Hanukkah and a Shout-Out

Hanukkah ended yesterday, I believe, so it's a little late for me to say "Happy Hanukkah," but I can at least post a couple of relevant pictures. Above, the menorah on a traffic island in Swiss Cottage, fully lit on the last morning of the holiday.

And here's the Hanukkah decoration that my boss put up in our library. It's made out of wrapping paper and books, which I think is pretty clever! She actually built it a couple of years ago, and we had the foresight to store the paper and use it again. (The books, of course, live on our shelves year-round.)

My only excitement yesterday came from re-homing some useful picture frames. The Russians upstairs threw away eight perfectly good, seemingly brand-new Ikea frames of various sizes, which I found in our rubbish bin when I took out our trash on Sunday. The dark wood was unmarred and the glass unbroken. I couldn't let them be wasted like that, so I put them in a bag and took them to work. I set them out on a table with a "FREE" sign and they were gone within an hour.

Oh, and there was this:

The parent organization at school erected a bulletin board of little thank-you notes from parents to our staff and faculty, and I got my own little shout-out! I have no idea who wrote this but it gave my day a boost. I think they're giving me too much credit, but hey, I'll take it!

A Wintry Blast from the Past

I hope you're getting the full effect of this photo. Why is snow falling in the train station, you may ask? I have no idea. Google made it happen.

I found this image when I was having trouble posting pictures a few days ago. Usually, when I click on the photo upload icon at the top of my post, I choose "upload from computer" and that's that. But because that option wasn't working I explored the other choices, one of which was "photos," which connects with something called "Google photos." There were only a few pictures there, but this was one of them.

I took this picture of Dave and Olga in the Liverpool Street train station on Dec. 23, 2013. I even blogged it at the time (without the snowflake effect). I don't know how it wound up in my "Google photos," whatever those are, or how the snow came to be added. I remember another blogger around that time posting a similarly embellished image and saying that Google had added the snow -- which he wasn't all that thrilled about. I kind of like it, though, even if it makes no sense inside a train station.

This was also in my Google photos. I don't know what it shows or where it was taken, but that navy blue rumpled thing looks like a sweater I own, and the bit of purple on the floor could be our living room rug.

Will the Internet ever stop surprising me? Probably not.

Yesterday was pretty quiet. Dave had a performance at school -- the high school winter concert -- so he was gone most of the day. I normally attend the high school concert too, but I wasn't crazy about sitting in an enclosed auditorium with a couple hundred other people. (They were all masked and allegedly lateral-flow tested, but still.) So I stayed home.

I hibernated on the couch, reading "Shen of the Sea," a Newbery winner from 1926. Like "Tales of Silver Lands," it's a collection of stories, and I'd say it's better than "Tales" but not great. I also cleaned more windows, this time in the living room. I'd like to clean the glass around the back door but there are just too many plants in the way. I'll have to wait until spring when I can move them onto the patio.

I tried to take Olga for a walk, but it was gray and wet outside, and she only wanted to go around the corner. Then she was ready to come home. I'd hoped to walk another segment of the Green Chain but the weather nixed that idea.

Last night Dave and I watched a documentary called "Jawline," which I saw recommended in the Times. (Here's the trailer.) It's a look at the world of online teen "influencers," centered on a young guy in Tennessee who was determined to make himself a household name. I found it interesting, but somewhat bleak. It's so bizarre that there's an entire youth culture built around becoming famous for doing basically nothing -- just posting pictures and collecting "likes." And yet these guys "go on tour" and attract crowds of screaming girls. And sure, they're cute, but not really any cuter than your average cute guy in your average high school. It all seems very mysterious and transient and empty.

Oriel Place

Of course, about 20 minutes after I posted yesterday, Blogger ironed out its photo problems! Oh well.

Above is a little pocket park in Hampstead called Oriel Place. It used to be fenced off and inaccessible -- here's a photo I took in February 2013 that shows what I mean. Within the last couple of years the council put some money -- raised from a local infrastructure levy -- into it and now people can sit on the benches beneath that magnificent old tree. I think it's an improvement but I believe the project was contentious for some. I hope the paving doesn't affect the tree's health.

I spent yesterday morning on a couple of projects -- routine stuff like laundry and plant maintenance, but also cleaning the interior of the front windows. This was a fairly major undertaking that involved moving everything on the windowsill and climbing up on a chair, but they look a million times better now. And since we bought the dehumidifier they hopefully won't become as grimy from condensation as they were.

I also read all of "Caddie Woodlawn," a fantastic Newbery book from 1935 about a girl growing up on the Wisconsin frontier in the 1860s. Such a refreshing change after some of the dogs I've read recently! It was like Laura Ingalls Wilder without the dubious references to Native Americans. In fact I wonder if Wilder's books prompted Carol Ryrie Brink to write this one, as it came out just a few years after "Little House in the Big Woods."

Finally, last night, I went to that pub gathering for the birthday of one of my co-workers. I took Olga along, thinking they'd all like to meet her, and I knew that way I wouldn't stay long. Olga wasn't thrilled about going out on a cold, dark night and tried several times to turn for home, but I finally got her to the pub (which involved a short trip on the Overground). Once there, she would not settle down and indeed I only stayed for two quick glasses of mulled wine before bringing her home again. Apparently Olga is not a night owl.

Oh, and Ratana stayed away yesterday! Could it be that he/she listened to me?!

An Unusually Gray Post

Well, this may be a first. I cannot upload a single picture this morning, so here, on my photo blog, you're getting a post with no picture! COME ON, BLOGGER! WTH?!

