June 2020 Archives

Last Thursday brought scorching temperatures, and I enjoyed getting outside to make the most of it. Coombe Hill is a site owned by the National Trust, and it is 852 feet above sea level and the highest viewpoint in the Chilterns. The hill sits next to the Chequers Estate but was given to the National Trust in 1918, and Chequers House, which can be seen from the hill, is used as a retreat by the prime minister. The view extends over Aylesbury Vale, and on clear days, visitors can see the Cotswolds. On top of Coombe Hill is a monument dedicated to those from Buckinghamshire who lost their lives in the Boer War.

There is a circular walk to the monument and around the hill, and this walk takes approximately half an hour to complete. From this trail, walkers can also join other trails connected in the countryside. As I had just finished a full day of work, the weather was quite warm, and I am out of shape due to 2020, I only did the circular walk.

The walk started from the car park through a small grove of trees, which led to an expansive open space with a gentle incline.

Along the way, I saw several different types of wildflowers and plants.

The blackberries are blossoming and forming for a July and August harvest. This reminds me that my favourite time of the year is fast approaching when I see these in bloosom.

Several benches and picnic areas are set with views over the hill, each one unique and semi-secluded. I found a peaceful little spot below.

The views were amazing. The Chequers House, retreat of the prime ministers, is located in the grove of trees to the right in the below photograph. Also, notice the NHS and rainbow carved into the field below, at the early height of the 2020 coronavirus pademic.

The monument is dedicated to those in Buckinghamshire who fought in South Africa in the Boer War.

After admiring the view, I decided to finish the walk, and I followed the path.

The path soon turned direction when approaching the forest, and it followed the side of the forest down the hill and back to the parking. There were some Oak trees here.

Coombe Hill was busy when I visited it on a Thursday after work. There was not enough parking for everyone, and more people turned up and parked along the road. Have you ever visited Coombe Hill?

Reading-based bakery Me You Meringue offers tasty crownies, meringues, and other baked goods at various markets around the Reading area. Over the lockdown, I had a box of crownies delivered to me. What is a crownie? It is a mix between a cookie and a brownie. It tastes chewy and chocolatey, and it is easy to consume more than one of these at a time because they are so tasty. The box was hand-delivered with a sweet message. 

The crownies taste even better slightly heated so that the insides can become a little more gooey. For more information and to order, visit Me You Meringue's page on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/meyoumeringue

This edition of home-delivered lockdown cookies comes from "The Cookie Mail", which delivers small packages containing cookies across the UK. I had a mixed box of these cookies delivered, and half of them were white chocolate and half were milk chocolate; one with a red heart and one with multi-coloured sprinkles. The Cookie Mail delivers them in letter-box sized boxes nationwide from London. The company seemed to start in May of this year with the coronavirus issue.

I found the cookies to taste very good with the perfect cookie consistency. They are a little expensive for what they are, but they do taste very nice.

The Whipsnade Tree Cathedral is an attraction maintained and managed by the National Trust near Dunstable. The project started in 1930 as a commemoration to soldiers who fought in the Great War; Edmund K. Blyth had the idea as he was inspired by nature and cathedrals and dedicated it to the memory fallen friends. The Whipsnade Tree Cathedral follows the footprint of a medieval cathedral; although it is not an official place of worship, blessings and outdoor worship has taken place here. The nave and chancel, created by trees, is taken from the measurements of the abbey at St. Albans, which is the longest in the world. Different trees are planted in different areas of the 'cathedral'.

The cloisters, which is pictured above, contains flowering trees and shrubs and a dew pond hollow in the middle. The different areas of the cathedral have different trees planted such as colourful maple in the 'autumn chapel', cherry in the 'Easter chapel', oak in the south entrance, Norwegian spruce in the 'Christmas chapel', and silver birch in 'the towers'.

The Whipsnade Tree Cathedral is maintained throughout the year and open from dawn to dusk to visitors. Entry is free to National Trust members, but the public can visit by giving a donation in the donation box near the entrance. 

