September 2022 Archives

Frieze Sculpture returned to Regent's Park for 2022 and runs from the middle of September until the 13th of November. It's the eleventh year of Frieze Sculptures in Regent's Park this year. I recently visited, and I was not disappointed. There is a lot of colour and form to see, and some of the sculptors are well-known. I think this year has a little something for everyone.

Below are the sculptures for the 2022 edition of Frieze in Regent's Park.

Matthew Darbyshire - "Hercules Meets Galatea"

This is a re-imagining of classic Greek and Roman sculptures, though the sculptor encourages the viewer to examine symbolism in the work through the structure, surface, and sexuality.

Ugo Rondinone - "Yellow Blue Monk"

The artist is currently creating a series of sculptures called "nuns + monks", and this is one of the recent in the series. The work is made in bronze and painted in blue with a yellow "head". 

Robert Indiana - "Imperial LOVE" 

Robert Indiana is known as "painter of signs", and his work features text and large letters and numbers transformed into large sculptures. The "LOVE" sculptures by him are his most-known.

John Giorno - "SPACE MIRRORS MIND"

This sculpture is one in the series of sculptures "Stone Poems", and it has not been seen before. It is constructed out of glacial granite.

Alicja Kwade - "Tunnel-Tell" 

This sculpture appears to be a granite boulder pierced by a stainless-steel reflective tube. It encourages the viewer to interact with it; to look at the reflections and to walk around and peer through the tunnel.

Ron Arad - "Dubito Ergo Cogito"

This bronze sculpture appears to be a seated pedestal, and the artist was inspired by Rodin's "The Thinker" sculpture of a seated man in thought. The artist looks at the space left behind from the human form, leaving behind an imprint of his feet and rear. It encourages interaction of the viewer to sit in the space place.

Jody Kerwick - "Vertical Plane Me"

Folklore and a dream world are created in the symbols out of Portland stone.

Tim Etchells - "Don't Look Back"

This phrase "Don't Look Back" is stenciled out into the steel, and it can be read from either side and to consider the placement and landscape that the sculpture is set in.

N.S. Harsha - "Desired for -Arrived at"

The sculpture is described as being a basis to describe life; we often want to be somewhere, but it can take on a non-linear approach to get there.

Ro Robertson - "Drench"

This sculpture explores the figure and body as landscape.

Pablo Reinoso - "Speaker's Corner"

I am guessing that this sculpture was inspired by the people that hang out and speak at the corner in Hyde Park.

Shaikha Al Mazrou - "Red Stack"

This painted steel sculpture describes weight, space, and form. The artist's sculptures often resemble balloons or origami. I thought that this one looked like a stack of pillows.

Ida Ekblad - "Book of Boredum"

This bronze sculpture has been painted with bright angular shapes and patterns.

Beverly Pepper - "Curvae in Curvae"

This Latin word means "curve" and the steel sculpture appears less heavy as a curved form.

George Rickey - "Five Lines in Parrallel Planes"

A series of steel poles changes form and shape in the breeze. This is not a stationary sculpture.

Emma Hart - "Big Time"

Colourful ceramic sundials are on display with painted faces and have words on the ground such as "no time", or "after time".

Peju Alatise - "Sim and the Yellow Glass Birds"

A story is printed onto the different individual sculptures, which display children and birds. The story is about Sim, a nine-year old girl who lives in two worlds. One world is a domestic servant, and the other world is a dreamland of talking birds and butterflies, and she can fly.

John Wood and Paul Harrison - "10 signs for a park"

A series of green signs have been placed around the park to discover with odd phrases, such as "you are reading these words", "tree ->", and "daylight". I saw all ten of them, though the "tree ->" photograph is missing below.

For previous years of Frieze Sculpture in Regent's Park, see my posts below:

Frieze Sculpture 2021
Frieze Sculpture 2020
Frieze Sculpture 2019
Frieze Sculpture 2018
Frieze Art Fair 2017

Monk's House is a rural cottage dating from the 16th century that was purchased by Leonard and Virginia Woolf to use as a country retreat from their home in London. They purchased the cottage in 1919, and Leonard continued to live here until his death in 1969. The house is filled with all of their possessions situated where they had been left. The cottage is located in East Sussex, and it is owned by the National Trust.

