Arrivals, Departures

This is our patio at the moment. It's so jungly out there it can barely be called a patio. Part of the problem is I haven't weeded it in a while, so stuff is growing in the cracks of the concrete. But hey, I like it, and soon enough autumn will be here and all that will be dying back for another year.

I'm particularly glad to see the Chinese banana tree looking so robust. It really got blasted by last December's freezes. Remember how it had a terrible case of red spider mites last summer? I haven't seen them at all this year. I think the rain and cooler weather has kept them away.

Speaking of autumn, today is my first day back at work. Dave is also coming back today from Indiana, where he's been attending Drum Corps finals -- though he doesn't go back to work until Thursday. He's in the air right now, probably over Ireland or thereabouts. In any case, the summer, for us, is pretty much officially finished.

I took Olga to the cemetery yesterday, where she rolled around and made a spectacle of herself. I think she's getting a little bit deaf. Sometimes I say her name and she doesn't appear to hear me. She still totters after her ball, though, and glares at squirrels. Old dogs!

We found this grave decorated with stuffed animals, and I was amused that someone took the time to make them little rain hats out of a plastic bag.

I haven't written much about my own experience with bereavement this summer, the death of my mom. To be honest -- and to my surprise -- it's been less emotionally devastating than I expected. I think this is partly because she really left us years ago, when her mind began to deteriorate. Mom's departure was slow and gradual, and for the past year or two (really, since the height of the pandemic) she has seemed so unlike her healthier self that she was almost different person. (At least, to me, in the brief periods I was able to visit her. My brother, who saw her more from day to day, might feel differently.)

There were moments when I'd see the "old Mom" peek through, like when I wheeled her around in her wheelchair during my visit in February and we watched ducks on the pond and sat by the river. That was stuff she always liked to do, even when healthy. But she had receded from us so much by then.

So yes, of course, I miss Mom all the time. I think about her often and it always hits me with a little jolt that she's no longer here -- that I will never see her again, never hear her voice. But I was missing her even before she physically died. I've had a lot of time to process this departure.

Brown Argus, Purple Glass

Here's one of my butterfly pictures from my walk on Friday. I believe this is a Brown Argus butterfly, which I'm not sure I've ever seen before. They're not uncommon, but they live on chalky grassland, which isn't a habitat I'm around very much. It could be a female Common Blue, but the underwing looks more like an argus to me.

There were three of them, fluttering and swirling together over the flowers, and as I said in yesterday's post it was very windy so they never settled for long. I got several shots of them together, all blurry:

At least you get a sense of the action!

I finished the Rebecca Makkai book, "I Have Some Questions For You," yesterday. It was very good. I definitely recommend it. As I said the other day, it's a mystery novel that also probes some deeper issues about our modern culture.

I also solved a long-standing problem with my iTunes, albeit accidentally! Remember how I said the album covers in iTunes on my phone were all mixed up? I'd be playing Linda Ronstadt and seeing the cover for The Moody Blues, and it was making me crazy. Syncing the phone did nothing to fix the problem, even though the covers were all correctly ordered in my computer. I tried to just live with it, but cover art is an integral part of an album, so I was struggling. What is the Beatles' "White Album" without that white cover?

I'd read that I could delete my iTunes library from my phone and reinstall it, but that seemed rather drastic -- especially since not all albums were affected. About a third had correct covers. So yesterday I tried deleting them piecemeal, selecting only the incorrect ones, and then syncing the phone. I knew I wouldn't lose the music because the computer is the dominant "brain." And sure enough, it worked.

So I spent about an hour deleting and re-installing groups of albums, until suddenly the sync started running very slowly. I restarted everything but that didn't help. Finally I decided to sync just one artist at a time, which I could do in settings.

I thought this would sync the chosen artist but leave the rest of the library intact, but no! Instead it erased EVERYTHING BUT that artist. So basically, I inadvertently deleted the entire iTunes library on my phone except for Peter, Paul and Mary -- more or less the official "cure" that I'd been trying to avoid. Oops!