Today marks 100 days spent in lockdown/quarantine, so I thought that I would write a post about my time in lockdown so far. Lockdown happened for me on the 17th of March, St. Patrick's Day. My last day in the office was on the day before, and we were told in the late afternoon that we should work from home. Since then, I have only left the house four brief times for emergencies and once for a quick walk around the block. I have had groceries delivered when I could get a delivery time. Like many others, I am still working, but I know many who have also had to stop working for various reasons. The main disruption for me has been the inability to leave home and visit restaurants, pubs, museums, galleries, shops, attractions, friends, and use public transport. Even though I have worked from home full time previously, I could always occassionally get out at the weekends or visit a restaurant on a weeknight. So, what have I been doing?

March: clapping for carers, house organisation, and adjusting to lockdown

After lockdown was announced, I stayed at home and worked from home. At the end of the month, I had to drive less than five minutes in order to pick up medicine. The first weekend of lockdown had beautiful weather for the first time this year, which is typical of course. Due to the vast number of people leaving home to visit attractions, the lockdown had to be enforced. This did not make any difference to me because I was already adhering to the rules. I actually felt a bit ill after lockdown for most of the remainder of the month. March also brought the start to the ten weeks of "clap for carers" every Thursday night, and this gave each little street the opportunity to wave and connect with each other. My little street had live music that lasted until the early hours a couple of times, at least until someone on the street complained about it. I also re-painted the porch because the building work had left some scuff marks and replastering to a section of the wall.

April: looking to the skies, gardening, and reading

April's weather was a mixture of rain and sunshine, and I enjoyed the spring flowers in my garden and did some gardening at the weekends and after work. I bought some plants online, including dahlia. Easter was low-key and not celebrated. In April, we looked to the skies. April had a pink super moon (April's Pink Super Moon), and new Starlink satellites flew past the sky to provide some lockdown entertainment. We had some nice weather in April as well, and I ordered afternoon tea to have in the garden at home (Afternoon Tea Delivery: Honey Bee Cakes in Ruislip Manor). I also started to read through the stash of "House Beautiful" and random women's magazines that have been accumulating and that I just never got around to reading. My workplace also sent around a link for access to advance reviews of books, so I signed up and started to read more books. I also sorted out more indoors as the renovation work largely finished in January, although there is some remaining work to complete and a long list of "snags".

May: connecting to neighbours, reading, eating, and enjoying the weather

May brought beautiful weather. The highlight was 2020 75th VE Day Celebrations, which was held on the first Friday of the month. It was the May Day bank holiday but moved to the Friday instead of the traditional Monday and many events were scheduled to take place to celebrate 75 years of VE Day. For the second time, I briefly left the house, but this was just a quick walk around the block. The street celebrated with food and drink and music. Despite the circumstances, it was a fabulous day with the little street. I also ordered a few home-delivered treats to break up the boredom as I was missing going out to restaurants. I recommend Cake Pops by Popadoodledoo and Online Cookies from Dollies Cookies, which are two of the places that I ordered from. I also continued to tidying up the house and reorganised my shelves. I feel happy that my shelves are in good order and look nice with my collection of books and items from my travels. All eyes on were on the sky again at the end of the month with the launch of SpaceX to the space station, which was streamed on television and then watched in the sky after darkness came and viewers could see the pass. I continued to spend my time outside after work and on weekends if the weather was nice, and I continued to read magazines and started to read more books. Rioting started to happen at the end of the month for black equality as well and continued into June.

June: birthday, reading, and veterinary emergencies

June brought the final instalment of "clap for carers." June is my birthday month, so I had a Lockdown Birthday. I ordered a cake and also managed to order Sunday Roast on the Sunday before the big day. Of course, I continued to work and read. The weather was not as nice in June, but it doesn't often seem to be nice anyway until the end of June if previous years are anything to go by. I had to leave the house three times toward the end of the month because Merlin decided to eat part of a dried lily that I received in a bunch of flowers for my birthday. This caused me much stress because lilies are toxic to cats. I had to rush Merlin to the vet hospital on the Wednesday and pick him up on the Friday, and then he went in for blood tests to check the toxin levels, and he has just been given the all-clear, so I am relieved. In addition to Merlin's hospitalisation, the cat hierarchy in the house was affected because Merlin had a strange smell when he returned home, so I have had to deal with the stress from that, and I could see that Merlin was stressed and confused by it. Over the past three months has also been hard for family, but there's nothing I can do about that and I am confident that things will be sorted there. 