The cottage was quite small and did not contain any of the luxuries, but the Woolfs completed improvements. They installed an improved kitchen, hot water, and bathroom. The cottage came with nearly an acre of land, and they purchased a field next to it in the late 1920s so that lovely garden views over the hillside could be retained.

The front of the cottage is pictured below, and the greenhouse or conservatory was actually added onto the house after the Woolfs lived in it. 

The cottage was a favourite place for them, and they spent much of their time here. When their flat in London was bombed in an air raid in 1940, they moved to the cottage permanently.

The first room was a living room with desks and tables set up.

This led into the main room from the hallway and main entrance or doorway into the house where there are the stairs and a dining table. (The upstairs of the cottage is always out-of-bounds, and caretakers live in the house.) A portrait of Virginia Woolf is located in this room.

This is the dining room.

The next room leads to a tiny kitchen. The kitchen put in by the Woolfs is hidden behind a screen as it currently serves as a working kitchen today.

After the kitchen, visitors must walk outside to visit the the bedroom. Virginia Woolf's bed and bedroom at Monk's House was built as an extension onto the cottage. Its original purpose was as a writing room, but she did not use it as one because she could not get inspired in the room. 

After exploring the house, I went to walk around the garden at Monk's House. Apples, flowers, and vegetables were abundant in mid-July, and it is a lovely place to look around.

A statue dedicated to Leonard Woolf.

Beehives in the small orchard.

Virginia Woolf wrote her novels in the wooden lodge at the bottom of the garden. Visitors can walk inside it, and there is information with personal photographs inside this lodge that document the daily life.

The vegetable garden.

The church borders the property.

I enjoyed my visit to Monk's House. It's one of the smaller National Trust properties, and it must be booked in advance due to its small size. There is a second hand bookshop located here. It takes a good hour to wander around, though some people could spend much longer here depending on how many questions they ask the volunteers, how busy the house is, and if they want to enjoy a peaceful seat in the garden. 

Franklin Park Conservatory is appropximately a 13-acre site comprised of botanical gardens in Columbus, Ohio. It was built following th mid-1800s with Victorian-inspired glasshouses. The park is currently hosting a series of 18 large sculptures on display by Dale Chihuly as well as "Topiary Takeover", which sees animals created out of plants. I toured the park and gardens. There's also a large model train set and villages to see outdoors and a large play area with different types of interactive elements.

First up are the Dale Chihuly sculptures, which I visited in Kew in 2019: Dale Chihuly at Kew Gardens: "Reflections on Nature". There are eighteen installations on display currently to enjoy, and I managed to capture them below.

After checking out the sculptures, I had a look around the park. The weather was so hot.

"Topiary Takeover" sees animals constructed from plant, and there are several of these in the park along with information about the animal and music.

The outdoor railyway model village.

Located just outside Cambridge, Ohio and with views over the town, Georgetown Tavern on the Hill (Georgetown Vineyards) is a wonderful place to visit. I met up with a group of friends here, on a weekday evening. The weather was perfect and sunny; it wasn't too hot, and it had cooled down slightly from the previous humid days. It started to feel like the start of autumn and very much late August. 

There are impressive views over the hill and vineyard, and the venue has a wrap-around porch. Live music is also hosted here, and they serve up delicious food and drinks. I absolutely loved the mozzarela sticks, wood-fired pizzas, and the wine slushies! The strawberry shortcake wine slushie was so addictive. 

I also tried one of Georgetown Vineyards wines, but it's been a few weeks since my visit, and I cannot remember which one it was. The bloke and I also had a Limoncello wine slushie, and he had a rum-based slushie called "Zombie".

This is a wonderful place to wind down the evening. We arrived a little bit early and took advantage of the nice afternoon before a couple of the friends. We then watched the sun set, and we left when after dark.

I will definitely return when I next visit. This was one of my favourite wineries in Ohio.

Located near Dover, Ohio and on the fringe of the Amish Country, Breitenbach Amish Country Wines is an established venue with live music on Saturdays and ample indoor and outdoor seating. There is a shop, cafe, tasting room, and events are hosted throughout the year. The shop on site offers a very large selection of wines, and a selection of wines can be tasted in their room. Up to five wines per person can be tasted per person.

