Daffodils in a Tree

Last weekend, when Olga and I went to Sandy Heath, we found that someone had propped a bouquet of daffodils in this immense tree. (Olga wasn't all that interested, preferring to run around like a wild thing in the background.)

Actually, maybe they're not daffodils. Narcissus?

Yesterday was the most beautiful, bright, sunny spring day you could ever want. And today? Freezing temperatures, wind and snow! We're getting a mini version of our recent "Beast from the East" storm this weekend. The high temperature for the day is supposed to be just above freezing -- which means, once again, that walking the LOOP is probably out. I'll know more after I walk the dog this morning. If she'll go. I see flurries out there already.

The painters are here today, finishing up, so I have to do something to get out of their hair.

I woke to the news that President Trump is claiming in a legal filing that Stormy Daniels owes him $20 million for violating their confidentiality agreement. But why does that agreement exist in the first place?! Is this man really our president? I just can't stand it.

Literature and Bart Simpson

I found myself walking behind this guy on my way home from work yesterday. People make the strangest fashion choices.

I'm enjoying my alone time at home with the dog. It would be better if the house weren't still a wreck, but the painters are making progress. The kitchen is mostly done, the bathroom needs one more coat, the entrance hall is mostly done except for all the trim, and the living room is done. So now it's just a matter of the small hallway in the middle of the house, plus that trim and the extra coat in the bathroom. I think they may finish up today.

I haven't tried to put anything back in order. I'll wait until they're done with everything and then do it all at once.

One unfortunate side effect of the bright new paint -- it makes the kitchen cabinets look terrible. I need to do some serious cleaning in that kitchen.

Meanwhile, as I said yesterday, Olga and I are living in the midst of a garage sale, with everything crowded into the two rooms that are not being painted:

I'm not complaining. The place will look so much better when this is all done.

The magazine people finally came and collected all our donated magazines from the library, and I worked yesterday to weed more of the fiction shelves. So here's a question -- Samuel Richardson, the 18th century novelist, penned two multi-volume works, one called "Pamela" (2 volumes) and one called "Clarissa" (4 volumes). We have both, and neither has been checked out for about 15 years. Do you think it would be library heresy to take "Clarissa" off the shelves and just leave "Pamela," which is the better-known work? Are we obligated, as a library, to make all the classics available, or is it better to free up shelf space for books that are going to be more actively read?

I faced the same question with "The Mysteries of Udolfo," a classic gothic novel I hadn't heard of at all. We have a copy but it's never been checked out. Apparently it was influential to Jane Austen (whose novels do get read) but do we really need it?

I know this probably sounds horrible, given that we are a school library, but the reality is, shelf space is valuable and most of our reading patrons are middle schoolers. (The high schoolers check out far fewer books.) As I write this and think more about it, I'm leaning toward keeping them as foundational works of literature, but it's an interesting question.

The Anti-Gun Walkout

Students and staff at our American school here in London participated in yesterday's anti-gun walkout. Even though Britain in general is a much more secure environment when it comes to gun laws and gun regulations, our demonstration was meant to show affinity with marching students all across the United States. I didn't participate personally, because someone had to stay in the library with the handful of students (mostly from countries other than the USA, it seemed to me) who stayed behind during the protests. But I certainly agree with the sentiment of the demonstrators.

It's great to see so many kids taking action and making their voices heard. The cynical side of me suspects it won't lead to concrete change -- at least, not immediately -- but these kids are forming opinions that will influence how they and their friends think and vote in coming years. So that's promising.

I do think public opinion is slowly changing on this issue. As older, more gun-friendly generations die off, and younger people who have been raised amid the seemingly endless parade of mass shootings grow up and become politically active, change is bound to occur. I also suspect fewer people in each new generation are participating in gun-related sports and hunting, which means many younger people see guns solely as criminal devices. Which is pretty much how I see them.

So, yeah, I'm glad to see kids taking a stand.

In other news, the painters in our flat made more progress yesterday. They removed our glass shower partition, a ridiculous (and ridiculously ugly) sort of gate which served as our shower curtain. It only extended half the length of the bathtub, which left the rest of the tub completely open to the room. I don't know who designed that thing, but Dave and I both hated it.

Our plan was to keep it and re-install it when we leave this property. Meanwhile, we'll use an actual shower curtain.

But the painters had to use some "brute force" (as one of them said to me) to remove the door, because the screws were badly stripped. So I'm not sure reinstalling it will ever be possible. We may have to eventually take our lumps for that decision. I put it in the shed in the back garden, and there it will stay.

(Photo: A bar near Tottenham Court Road, last week.)

Morris the Entrepreneur

This used to be the side entrance to a gigantic art deco cinema in Kilburn called the Gaumont State Cinema. It seated 4,000 people! I'm not sure what's going on there these days -- apparently the main part of the cinema was purchased by a church, but I'm not sure this side venue (which eventually became an Odeon cinema) is part of that deal. At any rate, as you can see, it's closed up and not in great shape. There were two couches and a tent beneath that awning when I took that photo last weekend.

Thanks for all the mouse info yesterday. I'm (weirdly) not too concerned about it, but I like the idea of putting the dog food in a plastic container. That does seem wise. I may try to get a humane trap and release the critter outside.

I went back to the dentist yesterday to have him take a look at my root-canaled tooth, which has been giving me very mild twinges of pain. He thinks it's just routine inflammation that's part of healing, but he gave me another round of antibiotics in case there's still some infection beneath it.

