Autumn and the iPhone

Time for another collection of miscellaneous photos from my iPhone!

Here's what autumn is looking like around here. This is the next street over from our own, where I often walk Olga in the mornings.

This is a residential high-rise on the Chalcots Estate near Swiss Cottage. It used to be covered in white cladding, but after the Grenfell Tower fire -- which was fueled by inappropriate cladding -- the council stripped it from the buildings. People are still living there, and I believe there's an ongoing refurbishment project. I'm not sure why the floor numbers are spray-painted on the facade.

I've heard of sticking playing cards in the spokes of a bike wheel -- but apples?

A colorful fall leaf. I always wind up photographing random leaves.

Saw this near the playground in Fortune Green -- a chair strapped inside a shopping cart. Was this someone's creative way of taking their kid to the park?

This bag was lying on our street. I was initially intrigued because it's from a record shop -- and you don't see many record shops any more, do you? But it's also interesting because it's all the way from Wales. Apparently Cob Records is quite an institution.

This is a mural under the train tracks on the high road in Kilburn. It's been there for years. I've never been able to figure out exactly what's going on in this scene. Maybe it's supposed to encourage kids to get outside and away from their computers? I like the iguana at far right.

Oranges and pineapples -- a tropical fruit salad!

This is somewhat clumsy graffiti, but I like the atomic theme. It's very '50s.

O Fortuna

Yesterday we encountered what's lately become a rare commodity -- sun! I took Olga to the Heath for a good long romp.

Although many of the trees are still green, or just going yellow, the light seems different at this time of year -- mellower, with long shadows.

Olga, of course, ran around like one of Pasteur's mad dogs.

We paused for a quick photo beside the cricket batting cages on Hampstead Heath Extension.

Olga lost her tennis ball while chasing and barking at a squirrel. That's no big deal -- she's got a million of 'em. But then, tragedy! While walking through Golders Hill Park on the way home, she dropped her Kong, and it rolled under a fence and down a small hill into a pond. I have retrieved that Kong from all manner of disgusting and awkward places but I just didn't have it in me to go after it -- at least, not immediately. So as I write, it's still in the pond, and we are Kongless.

(I must admit, though, that I'm hatching a plan to go back for it. We'll see.)

Dave and I went Saturday night to hear the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra perform Carmina Burana at Royal Albert Hall. We went with a bunch of other teachers -- we had access to free box seats provided by one of the families at school. (Woo hoo!) Most of us know Carmina Burana's opening and closing piece, "O Fortuna," and for years I've believed it was the music used in the film "The Omen." (I even blogged that the last time I saw Carmina Burana, when I lived in New York.)

Inspired, Dave and I rented "The Omen" yesterday. And no, the music is not "O Fortuna," although it is choral and has a vaguely similar disquieting sound. (Apparently "O Fortuna" has been used in many other movies over the years.)

Finally, I also have to correct something I said in yesterday's post -- I discovered via Google Street View that the old Kapok Tree Inn in Clearwater was not entirely demolished. Parts of it still stand, and for years it's been a music store and apparently a wedding and event space. Most importantly, the large kapok tree that stood outside the restaurant is still around!

Matchbooks

As you may remember, among all the other useless stuff I collect, I save old matchbooks. My collection doesn't grow anymore, because restaurants have largely stopped offering matchbooks as promotional items, but I've kept a lot of them from the '80s and '90s.

While reading Ms. Moon's recent post about going to the Ocean Grill in Vero Beach, I remembered that I went there myself in the late '90s. It occurred that I might have a matchbook. And I do!

As was my habit, I wrote inside the date of my visit and who I was with -- in this case my friend Sue, on Dec. 20, 1999. We went shopping in Vero afterwards, and according to my journal at the time, "I got some great Calvin Klein overalls at the mall there! I'm a farmer!"

(This was actually a matchbox, which is hard to scan!)

I decided to scan some others too, just for the heck of it:

Here's a quick trip down memory lane, from left to right, top to bottom:

1. Visage was a dance club on the Orange Blossom Trail in Orlando. An occasional hangout for me in my mid-20's, it specialized in "alternative" music like New Order and Violent Femmes. (From a visit with three friends on Feb. 2, 1991)

2. The Colonnade was a seafood restaurant on Bayshore Boulevard in Tampa with a fabulous waterfront view. It has since been torn down to make way for ritzy condos. (With John and Sue, October 2005)

3. Kokomo was a dance club in Lakeland. It billed itself as "Lakeland's only beach resort," even though it wasn't on water. I think they had a sort of sandpile outside. I specifically remember dancing to Janet Jackson here. (With Cherie and Arthur, June 16, 1989)

4. Hukilau was a Polynesian restaurant in Key West. I barely remember visiting there with my friends John and Barbara in 1986 or so, although I didn't write down the exact date. Lots of plants and torches and tiki gods.

5. Kasey's Cove was a beer bar near the University of South Florida in Tampa. I spent many productive hours there with friends, drinking pitchers and watching music videos by INXS and the B-52's. (With Michelle, Dec. 16, 1987)

6. Mirabella's was a well-known seafood restaurant in Tampa where I went with my family, often for my birthday. I used to love their lobster. The restaurant was torn down long ago. This is one of my oldest matchbooks -- so old I don't even know when I got it.

7. The Kapok Tree Inn was a sprawling, legendary restaurant in Clearwater. I went with Barbara in the mid-'80s. It has also been demolished.

8. Fast Eddie's was at the base of the pier in Anna Maria. I went with some friends on New Year's Eve in 1989. We were all very excited to be rounding the corner into a new decade -- the '90s! There's still a restaurant in that building, but Fast Eddie's is long gone.