I'm not a fan of red wines, so I had white wines and a flavoured wine. I went with my mother, and she had flavoured wines that I also wanted to try. I tried Pinot Grigio, Chardonnay, Charming Nancy, Frost Fire, Dandelion, Elderberry, and Peach. Neither of us liked the Peach. I liked Frost Fire, and the Dandelion one was different. We were not a huge fan of any of the flavours, so we left without buying any this time.

The vines are located near the parking, and visitors can go up to have a look at them. I would re-visit when I'm not in so much of a rush. There's also a nice gift shop attached to another restaurant and winery (Swiss Heritage Winery) next door, just a couple hundred yards away. I'll have to do this next time; it's on my list.

When I visit my home town area in Ohio, one of the first stops is to Giacomo's for lunch. I love their grilled cheese sandwiches and their cookies. The cafe is popular for lunch, and you do have to wait awhile; I've noticed that it's gotten more popular since my last visit. I ordered my favourite snickerdoodle cookies and sugar cookies, which were an autumn theme (pumpkins) despite being the end of August. 

Giacomo's also make their own bread in an oven that came from Italy, which is the home country of the founders (or their ancestors). The restaurant and next door's Adornetto's (a pizza restaurant) are a long-time Zanesville, Ohio institution. A lot of people love Adornetto's pizza; while it is okay, it's not my favourite pizza.  

I always order the grilled cheese with onion sandwich. This comes with a small bag of potato chips ('crisps' to those in England). This time, I received the wavy chips. The potato chip company is another Zanesville, Ohio institution - Conn's.

The cookies are displayed underneath the counter, and they have every flavour: filled raisin, M&M, chocolate chip, peanut butter, thumbprint, carrot cake cookie, chocolate, sugar cookie, snickerdoodle, etc. They also sell buns, bread, cupcakes, and muffins and additional items depending on the season. 

Street artist Roo is best known for her illustrative style featuring cartoony characters with an element of fun. The characters are usually animals painted in bright colours. In Penge, the artist created a duck having a snorkle around the corner from East Penge station. It's a really fun piece of work unexpectedly in a residential area. Roo's background is in illustration, and bringing her work to the streets allows more people to enjoy it.

Previous work by Roo on this blog:

Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park

Tomorrow marks the funeral of Elizabeth II, who died on 8 September. Queen Elizabeth II was 96 years of age and celebrated her Platinum Jubilee (70 years as queen) in June of this year. Most of us have never lived through any other monarchy leader for the United Kingdom, and she was regarded highly. On the day that she passed away, I was out of the country. I only returned on Wednesday, and I was gutted to have missed King Charles' arrival and the Queen's coffin, just down the road from me in RAF Northolt the evening before I returned. My neighbours had walked down to take photographs and videos, which they then circulated. People have been leaving tributes to the Queen in Green Park, Hyde Park, Buckingham Palace, Windsor, and other places. There has also been a queue stretching across London for people to visit the coffin of the Queen lying in state. The queue is over several hours long. I think the longest the waiting time has been nineteen hours.

I've had jet lag after returning in the late morning on Wedesday, and it was straight to work from me as soon as I landed. I wanted to get up early on Sunday, but I ended up not being able to get up too early, though I did make it to London by around 8:40, and the queues of people entering the tribute garden in Green Park picked up in the time that I was there with a heavy stream of people entering from 10:00. At that time, they also closed off the queue to Buckingham Palace, so I missed visiting as they introduced a one-way system more than halfway down the length of the mall. They were obviously getting ready for the events tomorrow and the visiting world leaders.

Below are my favourite photographs of the tributes that I took in Green Park this morning. Some of the tributes were really good: a painting of the Queen, knitted corgis and queens, a sparkly panel of the queen's head (as appears on stamps), floral crowns, photographs, scrapbooks, and more. There were touching letters left by people; some had photographs with them and the Queen. Children and groups had created artwork to leave. There were balloons and handbags and hats. There were a lot of corgis and some horses, animals the Queen loved. One of the most common items were the Paddington Bears. This unlikely bear has become a symbol recently, which started with a touching video starring the Queen and Paddington Bear, which was made for the Platinum Jubilee. Paddington Bear has tea with the Queen, and they both share a love of marmalade sandwiches, which the Queen took from her handbag.

