Sunday, May 10, 2015

A Walk to the Barbican


Yesterday was busy! I went to my French class in the morning -- that class moves fast, and I need to do some studying, but I'm holding my own pretty well -- and then I went out for a photo walk.

I decided to walk from Baker Street, the location of the Alliance Francaise, toward the Barbican, which is across Westminster and Islington at the western edge of the City of London. The weather cooperated and it felt good to get out with the camera and do my own thing, as opposed to Bleeding London's thing, although I feel a bit rusty. It's been a long time since I've taken my own photo walks with no agenda.


One of my goals was to photograph this entranceway. I've always found it amusing that Shakespeare and Defoe have their names on a parking garage, a structure they probably couldn't even conceive of. What would they think?


I came home with a pretty good haul. I thought I might go out again today, but Olga requires an outing, so maybe I'll focus on her instead. I'm also Skyping with my mom this afternoon. I'm eager to hear how the house and piano sale are going.

Meanwhile, Dave is toiling in the garden, planting things and moving things around. We had a low-level disagreement about the daffodils -- he wanted to cut off all the leaves now that the blooms are spent, and I told him to leave them because the plants need to gather energy. Well, his mom said on her visit that they always cut them off at their house, and that seemed to embolden Dave, because now all the daffodils are down to the ground. Hopefully they absorbed enough solar energy over the past couple of months!

(Photographs: All taken at the Barbican.)

7 comments:

  1. Good luck with the daffodils, I would have let the leaves die back a bit and the bulbs store some food. But I'm not the chief curator of parks and gardens at your place...

    And the third photo - all I can say is amazing.

    Ms Soup

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  2. The words I have learned to say which make marriage so much easier:
    "You are probably right, sweetie."
    And mostly, even if he isn't, it doesn't matter in the least.
    Love that man with the shadow headnet.

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  3. the general wisdom here is to let the foliage of bulbs die back before cutting it off so the bulbs can store energy for next years blooms. my early spring iris have such long leaves that after they bloom I usually braid them to keep them looking a bit tidier while they die back though I didn't do it this year.

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  4. I have such uncharitable thoughts sometimes when Mike does something that we disagree about - I always think, "well, I guess eventually he'll see that I was right!" But then I don't remember what the fuss was about, & he usually DOESN'T see that I was right. Ha!

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  5. If all you disagree about are gardening matters, you're doing well...Love the photo of the guy...I hope Olga had a good romp. Give my best to your mother.

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  6. My favorite word for Mr. Disagreeable Spouse is "DUDE whatever", I guess that is two words...Some folks are beyond reason! The parking garage? REALLY? That is such a ridiculous name for anything other than literature/art/education...Oh and Ellen is correct- everyone braids bulb leaves here, digs them up in autumn, stores them in paper bags in the garage/cellar, separates them in winter, and plant them again when the soil thaws.

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  7. I was thinking that Baker Street to the Barbican is quite a long walk but, who am I to talk. I've walked all over that city and loved every minute of it. Love that garage photo!

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