Time for a post of random photos that have lately been accumulating in my iPhone -- mostly taken while walking the dog.
First, I found broken pieces of something littering the ground on the next street over. I couldn't tell what they were so, just out of curiosity, I picked them up, brought them home and put them together. Voila! A refrigerator magnet, which I did not keep or try to repair (although I do love Greece).
Every walk on the high street involves Olga staring longingly into the butcher shop.
There's still a surprising amount of anti-mask propaganda lying around, even though almost no one in the UK wears a mask anywhere anymore.
Free shoes!
Free guitar!
The window of a photo printing shop in St. John's Wood. Covid does seem that way sometimes -- except that it's not over and for some people it continues to be a nightmare.
Sir Paul says hi. Or peace. Or something.
In my family, my brother is known as JM, so I thought this graffiti on our street was pretty funny. I SWEAR I DID NOT WRITE IT!
Dustin Hoffman was here...?
And finally, it's blackberry season again! This was my first handful picked from the vines in our garden. I've been adding them to my cereal each morning, as I do every year. Dave doesn't like them -- he calls them "acid bombs" -- but I enjoy their tartness.
What a fun collection. And of course you dug up, cleaned, assembled the fridge magnet! The photo of Olga and the butcher shop is priceless.
ReplyDeleteJust one leg of pork would make me so happy, thinks Olga.
ReplyDeleteWhy do people smash guitars. If you remember I showed a photo of one last Sunday.
It's a nice idea that it was all a dream, but I don't think it was and it is ongoing.
I hope you send the photo to your brother.
Fresh blackberries from the vine. Delicious.
The aromas that Olga must be detecting outside the butcher's! Must be like an habitual pot smoker standing outside a coffee shop in Amsterdam. Your brambles are way ahead of ours. Little sign of ripening yet.
ReplyDeleteOlga Girls Ears - Always Enjoy The iPhone Postings - Well Done
ReplyDeleteCheers
This was an entertaining post. You might want to check your spam folder. I'm commenting regularly. (Or at least I thought I was...)
ReplyDeleteIn NC there are wine berry bushes and I have to tell you that they are the sweetest berries. They do not taste like wine to me, just delicious berries. Not so acid.
ReplyDeleteThat's a rather frightening Sir Paul. He looks a little like Nic Cage to me.
How I wish Olga could get a tiny pork chop from the butcher store now and then.
I, too, think we need Low IQ ID's and agree they should be worn of people's faces. I need advance warning.
ReplyDeleteI think Paul is saying table for two please, but he doesn't look all that happy about his dining companion.
ReplyDeleteI like blackberry jam, but I'm not so fond of eating the actual berries because even though I like tart things they seem a bit too much - & then suddenly they're TOO ripe. Ha!
My wife still talks about blackberries and she left England in 1953. We don't have blackberries here.
ReplyDeleteNice collection of photos. You always see such interesting things out on your walks.
ReplyDeleteI audibly gasped when I scrolled past the guitar. It made me sad. Does anyone from inside the shop ever notice Olga peering in? They should bring her out a little morsel of something! I can't get past the seeds in blackberries.
ReplyDeleteI love that photo of Olga staring into the butcher's shop. I wonder if she has dreams about wandering around in there and snatching some tasty sausages.
ReplyDeleteI love the taste of blackberries but I hate the seeds. I'd love to know what happened to that guitar.
As ever, an interesting and intriguing collection!
ReplyDeleteWe still mask up...and with numbers rising we are seeing more people wearing masks in shops and other like places.
We have blackberries growing wild near home but they're also near sprayed grass so I leave them. My inner Yorkshire woman still calls them brambles though. Going brambling happened in late summer there. Depending on how much sun they'd had they were sweet or tart.
ReplyDeleteI know more people with Covid now than I ever have before. (probably due to the contagious latest variant and lack of masking) They are mostly miserable.
ReplyDeleteOlga probably has dreams of steaks and chops dancing in her head! Just a slice of ribeye would be such a treat!