Before I end this post, I'll include a couple of photographs of the Queen's coffin being driven through West End Road in Ruislip from RAF Northolt. These were taken by my neighbours. I would have been there to see this and the King had I not been out of the country last Tuesday evening.

R.I.P. Queen Elizabeth II. She inspired so many.

Today's blog post covers a museum in Ohio, USA that I visited at the start of September. One of my friends lives in central Ohio, so we met up in Marion and visited the home of the former president Warren G. Harding. Harding was one of the Ohio presidents and the 29th president of the USA, and he was born down the road but moved into this house with his wife Florence. He was a successful journalist and bought a local newspaper called "The Marion Daily Star", which he succeeded in running for many years. Harding was famous for his 1920 "Front Porch Campaign" in which he successfully campaigned for the presidency on his front porch. People came from all over to see him speak on his porch. He portrayed himself as an everyday man with slogans to "return to normalcy" and "America first" after the first World War. During his short time as president, he was well-liked, but he died half the way through his presidency during a US tour. 

Visitors can explore the museum and the home of Harding, which also contains his personal possessions. The house has been fitted out to appear as it did in 1920 down to the original wallpaper (or an exact reproduction of it). The house is by guided tour only, and afterwards, visitors can explore the museum to read more about Harding, the campaign, and the short presidency, and see more of his and his wife's possessions. There is also a couple of videos to watch in the museum. One of them was about Harding and his presidency, and the other one was about the conservation and excavation work to the home. The former president and his wife's memorial can also be seen in Marion as you are driving into or out of the town. The site is also due to have a library constructed with work starting this year.

Harding was the Republican candidate and won against James Cox, who was another Ohioan running a newspaper for the other party. Harding easily won the election. Despite his short presidency, he accomplished some of his goals. His wife died not long after he did. A couple of members of Harding's administration had caused issues after his death, and he was not faithful to his wife. The museum explains the good and the bad, and because of these corruption issues and short presidency, Harding is today not considered to be a popular or well-liked president.

I completed the house tour first. The neighbouring houses on both sides and the back have since been demolished. Visitors can sit on the porch, and the original cracks on the porch can be seen as the "Front Porch Campaign" kicked off before the cement could dry. We were not allowed to take photographs inside the house. We got to explore the front hallway where Harding and his wife were married on the stairs. The hallway leads back to the dining room and the front room to the side. Between the dining room and front room is the library where Harding worked, and his chair can be seen here as well as cigar storage. At the back of the house is the kitchen, which is small and modest. Upstairs, we explored three bedrooms and a bathroom off the hallway.

After the house tour, we checked out the museum. 

The museum showed many personal items and campaign items - including a lunch box and mining light. There was also a section on Harding's US tour by train. He died of a heart attack on the tour, and his body was sent back across the US, where he was mourned. A television showed the procession in Washington.

We drove past the memorial, but I did not see anywhere to easily park up. Overall, we probably spent close to three hours at the site; we spent an hour in the tour and almost two hours in the museum. 

Harding was president during the Prohibition era from 1920 to 1923, and the vice president Calvin Coolidge took over the presidency. Woodrow Wilson, the president before Harding, had started the prohibition of alcohol to save grain for the war needs. Prohibition was one of America's big failures. It was backed by religious and women's groups as well, but it opened up a criminal underground. 

Mr. Tanner is a street artist (as well as graphic designer and illustrator), and I photographed three of his murals that I saw at the end of last year and this spring. Besides seeing a portfolio of the artist's work, I could not find much more. I have not seen the artist's work before.

Downtown Marion, Ohio, has seventeen cardinal sculptures to find. The cardinal was selected as it is Ohio's state bird, and there are seventeen sculptures to mark Ohio beng the 17th state to be added to the United States. The creator of this project is Dean Jacob, who was inspired by similar sculpture trails seen in other cities. Many of the sculptures feature historical Marion scenes, and they have been painted by thirteen local artists. The art trail kicked off in 2017 when the designs were created, and the sculptures have been in place since 2021 except for one that has not yet been placed.