When I upload a photo, I get a white box with a gray symbol in it. Others are having this problem too -- I've perused the "help" forum but I don't see any solutions that work for me. Some people are saying you can go into your Blogger photo archive and copy the URL for the picture and link it that way and blah blah blah but I can't seem to make that happen. And you know, life is too short.

So, sorry about that. As I often say when Blogger throws a curve ball -- you get what you pay for.

When I first started in journalism I had an editor who once asked us in a memo to "paint a word picture." My co-workers and I, all in our early 20s and convinced that we knew everything and that our old fogey editor was hopelessly out of touch, mocked this memo mercilessly. The fact that I still remember it says a lot about how often we made fun of that phrase. But now, here I am, painting a word picture.

Anyway, regarding the last photo in yesterday's post: It turns out the message on the signboard is a lyric from the Nirvana song "Lithium." My brother e-mailed me not long after I posted and solved the mystery, and then reader Ellen D. did the same (even providing a link to the song). Thank you, hive mind!

Otherwise, not a whole lot happened yesterday. I got my flu shot on Thursday at work, so I'm hopefully protected on that front. I felt kind of yucky yesterday and worried that I was coming down with Covid -- some of my friends at work have it -- but I think it was just flu shot backlash. I'll take a lateral flow test today to be sure. I'm supposed to go to a birthday party tonight and I certainly don't want to make it a super-spreader event.

Oh, and Ratana, would you please take your daily spam comments about your Thai gambling casinos elsewhere? I'm going to delete them as fast as you post them. You're getting nowhere here.

Ceiling Supernova

It's Friday morning and I have nothing much to say, so it's time for another assortment of random photos from my wandering!

Above, this was the light fixture in the living room of Clamato Cottage in Bray. I was captivated by the pattern it created on the ceiling.

This is my smallest Thanksgiving cactus. I took this picture several weeks ago and was excited about the flower buds, but I'm sad to say it never bloomed. The buds dropped off and that was that. I think the plant (which I grew from a cutting sent by blog reader Frances) is still too small. I moved it to a brighter window in the hopes that it will grow a bit stronger, and hopefully next year I'll see some flowers!

Found this on the sidewalk on my walk home a few nights ago. A secret code? Writing in another language, perhaps Hindi? Or simply an interesting pattern?

I noticed that there's a new plaque on the outside of the former Decca Records building. As you can read, it recognizes Lonnie Donegan, one of the musicians who made "skiffle" a phenomenon. Skiffle, in turn, gave rise to rock n' roll and helped inspire the Beatles and other musicians of their generation. Donegan's song "Rock Island Line" is here -- he doesn't really get into it until about the two-minute mark, I think because he was trying to catch his breath!

I called this plaque "new," but apparently it's only new to me -- it went up in July 2019 and I just didn't notice it before now.

I am a little teapot...

This sign was on the kitchen door at Tom Kerridge's Hand and Flowers pub in Marlow, where we went last week. We got a kick out of it.

And finally, I came across this curious sign outside a barber shop on my walk home last night. As a head-shaver myself I pondered its meaning. Now that I've shaved my head I won't be lonely anymore? Or, I've given up meeting people so I shaved my head?

Doing Our Part

I left the dehumidifier running in the bedroom yesterday morning when I went to work, and by the time I got home it had pulled nearly two liters of water out of the air. This blows my mind. We got another 3/4 liter from the living room overnight. I'm fascinated by this device, though I'm still wrestling with how best to deploy it. Should I move it from room to room every day? Should it run 24 hours a day? Is it possible for things to get too dry? I guess we'll just learn by doing.

I did hear back from our maintenance company regarding the rotting fascia on the outside of the house and the moisture issues in the living room wall. They're going to send someone around to look at it -- insha'allah, as the Moroccans say. (Literal translation: "God willing." But used more generally to mean "we hope this thing happens but one can never be sure.")

I squared away our annual charitable donations yesterday. Dave and I have been giving to the same three groups each year since Trump got elected in 2016 -- Planned Parenthood, the Southern Poverty Law Center and the ACLU. It feels good to get that done. I consider it my little effort to maintain sanity in the world.

Oh, and speaking of maintaining sanity, I did finish "Tales of Silver Lands," thank GOD. It has the distinction of receiving my most negative Newbery review yet. Next up: "Caddie Woodlawn," from 1936. By the way, if you're interested in what I've read so far and what I've had to say about it, I'm maintaining this page on the school's web site. You'll see my intro with my terribly flattering picture (NOT!), followed by a gigantic tag cloud and then, below that, a short review of each book. I need to work on those tags. There are too many of them and I haven't used them very consistently.

Olga says hello, and wishes you would let her sleep a little longer.

(Top photo: A shiny Buddha head in a front garden on Finchley Road.)

Chaos and Determination

Yesterday was crazy at work. The high school science classes are about to check out books for winter reading, so we pulled books from several long lists we have about science-related subjects -- ecology, genetics, that kind of thing -- and put them on carts to roll up to that part of the school. By the time we were done we'd pulled and checked out more than 300 books!

And due to a technology glitch that is too tiresome to go into here, the lists the head librarian were working from were different from the lists I had, so I also had to go into our systems and manually correlate the lists, adding and subtracting books until they matched.

I wound up staying almost an hour late to get everything done and there's still a small amount to finish.

Some of the kids decorated our library Christmas tree, and I added some decorations of my own that I brought from home (remember these?). I think it looks pretty good, if not terribly distinctive.

And now, I am going to go read "Tales of Silver Lands." I am going to finish this awful book today if it's the last thing I do.

(Top photo: A wall at a construction site near Erith a few weeks ago.)