So, the majority of my time in lockdown has been spent working. When I have not been working, my free time has been spent sorting out the house after renovations, reading, ordering home-delivered treats, connecting to the neighbours, watching the skies, spending time outside in the garden, having baths (I finally have a bath where I can mostly sink into), watching a little bit of television (but not much), and trying to make the best out of having to remain in lockdown. I intend to make up for lost time once it is safe to do so, and I will properly celebrate birthdays and other missed events. I just want to be able to get back to normality now and start to enjoy life again.

I have gone through more of my unpublished street art photographs that I have taken over the years, and this post features some work by HNRX, Frankie Strand, and ThisOne. All three street artists have often collaborated together to some extent. Frankie Strand's work is inspired by painting animals and endangered animals. HNRX's work contains various objects blended together in quirky or comical settings. ThisOne paints animals or other objects using an illustrated style, usually in black and white. I feel that all of their work complements each other and looks good when they do collaborate.

HNRX and Frankie Strand - aligator and shrimp tail

HNRX and Frankie Strand - flamingo and sausages

HNRX with work by Ante_ltd in the foreground depicting prime minister Boris Johnson as a clown

HNRX - sausages

HNRX - a smiling watermelon slice

Frankie Strand - an octopus

Frankie Strand - a lizard - with additional work by ThisOne on the side and and a tiger by Jim Vision

Frankie Strand - girl and lizard

ThisOne

Previous street art by these artists in this blog:

Street Art Round-Up January, 2018
Street Art: HNRX and ThisOne
Street Art: This One
Street Art: HNRX
Leake Street Tunnels, Spring 2016
Street Art Murals in east London by ThisOne
ThisOne and Koctel Collaborate on Street Art in Shoreditch

The Botanical Baker are currently home-delivering their nature and floral-inspired bakes and cakes. They construct flowers and flower pots made from cakes and decorated to look realistic and also delicious. The idea behind the concept was created by Claire while she was in Cheshire. After gaining experience designing wedding cakes in Chelsea, she created a "flour pot" (one of her flower pot cake creations) for a friend and then took it from there.

The cakes are made to look realistic, and time is spent hand-decorating the paste into life-like flowers, leaves, and plants. I ordered one of the blackberry "flour pot" bakes and was impressed with the craftsmanship in the decoration and the taste of the cake. The blackberries are realistic with their colour and individual 'seeds' carved into the shape. The blackberry bloosom is also realistic down to the pinkish tinge and pollen, and the 'soil' is dark with a crumbly affect.

Slicing the cake open revealed layers of chocolate sponge and buttercream. The cakes come in a range of flavours.

The Botanical Baker normally sells in Sloane Square and is popular during the Chelsea Flower Show. At the moment, they are offering home-delivered bakes across the UK.

I received a boquet of flowers for my birthday last week. It contained a stem of four yellow lilies along with some orange, purple, pink and yellow flowers. I know lilies are dangerous to cats, and I've never liked lilies personally. Apparently the sender could not chose the flowers or boquet, which is not good because some plants are highly toxic to pets so there should have been an option to state that to avoid sending toxic plants. Anyway, I put the boquet on the mantle, and I monitored the cats while they were in the room with me. Merlin and Lancelot are always attended when they were in the living room.

The cats did not show any interest in the flowers, and they generally ignore flowers when I've had the before. However, on Wednesday, one of the lilies dried and fell off the boquet. I noticed it but could not pick it up straight away as I was moping up spilled water, and I went to wring the towel out at the bay window. I almost picked the dried lily up on my way as the spill happened near it, but I was worried about the pollen stains and mess. Because Merlin is the snoopy cat and I was over in the same area averting my attention to the spill, he went for the dried lily as I was at the bay window. I immediately heard the crunch and turned around, but it was too late. Merlin has orange pollen all over his face. I picked a piece of dried leaf out of his mouth and scraped pollen from the top of his mouth. 

Because lilies are extremely toxic to cats and will shut down their kidneys, he was rushed off to the vet hospital. He ended up staying two days in the hospital. Due to the rush out the door and the virus, the ordeal probably really upset him as much as it did me. He was forced to vomit, and he had fluids and bloods. However, he was not eating. I even took his favourite food to the vet, but he did not eat. So, I had the option to take him home. He has been eating at home and showing interest in play, but he seems a bit groggy still. He has to go back for tests later today.