Cardinal of Carnations - Amanda Adkins

Blue Skies Over Marion - William Obenour
Gen Francis Marion "The Swamp Fox" - Lou Graziani
Good Olde Marion Town - Jane Nelson

Marion County Courthouse - Kevin Tackett

Oorang Indians - Kevin Tackett

Seasons of a Buckeye - Ben Kern

Zenburda - Diana Krumnow

Fire Bird - Amanda Adkins

My Feathered Friend - Amanda Adkins

Marion County Fair - Amanda Adkins

Magical Gem - Jane Nelson

Celebrating the Women of Marion - Amanda Adkins

Marion's Peacekeepers - Amanda Adkins

London has been hosting its fair share of animal sculptures in the past couple of years, and nearly thirty sculptures of chimpanze are located on the South Bank between London Bridge and Tower Bridge. Earlier this year, we had lions, and we had elephants before that. These chimp sculptures are brought to London by Chimps are Family. They, like the lions and elephants, have been designed by artists Gillie and Marc.

The aim of the sculptures is to raise awareness and help the chimps survive due to a changing environment. Each statue contains some important information about chimps as displayed in the different poses of the sculptures, which highlights how similar to humans they are.

The chimps are all in one location, and it does not take long to walk and see them all. However, one of the sculptures was missing, and I looked everywhere around where it was meant to be on the map and could not locate it. The sculptures will be in place until mid-October.

Richmond Castle was built in the late 1000s by a cousin of William the Conqueror named Alan Rufus, and his estates in the north of England were run from the castle, making it one of the most important castles in the north. I made a fleeting visit to the castle to walk around the ruins and the gardens, but the majority of the castle was shut due to the coronavirus pandemic. I hope to return to visit the castle, museum, and the village of Richmond at some point once the castle is open and it is safe to do so. The castle is located just off of the town square, and it looks like an attractive town to visit to do some shopping and pop into one of the pleasant-looking pubs or cafes for a bite to eat.

The castle was built to squash raids and rebellions in the north of England.

In more modern times, the castle was used as a prison and also in World War I for the military. Some of the graffiti can be seen today on the walls, but this was currently closed off.

Robin Hood Tower is the name of the tower which contains an early chapel called St. Nicholas' Tower. The glass was imported from northern Germany. This tower dates from the late 11th century, but the name 'Robin Hood Tower' was given in Victorian times.

Gold Tower

View from Gold Tower

View of Cockpit Gardens from Gold Tower

Gold Tower lower level 

Gold Hole Tower is located at the back corner of the castle and was named after a legend that a hoard of gold was discovered here in the 1800s. These were private apartments.

The 'cockpit garden' is unique to Richmond Castle, and it was unknown what the area was used for originally. It could have had buildings or kitchen gardens, but it is thought it was used for outdoor entertainment and bear-baiting. In later years, vines and fruit trees were planted here, and the ground was also used for cock fighting. Today, the 'cockpit garden' is a pretty garden with flowers and fruit trees, including the "Cats Head" apple tree, one of the earliest varieties of English apple.

Scolland's Hall is the main dining hall of the castle and was probably used for legal proceedings and business as well.

Richmond Castle was home to a great chapel and a couple of smaller chapels as religion was important to life in those times, but the large chapel has been lost.

A small museum is located next to the shop at Richmond Castle, and this contains information about the castle and some of the items discovered in the well, including the well bucket (made of lead) and various pots and chamber pots that had fallen in. Later on, the well was used to throw rubbish in.

Richmond Castle is maintained by English Heritage, and it is open to the public at the moment for a socially-distanced visit. However, the keep and parts of the castle remain closed. I hope to visit the castle and town of Richmond once it is open and safe to do so.

I visited the Grade I listed medieval moated mansion known as Ightham Mote in July. The mansion is located in Kent and is owned by the National Trust. This is my first proper visit; I had originally visited the mansion over Christmas in 2019 to see the house decorated for the season, but the upstairs and some of the other rooms were closed off, and the house was too busy to have a proper look. The rooms are fairly small in this mansion, so it can be a bit difficult seeing all that it has to offer. However, on this visit, I arrived in time to hear a little bit of history of the house before going in to have a look. 

