To the Lighthouse and other places

A quick injection of colour to kick start 

a long overdue entry

on this blackest of November days 

with the clocks well and truly back.

At the end of October,

we climbed the Old Lighthouse at Dungeness

and saw the beautiful mirrored light at the top.

I'm very keen on this fool's Fair Isle wool 

and have embarked on a third hooded jumper for a grandchild,

in a size large enough to show off the colour variations 

to better advantage.

By way of complete contrast I came upon

this very old cemetery while out on a mundane errand

and was swallowed up by a wholly unexpected wilderness

only yards from a busy and nondescript street in south London.

(not our dog)

A graveyard of a different kind,

for Citroen 2 CVs inexplicably abandoned

and left to decay

on the banks of the River Rother.

Pictures from a trip to Spitalfields' Fournier Street,

could so easily have been scenes of decay

but houses worth £4000 in the 60s fetch millions now.

 That is the spiral staircase inside the aforementioned lighthouse.

Quite a climb but the view was worth it.

(only part way up)

The Royal Academy is exhibiting Antony Gormley's work.
The final piece Host was this room flooded with sea water.
As with all the pieces, my greatest interest was in fathoming
how they got everything installed.

It has been windy today

but not as windy as Tokyo.

Our son arrived in time for one typhoon

and was an old hand four weeks later

for Typhoon Hagibis.

The sun shone brightly the next morning

and we slept a little more easily that night. 

A tourist at home

A walk along the South Bank of the Thames,

from London Bridge via Wagamama,  Shakespeare's Globe,

St Paul's Cathedral, the 'wobbly' bridge, Tate Modern,

the London Eye, the Houses of Parliament, the Royal Festival Hall

and the London Aquarium.

The queue at the aquarium finished me off 

and I dodged home at this point -

there was supper to prepare.

Roun learns to make pizza.

The water feature

We have a modest pond in front of the kitchen window

made from a large black plastic tub, sunk in gravel.

Over time the gravel has been colonised 

by creeping violet, alchemilla mollis,

and a tenacious but unknown weed.

The once fine black bamboo flowered and died,

 so did an acer,

and many of the attractive stones 

disguising the edge of the pond, had slipped in.

My attempt at a Japanese garden had seen better days.

With the impending Visit,

I suddenly saw this sorry sight through new eyes

and although it was most definitely not on the list,

(see yesterday)

I found myself skimming off a thick layer of duck weed 

from the surface with an old plastic sieve,

perturbing a long standing resident.

I started weeding between all the stones

and delved into the pond for the missing ones,

about a hundred of them.

The water level dropped dramatically-

that would be a lesson in displacement there

if I ever had my time again and decided to homeschool.

Then I jet-washed the slimy black stones

taking care to avoid the well-camouflaged frog

and put them back round the pond.

In Japanese water gardens boulders are carefully selected

 then placed using the classic gogan-ishigumi stone-setting technique.

I lack this technique, and it shows.

For a touch of authenticity,

I bought three goldfish from the local pet shop.

Japanese koi ponds have sophisticated koi pond filters

that keep the water crystal clear.

Ours does not, so you cannot see the fish at all.

You can however see a reflection of the kitchen window.

Pond landscaping is groomed and shaped

using special pruning methods.*

These pots are looking nice

and I have clipped the box hedge in the corner. 

All I need now is a little bridge.

* My scant research is taken from The Journal of Japanese Gardening.

The jewellery box

Many years ago I had some good pieces of jewellery,

white gold, 

sapphires,

 pearls,

rubies,

opals,

diamonds, 

garnets,

emeralds,

turquoises,

left to me by an aunt.

We were burgled and most of it was taken.

Three months later, they came back

and took the rest of it.

I was really too young to inherit such finery then,

and didn't insure it properly.

I'd like to say I don't miss any of it.

But the truth is,

there was one beautiful Victorian butterfly brooch,

which I have never quite forgotten.