Ducklings and Slides

I spent most of yesterday morning reading about the secret lives of sunflowers -- which honestly aren't all that interesting. I'm in a portion of the book focused on their hybridization and modification as an agricultural crop, and I'm less personally concerned about sunflowers agriculturally than aesthetically. There were some interesting factoids -- for example, the International Sunflower Association bestows an award named for Soviet scientist V.S. Pustovoit, who is apparently considered the granddaddy of modern sunflower breeding. Probably too obscure to turn up on a pub quiz, but still, who knew?! Anyway, I've churned through all that now and I think I have just one more chapter to go.

After a simple lunch I decided to take a couple of bags of stuff to the local charity shop, and then head out for a long walk. I grabbed my stepmother's camera and walked down to St. John's Wood, where I picked up the Regent's Canal at Lisson Grove.

The canal in that area is lined with narrow boats that, as far as I can tell, are more or less permanently moored. The towpath is lined with potted plants, cafe tables, benches and other furnishings that show it functions as a patio for those living on the boats.

It's a beautiful little secret gem of an area, where I haven't walked in years. Past the boat moorings, the canal passes beneath some railroad tracks and a major road before running through Regent's Park, past some stately mansions with wide, sloping lawns running down to the water.

From there it connects to the boat basin where the floating Chinese restaurant is anchored, and then makes a sharp turn eastward toward Camden Market.

I passed this mother duck with 13 tiny ducklings (!) trailing behind her. I'm impressed by how well they keep up with Mom. As I began making this video, a mob of European high-school students descended some stairs from the street above onto the towpath, which is why I got jostled and why it's so noisy. They were all exclaiming over the ducks.

Here's the scene near Camden Market. You can see all the kids on the towpath ahead of me. I saw a surprising number of kids out and about yesterday. Don't people have school? This coming Monday is a bank holiday, but as far as I know yesterday was a regular old school day.

At Camden Market I went to check out the booth of the dealer who sold me Joan Tubbs' photo slides a couple of summers ago. Sure enough, he had another box of slides, and many of them seem to be more of Joan's work. I knew I didn't have them all -- in fact, I got a note on Flickr last July from a university art student who also bought some of Tubbs' slides in Camden, so I knew there were more out there. Anyway, the guy sold me the whole box for £20. He said he has tens of thousands of slides from multiple sources and if I come back next week he'll have more available. I may well do that, because I am insane.

I brought them all home (stopping along the way in Belsize Park for coffee, because by then my feet were complaining). I've only been through about a quarter of them, but I've already found some photo gems so I will have another post of rescued slides coming up soon -- after I get everything sorted. I'm going to look into getting some equipment to scan them myself. The big expense is always the scanning, not the actual slides, so if I can avoid that it will be worth it.

Ironic that I brought home this big bag of slides after taking two boxes to a charity shop. Stuff out, stuff in. That's the way of life, right? At least slides are compact and easy to store.

Seedling update: One zinnia down, courtesy of a guilty-looking slug, found beneath an adjacent rock. Otherwise, everything is still hanging in there, and we even got a smattering of rain last night and this morning!