Ightham moat dates from around the middle of the 1300s, and it changed family a few time before it became in dire need of repairs. It was purchased, and then sold again when the buyers realised how much work it required. It was purchased by an American man who had visited it as a child in the 1900s, and he restored it. It was later given to the National Trust, who also spent a lot of money repairing it. The visitor centre has some information about the repairs and excavations on site.

There is a short walk down to the mansion from the parking and visitor centre, and the mansion comes into view in part timber-frame and stone, surrounded by a moat. The entrance is around the front.

The first time I visited was in December a few years ago, so visiting the estate in the summer was different, and I enjoyed a wander around the gardens. The stable building was constructed at a later date and was originally constructed with three sides with an internal courtyard. It was used for guests and the staff.

The front of Ightham Mote from the courtyard of the stables. I'd just checked out the second hand bookstore and then waited for the talk about the history of the house.

I didn't go straight into the mansion as quit a large group had arrived, so I wandered around the garden first so that I could later enjoy the house without too many people around. There were some lovely flowers and views of the mansion.

I walked to the end of the garden in a little walk with views over the house and a lake.

I headed over the bridge into courtyard to take a look inside Ightham Mote. It has a little courtyard with clock, and one of the doorways leads off to a billiards room, and the other leads off to the main house through the Great Hall.

The Great Hall. There were freshly-cut flowers in some of the rooms, which was a nice touch.

The room off the Great Hall.

The Butler's Pantry. A locked safe would have stored more expensive items.

The crypt.

Upstairs in the house...

A beautiful carved fireplace.

A bedroom.

The chapel with its stained glass windows. The bottom panels were put in afterwards.

This large room was separated into two parts and functioned as a music room and games room.

The fireplace was ordered from a catalog.

The library was located back down the stairs, and it was one room that was originally separated into multiple rooms. It was simpified by painting in a neutral grey.

Back out into the courtyard, I went to check out the billards room.

More posts about Ightham Mote:

Christmas at Ightham Mote

I knew that something was not going to go well today when I heard that the royals were heading to Balmoral in Scotland. The Queen had not been in the best health in the past eighteeen months since Philip died, and she had been taking a step back from public life and events. I had a feeling that she was in her final weeks and that we would hear the news either by the end of this year or early next year. She'd provided over seventy years of service, and she celebrated with her Platinum Jubilee earlier this year. I was in the post office when I learned that she had passed away.

There are three large events that I particularly remember and celebrated in the Queen's life: the Diamond Jubilee, the 90th birthday, and the Platinum Jubilee.

Queen's Diamond Jubilee and the Thames River Pageant: The Diamond Jubilee was held in 2012, one of the country's best years as it also marked the Olympic games, to mark sixty years of Queen Elizabeth II. The big day was the Thames River Pageant, which was organised as a tradition; a similar river pageant down the Thames was held for Queen Victoria. I got a good spot on the South Bank. So many were enjoying the atmosphere, and I caught a glimpse of the Queen as she waited and warched the War Horse sculpture run across the buildings on South Bank. I also saw other members of the royal family. The weather was rainy, and the long day did not do well for Philip and others, I'm sure. This was my only glimpse of the Queen.

Britain Gets Ready for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee: I captured photographs of the country getting ready to celebrate the queen's Diamond Jubilee. I also enjoyed Diamong Jubilee afternoon tea, which was probably the best-decorated afternoon tea that I've had.

Queen's 90th Birthday @ Biscuiteers: Ahead of the Queen's 90th birthday in 2016, I ordered biscuits to mark the day.

Queen's 90th Birthday Afternoon Tea at St. Ermin's: I indulged in a special afternoon tea in street party style at St. Ermin's hotel by myself because the bloke went to play board games. It was also my birthday weekend, so I treated myself. Unfortunately, the weather was quite wet and rainy, so the tea had to be enjoyed indoors.

Queen's 90th Birthday Screen Printing with Thornbeck and Peel: As well as indulging in the afternoon tea, I also enjoyed a small craft session to print designs onto napkins to keep.

London Celebrates Queen Elizabeth II's 90th: The 90th birthday celebrations took place across the country, and I photographed across London on that rainy weekend. 

