New Year's Day Walk

After trying and failing to go to Oxleas Woods (too busy no parking), the river shore (same problem), giving up and going to TK MAXX where I got a couple of late Christmas presents, then home again for a late breakfast (scrambled eggs on toast with smoked salmon-mmm!), we then went to Greenwich and walked around there for a while. For the first time for days we have had some sunshine, which made interesting light for the photos, with the clouds that were blowing in too. It is about three o' clock in these pictures so getting quite late, and the sun was low in the sky and the light golden. Beautiful! I went around snapping like a tourist and thought I would share my walk with you. 

 The gates at the bottom of the park, looking through towards the Cutty Sark and Canary Wharf.

 The Admiral Hardy pub in the market. I liked their display of lava lamps in the Eat window.

 The entrance to the market with angel and lights.

 The window of the newish yarn shop-a lovely shop which I hope stays for a while. The shops on this row come and go very quickly-the rents are very high I think. It was closed today luckily or I would have probably been tempted.

 The roof of the entrance to the foot tunnel.

 The high river.

 Sun on Docklands.

 And on some houses just across the water.

 Cutty Sark reflected.

 Golden sunlight on chimney pots. This is my favourite picture I think.

 Cafe Sol.

 Another entrance to the market.

 I love this large papier maché holy family.

 The old market, still with cranes. I don't know when the developments here are supposed to finish but they have been going on for a long time.

 The Mitre. Another pub we used to frequent. 

 St Alfege's church.

 The cinema and the clocktower.

 Café Rouge.

Sunset over Blackheath on the way home.

Hot chocolate and reading with snoozing cats all around. They are tired from the firework disturbance last night I think!

A Snowy Walk

It snowed steadily all day, so I was glad I got the bus this morning. My school was closed in the afternoon so I left by two and walked home, as I didn't know the state of the buses. It took an hour and was very pleasant. Here are a few local views! This is the old people's home just next to school. It is a fairly new building-the old one was empty and became derelict for ages. It is where Tiger and Lily were found as strays. I think the newer building looks a little Scandinavian-and in the snow it looks like a ski lodge.

I loved the colours of this graffitied wall.

Christmas trees for sale, getting an attractive dusting of snow.

Snowy sign at the crossroads next to Woolwich Common.

A view of Woolwich Barracks-no longer a barracks. (I tell a lie-it has been refurbished and is still being used by the army) It is a lovely building with a huge parade ground in front.

Snow crow in a plane tree-

I love the seeds of plane trees-they look like natural Christmas decorations.

Cassie in the snow-the first snow she has been in-she didn't like it! I will upload a little film if you would like to see her not liking it! She kept placing her paw in different spots trying to avoid touching the nasty white stuff.

Haiku My Heart

I found out today

That the pavement is slightly

Closer than you think

This little paper torso that I saw within minutes of leaving the house should have been a warning. Two minutes later I joined him on the ground! I tripped over nothing-and in front of two builders to make it even more embarassing! And it hurt! They did ask me if I was ok, but there was no gallant rushing to help me up! I fell over in the carpark in Rye yesterday too. When I was speaking to my Mum today, I was telling her about it and superstitiously wondering when the third fall would be. She told me to break a match-which was my Nan's advice. I must do it!

I got the bus to Woolwich to photograph the New Wine Church. The building is great-a former Odeon cinema, built in 1937 in art deco style. It had neon tubing on originally-can you imagine?! The church took it over in 2001-it had finally closed as a cinema in 1999. It has a huge nativity scene at Christmas which I will take a picture of this year. Usually I am driving past here so cannot take any photos. It is one of my favourite buildings in the area. I then walked home-40 minutes!

I have just been reading about the new wine church. One of their main beliefs is that everyone has a pre-ordained destiny, and finds fulfillment when they begin to walk in it. I quite like that idea-even if I don't believe that. I am pleased that this lovely building has got a worthwhile use.

Please visit Rebecca for more haikus. I must be off to tend to something quite strange which I will tell you about tomorrow! I am going to do a tutorial in fact, something I hardly ever feel qualified to do!

Promises to myself

Promises that I make to myself are the hardest to keep I find. It is so easy to just give up and not do the thing I have been meaning to do for so long. I gave up smoking at least six times before the final time three years ago. Now it is time to sort out the other things that are bugging me-namely eating badly a lot of the time, and not exercising, with the inevitable result of feeling fat and tired. I have put on about three stone in the last four years I think-the combination of stopping smoking and starting to drive are what did it I think. Hence the promise to go for a walk daily and eat more healthily. I have been reading 'You Are What You Eat' tonight, and I have bought a blender so I can have smoothies. I have eaten muesli, apples, bananas, salad , raspberries and blackberries over the last two days. I am writing it all down here so I can look back and be inspired to carry on. I am going to get my hair cut tomorrow-long overdue-I lost touch with the lovely Bianca, so am going to try a salon with such a great name that I can't resist. The Curious Comb. I hope they can make my hair magically much better than it is today! Here is Snowball-at least I think that is the name of this cat. I met it on this road a few years back, and that is what a helpful passer by told me. Snowball looked a bit perturbed when I stroked him, then moved round the bins for a photo, then back again for more stroking. He was just peacefully sleeping before that!

I was trying to think of some kind of theme to my walks as I can't always go to the shops. I thought of walking to and photographing the various churches in the area. This is one of my favourite ones, St George's in Kirkside road. It is my favourite as it has regular, and always interesting, jumble sales. The kind with home made cakes and jams, knitted goods for pennies, and lots and lots of great old books. I missed the last one-kind of on purpose as I did not want to buy more suff, and once I get in there I can't resist. This church was built in 1890-92, I found out tonight here. It had its roof lifted and dropped four inches out of place by a bomb in the second world war. I didn't know any of these things till tonight, so I shall be learning about the local area on my walks!

This is a recently constructed Methodist church which I have posted about before-as they had the cross lying around wrapped in plastic for ages before it finally went up. I love the bird detail on this window, which I have not noticed before.

Incidental cat photos. I like the multiple occupancy demonstrated here.

Cassie has been very helpful in my work today.

Monday Meander

I went into town today with every intention of seeing this exhibition. However, it is on at Tate Britan, not Modern-how could I be so wrong?! Anyway, I had a very pleasant walk along the river from London Bridge to the Tate and later to Charing Cross. I am meeting my Dad tomorrow morning at Kings College hospital so I might go to the exhibition in the afternoon!Icecream outside the Globe theatre. I love icecream vans, how they look kind of vintage, even the modern ones. I like the little flags and the large sign on the front. I am not that keen on icecream though-only occasionally.This man was very busy with his sand sculpture. He was earning a little money while he created. I donated £1 and managed to get it in his bucket which was about 10 feet away, earning a 'good shot' compliment from the man standing next to me. It must be all the years I played netball.This man is doing what I am just too cowardly to do-I hate all the attention you get when you draw or paint in public. At least he has chosen quite a secluded spot.Talking of spots, I saw these on Steven's Happy Accidents and then on Tiny Red. They are quite impressive but also quite tatty. They must have been up for a while and have lots of minor graffiti all over them.More skillful graffiti here.And some ironic graffiti here-this is back in Greenwich now, Blackwall lane to be precise. Poor old building.