You know how we were marveling the other day at all the information available on the Internet? Well, I was recently looking through old issues of my hometown newspaper, the Tampa Tribune, online. I was specifically searching for a picture that ran in 1988 or so of a bunch of reporters and candidates at the courthouse watching election returns. I was in the picture, and I don't have a copy of it.

Well, I didn't have any luck finding that particular photo -- I'm not clear on the year or the caption or the photographer or even whether it ran in the Tribune. It might have been a competing newspaper. But I did find a couple of other articles featuring me, which I already do have copies of, as well as lots of interesting old advertisements like the gem at left. I wonder if Morris is still in business?

It was fun to browse the paper and remember the ol' hometown before it became the much bigger, flashier city it is today.

The painters are still here, working their way through the flat. All is still chaos. Olga spent last night on the couch -- I think she was waiting for Dave to come home. (As I mentioned yesterday, he'll be in Singapore until Sunday.)

Color My World

Have I mentioned that Dave and I have embarked on a redecorating project?

You may remember that we've been nagging our landlord for months to paint certain parts of the flat -- the kitchen and bathroom, mainly. Our nagging came to naught, so we decided to go ahead and pay for it ourselves. It's an investment that I hope the landlord appreciates (doubtful) and one that will make living here much more enjoyable.

Well, the painter's first day was yesterday -- and honestly I don't know if it's just one guy or a whole crew, because they come after we've gone to work and they leave before we get home. He (they?) painted the bathroom and asked us to move all the plants out of the living room, which he (they?) are going to "touch up."

It looks so bare without our jungle, doesn't it? Moving that avocado tree was no small feat. (We put it in our bedroom where I hope it won't kill and eat us in our sleep.)

I put all our pictures and tchotchkes in the dining room, which now looks like a crazy garage sale.

To make matters more interesting, Dave leaves for Singapore today on a school trip. So it's just me and the painters -- and poor traumatized Olga, who doesn't seem at all traumatized, actually -- until this coming weekend.

And even more interesting, we have mice! Or at least, mouse. I heard the distinct sounds of chewing last night in the entrance hall, and although it was too dark to see the culprit in action, after I turned on the light I found little tooth marks in Olga's bag of dog food. The mouse didn't break entirely through the bag, and I picked it up and put it on the table, thinking it might at least be out of reach up there. I suppose it's too much to expect that if I make it hard for them to eat, these critters will go away on their own?

Never a dull moment!

(Top photo: West Hampstead, last weekend.)

Ravenous Camellia Monster

Yesterday was yet another day it was supposed to rain...with very little rain...and yet another day I could have walked the LOOP but didn't. I don't know why I ever pay attention to the weather report. I should just do what everyone does in this land of unpredictable precipitation -- go about my business while armed with an umbrella.

Olga and I got out for another long walk in the morning, this time northward through Childs Hill. The daffodils were out in force at Fortune Green. (Yes, I've basically taken that picture before.)

Then we came home and hung around the house. We watched this squirrel sitting on the next-door neighbor's wooden rose trellis. See that bright pink thing in its hairy little paws? That's one of the buds from the camellia bush behind it. The little monster is eating the flowers before they even have a chance to open! If I were the neighbor I'd be annoyed, but it's not my bush.

I've been vowing to read more YA fiction, to keep myself professionally relevant, so this weekend I read "The Maze Runner," by James Dashner -- and I have to say it was good. I'm not sure it entirely made sense, but as long as you don't apply adult standards of physics and believability it succeeded admirably. I'd recommend it to a kid, absolutely -- not that they need my recommendation for that book, because they're all reading it anyway. (I should probably make an effort to read less well-known stuff.)

Olga and I went to the Heath in the afternoon, and I succeeded in wearing her out completely. When we came home she collapsed, and Dave and I watched the first two episodes of the newest season of "American Crime Story," about the killing of Gianni Versace in Miami Beach. I remember that episode well -- I was living in Florida at the time and occasionally drove down to Miami for a weekend, so I connected with the crime geographically and culturally. Andrew Cunanan stashed his stolen truck in the same parking garage where I used to park! Anyway, a truly horrible story and one that seemed to take the shine off Miami Beach for years to come.

Lush Lush Orange

Rain was predicted for yesterday afternoon, which bummed me out, because I really wanted to get walking again on the London LOOP. (It's been more than a month!) Not wanting to slog across wet, muddy pastures in a downpour, though, I figured I'd better not risk it.

Instead I took the dog out early for an extra-long morning walk. We headed up Mill Lane through West Hampstead, past this colorful carpet shop, and on toward Kilburn. Imagine an entire room carpeted in that hot pink, or that vivid orange! Head-splitting!

Olga loves walking through this pedestrian cage -- for lack of a better word -- because she always sees squirrels in the trees to the left. They literally drive her barking mad.

The cage exists, I think, to keep people off the train tracks below and to the right. (And to keep them from throwing things onto the tracks, probably.) It's always a little creepy walking through there.

We meandered through Kilburn, where we came across this spectacularly bizarre sweatshirt set out with someone's trash. What does "Lush Lush Orange" mean, and what does it have to do with a raccoon? At least, I think that's a raccoon. In overalls. With a bandana.

I found it hilarious, but Olga was so bored she couldn't stifle a yawn.

From there we went to historic Paddington Old Cemetery, where we'd never walked before.

We circled the elegant gothic-style chapels, which date from 1855 and, according to Historic England, are "too dangerous to use."  They're fenced off, as you can barely see in the photo above, but I got a few glimpses of the impressive stained glass windows.

And from there we headed home, where I laundered the "Lush Lush Orange" sweatshirt for our charity-shop donations bag. Someone somewhere will love it, don't you think?

And then, of course, it didn't rain all day. Argh!