London Gets Ready for the Queen's Platinum Jubilee: London was decorated for the special event this year to mark the Platinum Jubilee - the Queen's seventy years. I captured decorations and artwork around the city.

The Queen's Platinum Jubilee: A long weekend of celebrations marked Queen Elizabeth II's seventy years; this was the Platinum Jubilee weekend. There were concerts and street parties and an extra day off of work. The end of May Bank holiday was moved to Thursday and a new Bank Holiday created on Friday to open the celebrations. I made the trifle dessert that won the best dessert for the event, and I made cupcakes. We had a house party on Saturday night, followed by a street party (which was more like a sports day) on the Sunday.

Superbloom at the Tower of London: The Tower of London moat was transformed into a wildflower meadow this year to celebrate the Platinum Jubilee.

London's Corgi Trail Celebrating the Platinum Jubilee: To celebrate the Platinum Jubilee, several different sculptures of corgis appeared around Westminster in London.

Platinum Jubilee Afternoon Tea at InterContinental Park Lane: I enjoyed a special Platinum Jubilee afternoon tea with a couple of friends this spring.

Peggy Porschen's Jubilee Cupcakes: Peggy Porschen knows how to decorate a cupcake! They had a special Jubilee design this year.

Chelsea in Bloom 2022: British Icons: To celebrate the Platinum Jubilee year, Chelsea in Bloom themed their event around British icons, and the Queen (and her corgi sidekicks) were a popular subject for the theme. This was my first even Chelsea in Bloom walk, and the floral displays were beautiful and very British.

Eggs of an Era Platinum Jubilee Sculpture Trail: Similar to the corgi sculptures that appeared around London, a few egg sculptures appeared around Sloane Square in the spring. Each egg was a reflection of a different decade in the life of Queen Elizabeth II during her time as Queen.

What a sad day yesterday was, and what a sad few weeks it will be.

Street artist Wild Drawing (WD) often uses dimension and existing features of the wall to create unique street art. The artist, who was born in Bali but now lives in Greece, has painted walls all over the world since 2000 after degrees in fine art. He is inspired by graphic arts in comics and graphic novels, and he visited London at the end of 2019 in order to paint this mural off Parish Street in Penge. The mural itself is tucked in the corner between terraced buildings.

The mural appears to depict a mermaid creature in the 3D effect while using the architecture of the building to add to the work. The artist painted the work using long rollers on poles, which was perfected in his home country of Bali. To get this fine level of detail with the perspective is amazing.

I hope to see this artist return to London to paint additional walls as this is a stunning piece.

I had previously covered street art by Nether410, a US-based street artist who has previously painted a few murals in London. On his last visits, he had painted Charlie and Carol Burns murals on Bacon Street off Brick Lane. They were both popular figures in the east end of London and well-known at the markets. Nether410 painted a new tribute to Charlie Burns as the last one got tagged over, and he also painted a couple of birds that I managed to photograph - birds being another popular subject of the artist. 

The Charlie Burns, who passed away in 2012, mural shows the man with his boxing gloves and "king of Bacon Street".

Additional work of Charlie Burns that I managed to photograph on this wall is below:

Ben Slow's New Charlie Burns Mural
Street Art: Ben Slow
Nether410 Paints "Carol Burns" Street Art on Bacon Street
Nether410 Paints "Charlie Burns" on Bacon Street

At the end of 2021, Penge saw street artists Ben Eine and Nerone collaborate on a wall on High Street in Penge. Street artist Ben Eine is one of London's high-profile street artists, and his work is known globally. The artist currently resides in the U.S., but he does re-visit England in order to paint new work and touch up original walls. Nerone has been painting more recently; I discovered some of the artist's walls in 2015 or 2016. The artist is from France and uses a "party" vibe with bright flowers. The two artists collaborated on the new wall in Penge with Eine creating the typography for the word "Unity" and Nerone creating the floral background. The work has been painted directly onto brick.

In addition to the Penge piece, I recently discovered a new "Last Days" sign mural by Eine in Shoreditch. These have been popping up in places across east London where developers have acquired to build on. So, this spot's days are likely numbered with this fresh piece.

In addition to Eine's work, below are a few additional pieces that I spotted by Nerone over the past few years across east London.