9. Gary's Harborside is a lakeside restaurant with a deck in Winter Haven where I used to hang out with friends from work in the late '80s. Of all the places represented by matchbooks in this photo, this is the only one that's still open. (With John and two other colleagues, Dec. 21, 1988)

10. Coconut Joe's was another college hangout. Alcohol was a new experience when I went there a few times in spring 1985, as an 18-year-old. I remember ordering Mai Thais. What was I thinking?!

11. The Adam's Mark was a big hotel on Clearwater Beach. They had a great breakfast buffet, where I took several friends back in the '80s, including fellow blogger E. (Remember, E?) It has since been torn down.

Lots of memories are wrapped up in my matchbooks!

Late Autumn Flowers

We're in for more gusty, wet, autumnal weather today, with lows in the 30's (F). Some of our garden flowers -- the petunias and most of the cosmos -- have given up the ghost. We have one cosmos (above) that volunteered from seed, and it grew so late in the season that I was afraid it wouldn't have a chance to bloom before winter. But it has finally produced a bright magenta flower, and it has many other buds, so who knows -- we may have cosmos until the first frost.

Two of our dahlias have also more or less packed it in, but one still looks so good that I moved it out to the front porch (on the left above). It's sitting out there with the rudbeckia, which is also going gangbusters. Hard to believe I grew those dahlias from seed this year!

Remember how I wanted to meet the parents of the boy with the wildly overdue book? Well, the father did come into the library yesterday for a chat. He didn't pay for the book, as I'd hoped, but he told me essentially that he's waiting for the kid to deal with it himself. I can understand that -- wanting to teach the kid to solve his own problems. So I suppose I'll go back to the kid, now, and tell him I've talked to his father and I've even halved the cost of replacing the book (based on what we can get it for on Amazon now that it's in paperback), and the ball is in his court.

"The Story of Harold" finally arrived in the mail yesterday -- the second copy I ordered, from the London bookseller. So I can stop complaining about that! I'll let you know if it's any good once I get around to reading it.

Competence Like Mine

I have a real feeling I might be late to work today, since it's 7:30 a.m. and I'm not even out of bed -- and I'm only just now blogging! I woke up at 7:15. How did this happen?! Olga is usually a very reliable alarm clock, but this morning she hasn't budged.

Part of the problem is, we haven't yet gone off British Summer Time, so 7 a.m. -- when she normally gets her morning walk -- is pitch dark outside. That will change this weekend when the clocks fall back an hour.

Anyway, I guess I can't entirely blame the dog for my own lethargy, can I?

I wound up not shifting books yesterday as I expected -- I had way too many customers in the library. Turns out a lot of visiting parents want to check items out or have questions about accessing e-books, audio books and periodicals online and that kind of thing. Probably more of the same today. We'll see.

Dave is battling a cold, so last night we had leftovers for dinner (thus relieving him of cooking responsibilities). We usually have chocolate McVitie's biscuits for dessert, but we were out -- so I wound up eating three sad fortune cookies left over from one of our Chinese take-away meals. No one really likes fortune cookies, do they?

That top one seems a little creepy and stalkerish. The middle one is completely false, especially today, when I'm running late! And as for the bottom -- notice it doesn't specify how competent (or incompetent) I am.

(Top photo: Olga in front of some pyracantha at Fortune Green, last weekend.)

Library Fitness Regime

This is the building that once contained the minimalist antique store. It looks like that shop (with its two lonely chairs) is finally gone, and the owners are doing some renovations. I'll be interested to see what goes in here.

We have parent conferences over the next two days at work. Well, the teachers do -- I don't have to meet with any parents, being a mere flunky in the library. But I'd like to get a word with the parents of one particular kid, who checked out a book in April and hasn't returned or paid for it.  He was the one kid whose account was unresolved at the end of the last school year, and he hasn't been able to use the library at all since we reopened in August. My talks with him and my efforts to reach out to the parents via e-mail have been met with silence. I might try to track them down while they're in the building to see what's up.

Otherwise I think I'm going to be shifting books, which is a nightmare task. Basically, some parts of the library collection grow more quickly than others, and the books occasionally need to be redistributed on the shelves to even them out -- if that makes sense. Our nonfiction shelves are very tightly packed in places so that's going to be my focus. It'll be like going to the gym -- lots of lifting and deep-knee bending!

Yesterday I built our annual Halloween display, so at least we've got that going on:

Bring Me a Shrubbery

The beautyberry bush in our garden is looking very autumnal. I love that yellow/purple combination.

Dave and I are preparing to have the shrubbery trimmed, both in front of the house and in back. We're responsible for the back garden under the terms of our lease, so we had a tree-trimming firm come and give estimates for pruning the mock oranges, the hazel, the neighbor's invading rose and some other stuff. It all works out to about £700, including the cost of reserving a parking spot for the trimmers and their wood chipper.

We considered having the walnut tree pruned as well, but that seems like a much more permanent change and one that probably requires landlord approval. It also requires local government approval, apparently, because we're in a conservation area. So we scrapped that idea.

The tree company is scheduled to show up on Nov. 7 for that job. I'm actually looking forward to it -- some of the plants out there, particularly around the patio, have grown monstrous. The mock orange has basically consumed the camellia and we need to free it.

The front garden, meanwhile, is the landlord's responsibility. So we've put in a request to have that done too. Here's what it looked like in mid-September, my most recent picture:

Is that Tarzan's call I hear?

The managing agent sent someone to check it out and they've agreed to a pruning, but they said something about waiting a few months for the right time of year. I don't care when they do it, as long as they get to it before the birds begin nesting. They've also warned us that they'll prune it pretty hard, but I think that's fine. It needs it.