ReplyDeleteI enjoy your various collection of miscellany you manage to accrue on your walks!
I guess it's sort of comforting to know that there are plenty of dumb folks in England, too, regarding masking. I always marvel at the energy expended on that kind of propaganda.
ReplyDeleteAfter years of cutting my arms to shreds if birds didn't beat me first to the wild blackberries, we planted some in our garden last year. There were a few berries this year but we let the birds win this time around.
ReplyDeleteOne of our neighbors planted some sort of berry (black? red?) and the canes are enormous. I view them as an invasive species after living on the west side which is covered in black berries and morning glory.
ReplyDeleteMarvelous collection of photos. I think what Sir Paul is saying is "Sure, I'll come sing at your birthday party. For two million pounds!"
ReplyDeleteWell not masking goes a long way to explaining the rise of new COVID cases and the new variant that is so much more contagious...A Canadian blogger introduced me to blackberries. I was 50 the first time I had some.
ReplyDeleteAnother intriguing collection of photos. Olga with her sensitive doggy nose must feel toward the butcher shop how I feel when I smell chocolate or popcorn! She's a good girl not to pull you right in. Or you are strong :)
ReplyDeleteI've had sour blackberries and sweet blackberries. When they're good, they're VERY good.
Mitchell: Well, I didn't dig it up. It was just scattered over the sidewalk. But yeah, my curiosity got the best of me! I had to see what it said!
ReplyDeleteAndrew: I can't imagine why someone smashed up that guitar. Maybe they sat or stepped on it by mistake.
YP: We're usually a few weeks ahead of you on the bramble front, as I recall!
Padre: Those are her "Can I PLEASE go in?" ears. LOL
Debby: I publish my spam comments every day, so whatever you've left me is now on the blog. It might take me a day to get to them but I always find them!
Ms Moon: Do wine berries LOOK like blackberries? I've never heard of a wine berry.
Bob: Ha! Yeah, that remark works either way depending on perspective! I still don't get the strenuousness of the anti-maskers' objections.
Bug: Maybe he's meeting his business manager!
Red: Really?! I'm surprised they don't grow where you are. Maybe it gets too cold. They're all over the Pacific Northwest.
Robin: There's a lot going on in a big city!
Kelly: I guess if they brought a morsel to every hungry dog they'd have a mob in front of the shop!
Sharon: I suspect Olga is driven 100 percent by sense of smell!
GZ: I see masks very rarely here. Some people do wear them on the tube.
Boud: I used to go "brambling" in Florida, where the season for blackberries was April/May, as I recall.
Margaret: Interesting! Our rates have gone up here as well.
Marcia: Forget rib-eye, even a slice of beef trimming would thrill her!
Elizabeth: Exactly! I don't get the vociferousness of the opposition.
Ed: At least in planting them you probably get hybrids that are sweeter and bigger. The wild type can be pretty tart. Ours are wild, as far as we know -- at least they were already here when we moved in.
Allison: Yeah, I remember they're a huge problem in Washington state. They blanket Hampstead Heath here in London, too. I guess like anything else if you can keep them under control they're not so bad.
Catalyst: Two million? Probably more like TEN million!
E: Really?! You hadn't had blackberries before then? I used to pick them in Florida when I was a kid. It's amazing how widely they grow, in such a variety of climates.
Jenny-O: She tries her best to pull me in, believe me!
Masks are mostly back here, variants of covid are rampaging and it's flu season too. We are told to wear them on pubic transport and I always did, but still a few don't.
ReplyDeleteBlackberries are a weed here, they'll take over anywhere. When my daughter and her husband bought their current home, much of the lower yard was blackberries, so they borrowed a goat who ate the lot, then they dug out the roots.
We never stopped wearing masks and lots more people here are starting again it's not over yet. In Scotland it's still the law that you must wear one in doctors surgeries, chemists and hospitals.
ReplyDeleteI bet that guitar has a story to tell! Love Olga at the butcher shop!
ReplyDelete