, and they've been gone seven months! I guess they're not in touch very much, even though they jointly own the building.

Anyway, we'll see where all this leads. My chief question, of course, is where to put all the houseplants when we've got painters and equipment in the flat. I guess everything will live in the dining room.

Otherwise, yesterday was nothing special.

Unveiling

I forgot to tell a story from my walk on the Heath on Saturday. I was walking on the Extension, past the field where Olga and her canine pals used to go with their dog-walker every day. A passing golden retriever ran up to me, gave my hand a sniff and then huddled against my legs, sitting on my feet, as I petted him/her. It seemed like a greeting from the dog kingdom, the greater dog consciousness. I traded smiles with the owner and went on my way but it gave me a boost.

I took a walk yesterday, too, but nowhere in particular -- just around the neighborhood, just to get my blood moving. The picture above wasn't taken yesterday, by the way. It was taken during our cold spell last week when we had those clear blue skies. We are blanketed with clouds now, which isn't so bad because it's keeping things warmer.

Which means...

...it's time to uncover the avocado!

I thought you might enjoy seeing the process in action. The music was Dave's suggestion. Those of you who know your '70s British humor will recognize it immediately.

As you can see, the avocado pulled through pretty well. There are a few frost-nipped leaves at the very top and a cluster of leaves at the tip of one branch broke off, but otherwise it appears unscathed.

Barb the banana, on the other hand, looks pretty rough. But the leaves die back every winter, so this is expected. In spring I'll trim them up so the stems are exposed and she'll grow from there. She's a tough gal.

Otherwise I spent yesterday reading -- I'm still working on Erik Larson's book about the Lusitania -- and we watched "One Battle After Another" on Amazon Prime. I enjoyed it, but I always like Paul Thomas Anderson's movies. I like their wry humor and loose, informal style. I loved "Licorice Pizza" and "Punch Drunk Love," and "Magnolia" remains one of my all-time favorites. I am now a fan of the name Perfidia Beverly Hills, who is one of the revolutionaries in "One Battle After Another." I'm sure some drag queen somewhere has already adopted it.

A Heath Walk

I felt like I needed to get out of the house yesterday and get some exercise, so I took a long walk on the West Heath, Sandy Heath and Hampstead Heath Extension. It's a route I often took with Olga, so there were canine ghosts around every bend in the path. It made me sad, but I also found myself laughing at memories of how wild she'd get chasing squirrels and running with her Kong tightly gripped in her jaws.

The pond on Sandy Heath was thinly layered with ice, and there were signs warning people not to try to walk on it. Surely no one would be that clueless.

Here's the Pitt House Gateway, where I photographed Olga many times. According to a plaque on the gate, it dates from around 1766, when it was built as an improvement to the residence of William Pitt, Earl of Chatham.

And here's St. Jude on the Hill, a prominent church on the north side of Hampstead Heath Extension.

The weather was cold and wintry but at least it didn't rain on me. I listened to my iTunes and wished the world could be as simple as pop music suggests, when The Mamas and The Papas told us to "go where you wanna go, do what you wanna do, with whoever you wanna do it with."

I passed this house with a blue plaque, which I don't recall ever seeing before -- but it's on a side street I don't often walk so I've probably just missed it. Michael Ventris was an architect and classicist who deciphered Linear B, an ancient Greek script, and then died young in a car crash.

Back home again, I downloaded the videos from the Garden Cam, and what a boring week it was! I got no nighttime videos at all, perhaps because it was so cold that the animals weren't out moving around. (The coldest temperature the camera recorded was 29º F, at 9:20 a.m. on Jan. 4. I'm sure it was colder at night, but if there was no movement to trigger the camera I'd have no record of it.) My daytime videos were mostly pigeons. I had one brief glimpse of Pale Cat and two brief glimpses of a fox, perhaps Q-Tip:

But really, there wasn't even enough to compile into a video. Let's hope the coming week gives us some better footage.