Happy news: It was easy to re-install by changing the settings back to "all music" and syncing the phone once again. It took awhile because I have just shy of 4,800 songs, but once the process completed, the album covers were all fixed. Now I'm no longer gazing at the face of Perry Como when playing Carole King. Whew!

I thought you might be curious to see the vases I bought at the thrift shop in Dartford on Friday. They're quite heavy and as you can see, they perfectly match my amethyst geode! They have this mark on the bottom:

It took some Googling, but I figured out that this is the mark for Liskeard Glass, a company based in Cornwall. Its name changed to Merlin Glass in 1983, so the vases must be from before that. I paid £8 for the two, and I think that was a pretty good deal. I'd have been happy with one but I couldn't bring myself to separate them!

Last night I watched "The Talented Mr. Ripley," one of my favorite films. Makes me want to go to Italy!

Erith to Dartford and DONE!

I walked the four-mile final segment of the Thames Path yesterday, from Erith to the River Darent. I've now completed the full 80-mile route along both the north and south banks of the river -- after 11 months! Now I'll have to find another walking challenge, which shouldn't be hard. Britain is a walker's paradise.

The first stretch of my walk yesterday took me through a gritty and frankly unpleasant section of Erith, along a heavily-traveled roadway full of trucks and equipment. There were some colorful scenes, like the one above with wildflowers and a discarded orange glove, but it wasn't a particularly photogenic area.

Soon, though, the path turned into a grassland on a bluff overlooking the river. That's looking back toward Erith, above.

I brought my big camera because I was pretty sure I'd see some wildlife and I wanted my zoom and macro lenses. And it's a good thing I did. As I walked I saw what looked like some old tires down on the mud flats...

...only they weren't tires. They were seals! This is not a complete surprise, I must admit, because I saw seals lounging in this exact spot the last time I walked this route. (This segment of the Thames Path is also part of the London Loop, which I walked several years ago.)

I loved watching them bask in the sun. Every once in a while they'd lazily stretch or roll over, which reminded me so much of Olga sunbathing in the garden!

There were lots of smaller critters, too. I saw this lone cinnabar moth caterpillar munching on some ragwort...

...and a couple of amorous shield bugs. Also lots of butterflies, but it was very windy up on those grassy bluffs and the butterflies didn't seem to want to settle for a photo.

At the mouth of the muddy River Darent is a flood-control structure meant to prevent the Thames from invading upriver communities like Dartford and Crayford during periods of high water. Beyond the dam you can see the Queen Elizabeth II bridge, also known as the Dartford Crossing, which carries the M25 over the Thames. The M25 is a major highway that runs all the way around London.

The path turned inland to follow the Darent, and finally brought me to a narrow footpath leading to the Slade Green rail station. ("A gorgeous green tunnel," the map romantically called the path, though it was very shady.) I passed this horse in a field along the way, trying to pass itself off as a stylish zebra with a braided tail.

That was the end of the Thames Path, but not the end of my day. I caught the train at Slade Green and went one stop southeast to Dartford, because I'd just read that new sculptures were unveiled there honoring two of the town's most famous sons: Mick Jagger and Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones.

The sculptures were easy to find, right in the center of the main shopping district, and attracted a steady stream of fans while I was there. I sat at a cafe across the street and ate lunch, which gave me an excellent view of selfie-takers like this guy -- in his Aerosmith t-shirt, dramatically dragging from a cigarette (at least I assume that's a cigarette).

After I finished my grilled cheese and tomato sandwich, I walked through town, bought a couple of vases at a thrift store (like I need more vases!) and then headed home. Mission accomplished!

(Not) Very Warm

I laughed yesterday at how the forecast from Weather.com described our local temperature. It was going to be "VERY WARM" -- all of 79º F (26º C)! I think I can live with that. I guess relative to our recent temperatures that is quite warm but even by British standards it's pretty moderate.