Unfortunately, he smells a little different due to the vet smell and medicine smell. This has rubbed Lancelot up the wrong way. Lancelot, who never growls or hisses, has turned into a very agressive cat; he stalks Merlin and puts him off his food. At the moment, I've been keeping them apart so that Merlin can recover and gradually get his usual family scent back. 

So, this week has not been a great one. There's also some family issues at the moment, and I can say that this year is so far not going that well. I just hope that it gets better and not worse.

Last year, street artist Saroj Patel (known simply as 'Saroj') created a mural at the end of Hanbury Street. The mural, featuring little demons, birds, and flowers, was named "Adharma Garden". The word "Adharma" is a Sanskrit word that means chaos. This is not the first time that Saroj's work has appeared in London. A few years ago, Saroj collaborated on a mural with Hannah Adamszek (Hannah Adamszek and Saroj - Great Eastern Street)

Saroj is a designer and artist specialising in illustration and graphic design. Her most common theme is nature, and she creates decorative natural forms with wildlife and flowers.

I have covered the street art of Cityzen Kane on my blog a few times before. Cityzen Kane has created sculptures inspired by tribal themes and social causes and pastes them up on London's streets, but he has also contributed to Bristol and other cities in the UK. Although he does not create as frequently now as he used to, I managed to photograph a couple of new pieces a couple of years ago. The one piece was located on Hanbury Street and appears to be a colourful octopus. The other is a collage of intricate designs which replaced some of his older work at Old Street. Unfortunately, this second piece was removed in the demolition of the building.

More work by Cityzen Kane on this blog can be found here:

Cityzen Kane Sculpture on Bacon Street
Leake Street Tunnels Street Art, Spring 2016
New Street Art Sculpture Work by Cityzen Kane
New Street Art Mural by Cityzen Kane
Street Art Round-up in East London
New Street Art by Cityzen Kane
Street Art: Cityzen Kane

A few years ago, I discovered this houseboat moored on Regent's Canal at King's Cross in London. I was curious about the house boat because it was covered in flowers and other items: a mannakin under a blanket, a sink planted with flowers, signs, masks, mirrors, gnomes, statues, and an array of novelty planters. This provided an odd and eclecticmix. Of course, I had to photograph it! Then, I had to research it, years after I photographed it after seeing it moored on the canal at King's Cross after spending the day with friends. So, DILLIGAF is an acronym of "Do I look like I give a f**k?". I don't know anything else about the boat, but you can see some photographs of it and the canal on the walk to it below.

Let me know if you have any additional information about the houseboat on the canal!

Jonsey is a street artist who is somewhat elusive and creates artwork inspired with environmental messages. Not much is known about Jonesy, but their work is a mixture of sculptures (many of them cast in bronze and on miniature scale) and paste-ups. To find work by Jonesy, walk down Brick Lane and look up on the tops of signage, and you will be sure to spot some. I've found most of their artwork on or just off of Brick Lane, but I have also found some in Columbia Road. They are easy to miss, so look up in order to find some of these gems. Other ones appear on medallian shapes and are stuck to walls.

Some of the little figurines contain text. A lot of it expresses against nuclear waste, fracking, global warning, and other concerns related to the destruction of our environment and the Earth.

In addition to the environmental artwork dotted around east London, I discovered a selection of little faces created by Jonesy in Star Yard. I've added a collection of these below. They appear to be built into the crumbling brick wall.

More street art by Jonesy on this blog can be seen below:

Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park Environmental Street Art
HumanNature Endangered13 Street Art Paint Jam
Recent Street Art in Early 2014
Street Art: Jonesy

If visitors to London were to ask me what the best places are to get fish and chips in central London, I would instantly have two favourites in mind: Fryer's Delight in Holborn or Poppies in Shoreditch (and other locations). I am sure that there are some other fish and chip restaurants that I am not aware of, but these are the two that I have been to and can recommend. 

I came across Fryer's Delight in Holborn by chance back in the autumn of 2010. I was working for a small company that had just moved from Great Portland Street to Red Lion Street, so I had a wander around the area and came across Fryer's Delight on Theobald's Road. It turns out that Fryer's Delight is one of the best fish and chip restaurants in London and is quite a well-known place. It still retains a traditional interior, dated from the 1960s.