Goretti and Global Madness

Yesterday morning was truly miserable weather-wise. It was cold and rainy, but thank goodness not snowy -- although one of my coworkers said she would have preferred snow to the blustery rain. We got some wind but nothing too severe. I don't know of any downed trees or other damage comparable to what Storm Goretti brought to other parts of England.

I put an extra strap of duct tape around the avocado and hoped for the best.

Tonight is supposed to be our last freezing night for a while. I think I can unwrap the avocado tomorrow and give the poor thing a week or two of fresh air, sunlight and moisture. I'll probably have to wrap it up again before winter is officially over, but coming from Florida, I find this perfectly normal winter gardening. We cover and uncover plants all the time in the American South, depending on what the weather does. Dave finds this rather mysterious and labor-intensive, but that's beause he's from Michigan, where no amount of covering will protect a plant from winter so they don't even bother.

Anyway, I did walk to work despite the weather, mostly because the Jubilee Line wasn't running. I had actually planned to take the tube but walking was forced upon me! (I could have ridden a bus but that takes ages. It's faster to walk.) On the positive side, the parent organization at the school gave us all hot chocolate when we arrived.

Bonus points to the first person who can figure out what this is!

I feel like I should be writing something about the madness engulfing the USA's current government, but I'm just not sure what to say except this is NOT normal! And Americans can't allow it to become normal. This period of aggression against our allies, violence against our own citizens and others who are legally entitled to reside in the USA, international land and resource grabs, and glorified toxic masculinity is an outlier. We just have to get through it and survive it, which is not a foregone conclusion, and then we have an opportunity to right the ship. To the government and people of Denmark and Greenland and the rest of our NATO allies, I humbly apologize as an American citizen for my country treating you so awfully. I don't think this will last forever. Just treat us like we have gone temporarily insane -- keep your distance, try to avoid our flailing limbs and ravening jaws, and try not to take too much offense at the outbursts we seem unable to control.

The thing I don't understand about Trump's rhetoric on Greenland is, America already controls it -- jointly, through NATO. We (and Europe) are already responsible for its defense, there's an American military base there, and we are in a position to negotiate the use of its natural resources as needed. What does occupying it achieve?

As for the murder of Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis, it reminds me of the Kent State shooting in Ohio in 1970. Harmless protesters and trigger-happy, nervous gunmen are never a good mix, and the ICE agents shouldn't be there in the first place. Who are these guys who work for ICE? Who could do that in good conscience?

Nothing Much Yet

We are supposedly in the midst of Storm Goretti, which is wreaking havoc elsewhere in England but doesn't seem to be doing much here. We're getting some wind, and I was worried about the avocado's big fabric "bubble" and whether it would be shredded, but in its protected location on the patio it's only slightly rocking. Later this morning snow is possible but I'm not seeing any yet.

The artwork above is on the window of an estate agent's office on the high street, in this building:

I noticed before Christmas that they hadn't yet put out their annual winter lights, but now they're up, so I  guess they finally got around to it. Better late than never, right?

Starlings

I remember wondering in the past if starlings migrate, and here's the answer. Not entirely! We still have some hanging around in our garden, though they seem fewer than in summer. I don't see the starling squabbles on the bird feeder that I see in warmer months.

According to a quick Google check, starlings in the UK and in warmer parts of Europe tend to stay put, while starlings from colder areas like Scandinavia and Russia migrate south. They are a "partially migratory" species.

So there you have it. I knew that was keeping you up at night.

Not much happened yesterday, aside from being super-busy at work. We've had lots of books coming back and I've had old displays to take down and new ones to put up, just to get past all the Christmas/holiday stuff.

I had to abandon my walk to work yesterday morning because the sidewalk was so icy and slippery. I found my feet sliding around a few times and though I didn't fall, I also didn't want to take the risk. I hopped onto the tube about a third of the way to school, but I did walk home last night after the ice had melted.

Free boots, anyone? With a sort of icy castle/princess theme?