This building is located not far from our flat, on a route along the high street that I often walk with Olga. As we passed the other morning, I got to looking at that face more closely. Who is it supposed to be?
The building itself is otherwise nondescript and doesn't offer any clues. I tried searching online and couldn't find anything, although I did learn that several houses across the street -- where the West Hampstead Library is now -- were destroyed by a bomb in World War II, killing ten people at a wedding party.
I also learned that Olivia Newton-John lived in a house on this road in 1965!
Could it be Pan, or some nameless satyr? Why would someone put a satyr on a building?
I think it looks like Susan Boyle. With horns. That's my vote.
Yesterday Dave and I went to a lunchtime open house given by one of our coworkers, and I wore the West Virginia Penitentiary t-shirt that I bought at Goodwill in Jacksonville a week ago. Would you believe someone at the party and his family had actually been there? Apparently they were in West Virginia visiting family and looking for something to do and the penitentiary gives tours. What are the odds?
We haven't seen any more mice since a few days after our return from Vietnam. Our upstairs neighbor is involved in what appears to be a massive project refinishing his entry stairs and front door -- there's been endless sanding -- and I imagine that's driven any remaining mice elsewhere. (Along with our return home.) Maybe we've finally conquered the domestic wildlife.
(Can you have domestic wildlife? Or is that an oxymoron?)
On first sight, I thought it was Margaret Thatcher but she was not born in 1892. The perfunctory coupling that produced her occurred above a grocery shop in Grantham, Lincolnshire in the winter of 1925. There are no known photographs of this event.
ReplyDeleteyour 'resident' wildlife. the satyr? on the guilding may just be a different version of a gargoyle to scare off evil intent.
ReplyDeleteI love the fact that you wore that T-shirt to a lunchtime open house. And what ARE the odds? Weird synchronicity, Steve.
ReplyDeleteNo idea about the satyr.
It does look a bit like Susan Boyle. How crazy to actually run into someone who has been to that prison. What are the odds?
ReplyDeleteIt may be Queen Victoria, depending on the age of the building. I knew you would have some adventures in that shirt!
ReplyDeleteI think we should have a photo of you wearing the shirt. Do I hear a second?
ReplyDeleteI second it, of course, but I think it was going to happen anyway :D
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting that the prison is now a place where you can tour. I wonder if they sell those T-shirts there, too?
I was thinking (like Ellen) that the face looks like a version of a gargoyle.
Likely a satyr, especially considering the fertility symbols of fruit in the bough he holds. Building put up in 1892, possibly an arts and crafts style? Just a question - I have no answers.
ReplyDeleteIt sort of made me think of the Wizard in the Wizard of Oz - if he'd had horns. And I LOVE that you both wore the T-shirt & that someone at the party had been there - ha!
ReplyDelete