We are long past due for a mishmash of recent iPhone photos!
Here's a colorful piece of African wax cloth posted on a bulletin board at school. Wax cloth -- whether truly made with wax or with more modern printing techniques -- is always so amazing.
Here's something else posted at school. This little sign has always perplexed me. I think it's shaped like a foot because it's supposed to make us think about our environmental footprint -- so that mystery is clear. But how does tea "have" less water than coffee? The amount required to produce it, I guess?
In any case, I'm sticking with coffee.
I love this retro space-age sign above a newsagent in Cricklewood.
I came across this sign outside a hair salon in Notting Hill. Somehow it seemed so, well, Notting Hill-ish. I thought blow-drying was something people did themselves, but apparently not anymore. At least, not within certain Notting Hill-ish income groups.
Olga and I discovered boxes of perfectly good-looking produce discarded on a sidewalk near our house. No, we did not rescue it. But we were perplexed all the same.
Found this in a local post office. Unapologetic dogs and bicycles are apparently welcome.
I bought some brussels sprouts on the stalk the other day. Have you ever seen a weirder looking plant? It's still hard for me to picture it in the ground -- and hard to imagine why it ever evolved this way. Or is the ancestral form completely unlike modern cultivars?
Graffiti in Kilburn. The world has gone mad, I agree, but I'm not sure this is the issue I'd use to illustrate that point.
And finally, a colorful hair salon near Covent Garden. (Maybe here, instead of free prosecco, you get free butterflies?)
Tea plantations are watered naturally by rain. Coffee requires irrigation. As I care about The Earth I shall continue to drink more tea than coffee. Those who drink more coffee clearly have a different attitude to The Earth. According to one regularly cited Dutch study from 2007, a standard cup of coffee brewed with 7 grams of coffee in the Netherlands - a coffee-loving country - 'costs' about 140 litres of water. That's the amount of water required for the production of beans that contribute to said cup: from harvest to processing, washing, roasting, and so on.
ReplyDeleteHair by Fairy is an installation I'd love to pass daily in my neighborhood. As for Muhammed Ali's son, he is a US citizen with a valid passport yet he was refused re-entry to the US for no good reason after traveling abroad with his mother at the height of Trump's Muslin ban. There was a mild furor on this side of the pond, and lawyers stepped in, but I don't know how it was ultimately resolved.
ReplyDeleteWhen I had long hair, blow drying it myself was a chore. It always looked so much better when I had it done by professionals, but I would rarely spend the $40. But then, I'm a Capricorn and can put a price on almost anything, and $40 for a good hair day just wasn't worth it to me. When looks fail, I can always fall back on my scintillating personality to wow one and all.
ReplyDeletePoor Olga does look perplexed, that's the exact word. She is such an expressive pup. What a soul she has. And I got a charge out of that weird Muhammed Ali - centric view of the current geo-political situation. Can analysis get any more random?
I drink tea when I read you blog.
Well, Mr. Pudding, thanks for making me feel even worse about my first world carbon footprint.
ReplyDeleteDamn. (Takes another sip of delicious coffee.)
Steve- I just adore your iPhone photos. They are as delicious as my coffee!
I read somewhere lately that broccoli has developed from the mustard green. Perhaps Brussels Sprouts have too. I do not care. I cannot eat them. They taste terrible to me, I don't care what is done to them. But they are pretty plant.
That iphone had a wide variety of photos. Walking gives you a chance to see many good photo opportunities.
ReplyDeletewax cloth as in batik? and perhaps someone set those boxes of potatoes and peppers out for the hungry. and I saw just the other day that brussels sprouts and broccoli and another that I can't remember are human creations through hybridizing. don't remember what the parent plant was. and that's a lot of brussels sprouts for two people.
ReplyDeleteI love this new assortment of iPhone photos. You have wonderful observation skills. I don't drink coffee so I'm off the hook but, I do admit to finding that sign very confusing. When I worked in St. Louis, I went to a salon that served "bubbly" while you were in the chair. As much as I pay for a hair cut now, I should get a whole bottle of Veuve! I hope those veges made their way to a food bank. At Thanksgiving, I bought a whole stalk of Brussels sprouts too and I also took a picture of it with my iPhone! There is a LOT of sprouts on one of those stalks. Your comment about the "world gone mad" sign made me laugh out loud. We are bombarded daily with examples of the world's madness. That incident hardly tips the scale.
ReplyDeleteOn another topic, your big storm made the PBS news last night. I guess there were places that suffered power outages and storm damage.
Nice photos, good spots, fine narration. You've got it all, Steve!
ReplyDeleteWonderful collection of photos, so varied and interesting. And sorry Mother Earth, but coffee and I have a long love affair going back decades. I must have my coffee. Too much tea consumption is un-American! :) lol.
ReplyDeleteI like the pattern and colours in that wax cloth (batik?) Intriguing. No tea or coffee for me at all, unfortunately, or maybe it's a good thing, reading how much water is used for processing.
ReplyDeleteA note on yesterday's mold topic - we tried bleach also but the mold came back. It didn't die until we used the denatured ethanol. It also helps if you chant Die, mold - die! as you apply it :D
YP: Something tells me that you, being British, would choose tea over coffee regardless of the environmental implications.
ReplyDelete37P: I did not know that! Interesting (and appalling)! I wonder how he was "kidnapped and switched," though?
Vivian: Blow-drying is one of those things that I freely admit having absolutely no knowledge of, being bald myself. I had a blow-dryer in the late '70s, when I had hair, but ever since then I've been drip-dry. I guess I shouldn't be snotty about people wanting to have a fun hair experience, and why not have prosecco too?!
Ms Moon: I've read that many people dislike Brussels sprouts because they eat them when they're overcooked, when they get mushy and bitter. I've honestly never minded them. But I like most vegetables. I think I lack whatever taste buds make some people dislike veggies.
Red: Yes, it's all about walking and being out on the street to see things! (Although I guess driving around you must see a lot too...?)
Ellen: Wax cloth is related to batik, with some differences. (And now I think most "wax cloth" isn't made with wax at all, but is printed mechanically.) More on that here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_waxprints
Sharon: Yeah, the storm was particularly bad in the western UK -- some seawall damage and flooding. I didn't realize how many sprouts were on that stalk until I began removing them -- holy cow! We'll be eating Brussels sprouts for weeks!
Catalyst: Thanks! :)
Jennifer: That's exactly how I feel about coffee. I can give a lot of things up to reduce my carbon footprint, but not that.
Jenny-O: LOL! I'll try chanting!
They call it "blow-outs" here in Los Angeles, and they're incredibly expensive! I love your iPhone photos --
ReplyDeleteOne day late, we harvested the last one, or I could have sent you a picture of rows and rows of our Brussels sprouts growing in the garden.
ReplyDeleteWe pick them small and roast them in oil with garlic. My daughter also does a mean and tasty raw salad with them, thinly sliced.
I love the pictures, all of them.