Poppies Fish and Chips is the second fish and chip restaurant that is popular in London. Poppies first opened up its doors in Spitalfields, opposite Spitalfields Market on Hanbury Street. I visited it at times when I worked on Brick Lane. Since becoming popular at Spitalfields, Poppies has opened two additional branches in Camden and Soho. I've only ever been to the original Spitalfields branch.

Do you have another favourite fish and chip restaurant in central London that I have not mentioned? Let me know.

Today is my birthday. I did not expect to celebrate my birthday this year in lockdown. When considering what I would do a year ago for my birthday, I had hoped to have a short break away, possibly in Jersey or Guernsey. Instead, I have not been confined to my home and have not left it for 86 days. That's right - 86 days! While I have spent a lot of time at home on previous occassions due to working long hours, I would usually make an effort to get out and do something at least twice a month. Now, it's not possible as nothing is open and it does not feel safe. When we started this lockdown in mid-March, I expected that we would be in lockdown until, at least, the end of June. And that seems to be what has happened. 

Of course, this year's birthday has to be a low key affair now. Once the lockdown ends and everything is safe, I will choose an "official" day for my birthday. I can have two birthdays for 2020, like the Queen does every year. Although I worked today as there was nothing else I could do and the weather was dreary, I did order a birthday cake from a local baker. It tastes like Victoria sponge cake. I asked for it to be an ombre green effect with peach or cream flowers and macroons, depending on what they could find.

To celebrate my birthday a bit earlier (as restaurants are still closed, and there are only a handful of takeaways starting to operate now), I picked up a Sunday roast from a local restaurant last Sunday. The restaurant are only serving takeaway roasts on Sundays. Most businesses are not doing this, but out of all of the pubs and restaurants in the area, Arens Bar and Grill (which I visited a few years ago and you can read about in my post Sunday Lunch @ Aren's Bar & Grill in Eastcote, London) are serving meals to enjoy at home. (I actually visited the Eastcote branch a couple of years ago, but they opened up another branch just north of Ruislip about a year ago.) Of course, the cost was not cheap at all and was more expensive than eating out in their restaurant, but it is helping a local business through this difficult time. The roast was as delicious as I remember from eating in their restaurant a couple of years ago, and I had the sticky toffee pudding for dessert, which I warmed up and ate later that day as there was just so much food. 

Although I know people who have had this virus and others who have not been lucky, I am just hopeful all of my readers and my friends and family continue to be safe and well. And I am hopeful that we can return to life once again and to leave this state of limbo but also leave it feeling safe and comfortable.

I have not been out of the house since lockdown, so I really am unable to photograph and post what is happening in the London street art scene; I also do not live in east London, and the tube is not an option for me right now to make the journey into east London in order to see street art. I miss it. To cure the pains of not being able to see street art, I have posted some unpublished ones that I have photographed over the last couple of years. I hope that you will enjoy, and I hope that better days are coming.

Candy

Mr Skosh Artist

Luke Gray

Skeleton Cardboard

Lours and Roo

Walkwan

VILE

VILE

Paul Park and Nick Swift

Spabotal

Sonik One

Mila Kult

Lucas Aoki

Janus

Jerry Batista

Jason Woodside

Guido

Dmtart, Baonekindse

Cheeky McSqueaky

NSFW Crew is the collaborative duo street artists Ewan and Tom Blackford whose combination of styles is a blend of horror and innocence. They have created a lot of murals around east London, and here are a few of the ones that I was able to photograph over the past couple of years.

The first piece is located on Hanbury Street and called "Fleshbob Nopants meets Icky Mouse".

This bull appeared near Shoreditch High Street station.

This Mickey Mouse mural is located in Star Yard off Brick Lane; it is next to a mural of toast by Artista.

This is a collaboration of a rat in both of the artistic styles.

The artists collaborated on two variations or styles of a skull.

"Making Faces" is the title of this mural at Pedley Street, near where the Nomadic Community Gardens once were.

The final piece is located at the end of Hanbury Street and is called "Exquisite Corpse", which is the object of the crew's deepest desires.