I spent the "VERY WARM" day mowing the lawn, doing some light trimming and gardening, and reading. I deadheaded the buddleia, particularly the part hanging over the fence onto Mrs. Kravitz's side, because I know she's paranoid it will re-seed on her patio. (Of course if it did, GOD FORBID, her gardener would weed the sprouts. It's not like it would make more work for her.)

I'm giving you pictures of our gazanias. I seem to have two varieties this year -- purple ones and white ones with red-tinged petals. It's always a crapshoot what you're going to get when you buy those tiny plants at the store. Which is part of the fun, I suppose -- seeing what emerges.

The book I'm reading is "I Have Some Questions For You" by Rebecca Makkai. At first it seems like it's going to be simply a highbrow whodunit, but it's quite ambitious and as it unfolds it becomes more than that -- an exploration of the effects of social media, and of the ways our culture responds to reports of sexual abuse by women. It took me about 100 pages to get into it but now I'm really liking it. I sat out on the garden bench reading it yesterday morning.

I mentioned the TV show "The Crowded Room" the other day, and I'm still watching that in the evenings. I've warmed to it a lot and in fact, if Dave wants to watch it when he returns, I might sit through it again with him. I didn't really tumble to what was going on until the fifth episode and I'd like to go back and see the beginning, knowing what I know now. (That's all very nebulous but if you see it you'll know what I mean.)

Finally, here's a very short video from my walk along the river on Wednesday, showing some bright yellow butterflies doing some mid-air acrobatics (until I lost them in the sun). I meant to post it yesterday but after all those pictures it seemed like too much! You can see how nice and clear the sky was, but apparently it wasn't "VERY WARM," at least not according to the forecasters. (Today it's going to be merely "warm," up to 76º F.)

Thamesmead to Erith

Finally! A day of sunshine! And I think we're going to get more today and tomorrow. After our recent dampness and gloom I feel blessed.

I set out yesterday to walk another segment of the Thames Path. I really want to finish it this summer before school begins, and I had only nine miles left -- I've walked that far before so it was certainly doable. But I wound up walking just five. I figure I'll go back on Friday and do the rest. No need to kill myself.

I started out in Thamesmead, after taking two trains and a bus to get there.

This little bee joined me early in my journey. The poor thing was so covered in pollen it was a bit punch-drunk, I think. I let it ride on my chest until it regained its senses enough to buzz off to another flower.

This section of the south bank of the Thames is quite industrial. Once you leave Thamesmead it's all crumbling wharves, docks and machinery. Above is the old Crossness Pumping Station, the terminus of London's Victorian sewage system, parts of which are open as a museum. It looks amazing inside; I'll have to check it out sometime.

At first, when the station opened in the 1860s, it mostly collected the city's sewage in a reservoir and pumped it into the Thames on the ebb tide. Eventually technology developed to separate out the sludge, which was taken farther to sea on barges and dumped, while liquids were released into the river. I was surprised to see on this timeline that the dumping of sludge at sea didn't end until 1999!

Although the old Crossness station isn't operating any longer, there are now more modern sewage disposal facilities in the same area...

...including an incinerator for sludge (foreground). There's also an incinerator for business and household trash (the far building).

So, yeah, the Thames Path goes right past all of this, and although it didn't smell great it was quite interesting to see.

There was also some really good graffiti along this stretch -- precise and colorful!

At one point, the path went up this very steep ramp, which was equally steep going down the other side. I understand the "cyclists dismount" sign -- you'd bust your head rolling down this thing.

I wound up in Erith, a riverside community where I've been several times before, as parts of the Thames Path are shared by the Green Chain and London Loop walks, which I've already done. In fact I've photographed this crumbling dock before, though I had much sunnier conditions yesterday.

As I said, I decided to head home from here. I caught a train in Erith and then a couple of tube trains. I was listening to music on the way home -- the Bee Gees' song "Spirits Having Flown," to be precise -- when I suddenly felt a surge of emotion. This happens sometimes when I exercise and I think it has to do with endorphins, or maybe it was the music or being out in the sunshine all morning, but anyway the world suddenly seemed so BEAUTIFUL, even underground on a barreling tube train!