The next edition of the lockdown home-delivered snacks and treats is now ready. A couple of weeks ago, I received a delivery from The Naughty Cook containing a selection of crumbles and brownies. In the box were three flavours of treats: three chocolate brownies, three salted caramel crumbles, and three triple chocolate crumbles. 

The Naughty Cook enjoys food and the memories and emotions that certain foods evoke, and providing indulgent treats is an obsession. The Naughty Cook ensures that each treat has a personal touch. The crumble is a recipe created with a mixture of textures and flavours from the cook's childhood.

For more information and the shop, visit: https://www.thenaughtycook.co.uk/

London-based street artist Envol is one artist whose work I have been following over the past several years. Envol often contributes alongside Fanakapan, and the murals often feature an element of graphic design and minimal styling. Birds, skulls, and faces feature alongside geometric colour blocks. Below are several murals from Envol that I managed to photograph over the past few years.

For more work by Envol on my blog, see the following:

Bristol Upfest 2018
Street Art Round-Up (Lolie Darko, Envol, Fanakapan, and More)
Meeting of the Styles 2017

Over a sunny Easter in 2015, I spent a long weekend in and around Harrogate. It was one of the best travel experiences that I have had in the past several years, so I really wanted to relive it and post a few photographs of an unblogged visit to Betty's Tea Rooms over a couple of afternoons. I'd gone to the tea rooms by myself to write some postcards and enjoy the sunshine as the bloke went back to the hotel. We'd had afternoon tea for a late lunch after we'd arrived in Harrogta (Betty's Tea Rooms), and the weather was a bit dreary on that day. Although the afternoon tea was enjoyable, I preferred the atmosphere of the cafe rooms on the first floor on my subsequent visits. It did help that when I visited, the sun was shining. I had a pink lemonade and macaroons on one visit and a hot chocolate and macaroons on another visit.

I really enjoyed the macaroons, and I had them twice. The lemonade and hot chocolate were also good, but the hot chocolate was not as chocolatey but was frothy. 

Opposite Betty's in Harrogate is an attractive little park with a row of buildings and a church. I really enjoyed the city.

So, what else did I get up to on my visit to Harrogate? On the first day, I explored the city of Harrogate and some of the museums and visited the shops and gardens, and more can be read in my post here: Harrogate.

On the next day, which ended up being a full day, I had a visit to Mother Shipton's Petrifying Well, which is an attraction located in Knaresborough. The water is rich in minerals and leaves deposits on the rockface and coats any items left in the water's stream in these minerals, slowly transforming them to stone. There is also a museum here, and the cave here is noted for Mother Shipton, a local legend and soothsayer.

After the visit to the caves, I walked into Knaresborough and visited Knaresborough Castle on the hill across the river. The views are absolutely gorgeous here, and although there isn't much of the castle to see, there is a tower to climb and a tunnel under the hill, which was used as an escape route.

After leaving Knaresborough, I visited Brimham Rocks, an area filled with all sorts of crazy rocks and stones and views. The place was busy when I visited as this was on the Saturday before Easter, and many people had their families participating in an Easter Egg Hunt. I would have absolutely loved this place if I was a child. There's so many rocks to climb on and into.

On the Easter Sunday, an early start was made. If my memory is correct, I am sure that the first stop of the day was to Ripley Castle (Yorkshire, England), which is a beautiful castle located on a lake. Tours to the castle can be arranged daily, and we were on the first tour and also explored the grounds before. The village is also known for a local brand of ice cream, Ripley's, and the ice cream can be bought across the street from the castle.

After the visit to the castle, the bloke and I had Easter Sunday lunch before making our way to the fantastic Fountains Abbey and Studley Royal Water Garden. 

Before driving back home, we stopped off at Ripon and Ripon Cathedral, Yorkshire to have a quick look around the town, which is famous for its cathedral. 

I enjoyed my visit to Harrogate and Yorkshire, and the nice weather combined with several attractions in the area made me really enjoy this long weekend. 

Above is one of the photographs that I never posted, but this was Easter morning on a drive through the Dales. The mist was rising and beautiful; this must look like "Wuthering Heights"! A beautiful rainbow was in view as well. I hope that I can enjoy a visit to this area again as there are a few things that I would love to do and did not get to do.