A Refund

Another rainy day yesterday -- I mostly stayed inside reading except for a brief trip to the grocery store. Every time Dave goes away I make it a challenge to eat mostly what we already have in the flat -- it's my opportunity to clear out, for example, our three opened bags of rice, or that jar of clams in the back of the fridge that Dave bought ages ago for chowder but never used. But no matter how resourceful I am in the pantry, I do occasionally need milk and fresh produce. And dog food!

Great news from Lufthansa -- they agreed to refund the fare for the flight I was unable to take to the USA last month. Remember how I bought one ticket and then couldn't change it, and had to buy a second one in order to get there earlier? Now I'm not losing the money on that first ticket. A huge relief! They required my mom's death certificate but once they had that they processed things pretty quickly.

Yesterday was rainy, but Monday wasn't too bad weather-wise, so I got some laundry done. I washed all my shirts in preparation for school starting. Of course I wash them throughout the school year, too, but I tend to wear them a few times before laundering them (because I sit at a desk and never get very dirty) so I like to start the year fresh with everything clean.

I also bought some new pants and new shoes. I bought "relaxed fit" pants. Even though I still have a 32 waist, just as I have pretty much my whole adult life, I am at the age where I don't want my clothes to be too tailored. No more skinny jeans for me!

I've started watching a show on Apple TV called "The Crowded Room" with Tom Holland. I was a bit ambivalent about it at first but I'm four episodes in and it's getting better. Apparently it's based on a Daniel Keyes book, "The Minds of Billy Milligan," which I don't think I ever read but I remember hearing about. I'll let you know if the show lives up to expectations!

(Top photo: A bee on our Agapanthus, Monday.)

From Crete to Norway to Motspur Park

At the risk of overdoing it on the old, anonymous photos -- because I just posted some about a week ago -- let me show you a few more. These are the pictures I bought at the junk shop in Greenwich about a month ago, when I walked a section of the Thames Path. I've been meaning to post them ever since but never did, and I had a pretty boring day yesterday so there's not much else to write.

As I mentioned in that linked post above, I bet I looked through about 500 pictures in that shop but I only bought a handful. The one above was taken, I believe, in Crete (based on a note on the envelope it was in). I'd guess it's from the late '80s or early '90s.

This one says "Lynton" on the back. Lynton is a town on the north coast of Devon, in Exmoor National Park. I wonder where her shoes are?

This must be somewhere in Germany but I have no idea of the precise location* or date. I like how sharp it is -- how clear the reflections are in that car, for example. It's a nice photo.

*Edit: I did a Google image search and it's apparently in Waldkirch. There's a very similar photo on this page about Waldkirch's history, and another photo of the same hotel here. 

A photo from a union strike sometime before 1993, when NALGO -- the National and Local Government Officer's Association -- combined with some other trade unions under a new name. The flier, from the Greenwich chapter of NALGO, says the event was March 24th but doesn't give a year, and says something about the NHS. A little slice of union history!

Some writing on the back of this photo identifies it as being taken near Oslo, Norway in the summer of 1965. It's very clean and Scandinavian.

This photo of a runner has some mysterious information written on the back:

If I'm reading it correctly, it was taken in April, year unknown, in Motspur Park, which is in South London. There's a Fulham Football Club training ground there. I'm thinking the guy was running a 3000-meter race, and maybe 9 minutes, 38 seconds was his time? (At first I thought 9-38 was a date, but from the trees it's clear the photo wasn't taken in September.)

Back to Devon again -- this time on the south coast. Stamped on the back: "Beach Photo, The Promenade, Teignmouth." It looks like it wasn't very warm.

And finally, one more shot from somewhere in the Mediterranean. I love the way the guys are dressed alike, and the repetitive pattern of squares and cubes. This is a good example of what I look for when I buy old photos -- images that are well-composed and historically or photographically interesting. They're one in a million!