Back in 2015, London saw the arrival of several South American street artists who painted across the city. Brazilian artist Onesto and Argentinan artist Mart Aire were two of those artists who painted in Camden. I captured the photograph of their work in 2017, but the colours had already faded. Mart Aire, who painted the two figures on the left, uses a sketchy illustration style. Onesto normally paints in black and white or a couple of colours with large-faced and spindly-limbed characters.

The last time I walked by this wall in Camden, which was earlier this year, the mural was still up but looking even more faded.

During the pandemic and the half-day Fridays, which I desperately miss, I walked around the local area a lot. This was the perfect time for me to get some much-needed exercise and was essential to my mental health. On one of those walks, I discovered Pembroke Park, which is located between Ruislip Manor and Eastcote. I noticed a memorial sign outside of the housing estate and walked over to have a look. That allowed me to uncover this important site. It was the location of a very important school that was essential to breaking enemy codes in World War II. Pembroke Park (which was also known as RAP Lime Grove or Outstation Eastcote) appeared as the setting in the film "The Imitation Game", which covered Alan Turing's contributions to cracking the codes.

The site was originally built as a hospital, but it was not needed and used for a different purpose. Pembroke Park operated during World War II as the Government Code and Cipher School for Bletchley Park and helped break the enemy codes. It was home to 800 Wrens (Women's Royal Naval Service personnel), and they worked on the decoding machines along with around one hundred RAF technicians. (There were also some Americans stationed here with their own decoding machines.) It was the headquarters of Government Communications, and it moved to Cheltenham in the 1950s, although a smaller unit did stay until the 1970s.

The land is now a housing estate, and it was sold in 2007. The development completed in 2014. The roads in the housing estate pay respect to the history of this estate during its conributions to the war.

I've gone through the street art archives, and today's post features the artwork of Amara por Dios, a Stockholm-based artist who used to be a regular on London's street art scene. The artist hasn't produced anything in London for years now, but I discovered some of her last London work that I photographed in my street art archives and thought that I'd share it. Her work is characterised with bright colours and feminine or floral subjects and styles. At least one of her murals does still exist, located on a disused tube train on top of the Village Underground wall at the Shoreditch end of Great Eastern Street. Her pink feminine artwork appears next to another artist's work known as Botkin, which appears to be inspired or possibly a collaboration.

Another one of her murals was with another feminine face with red braids is pictured below.

The last artwork I captured on scaffolding boards, which was a collaboration piece with Flesh031.

Other work by Amara Por Dios on this blog is located here:

Amara Por Dios Paints Hanbury Street
Street Art in Soho by Paul 'Don' Smith, Broken Fingaz, Amara por Dios, Thierry Noir, and others
New Street Art by Artista, Saki and Amara por Dios
Street Art by Amara Por Dios Glows in the Dark
Amara por Dios Paints Tribute for International Women's Day
Amara Por Dios and Flesh031 Collaborate on 'Urban Jungle' Mural in Soho
Amara Por Dios: Village Underground Mural and Other Walls
Street Art: Amara, Kef, Cheba, Neoh, Masai, Airborne Mark and others
New Street Art by Artista, Saki and Amara por Dios

Last year, I covered some street art paste-ups by LT66, who often pastes up illustrations around Brick Lane in East London. I have captured more of his illustrations, mainly of women, over the past year. The street artist is known for his mass-production of stencil-based illustration. Many of these pieces feature around Star Yard off Brick Lane.

More street art by LT66 on this blog:

Street Art: LT66

For those who have not tried Indian-style fish and chips from "The English Indian", I suggest you do so. The concept of Indian fish and chips was started in 2016 after a few years of cooking curries at local pubs. In 2017, they attended their first food festival and won "The People's Choice" at street food awards and additional awards in later years. They have a couple of food trucks that they take to different festivals across the country. They are regularly attending festivals, street food markets, and events with Lichfield and Bromley being regular markets. At one point, they were visiting The Woodman pub in Ruislip quite often, and that's where I visited them. 

Their menu includes pakora-battered cod or halloumi. It is served with chat masala chips with madras chip curry sauce, and mint and chilli garden mushy peas. I ordered the battered halloumi, which came with sweet chilli jam. I wished that I'd ordered a large because it was so good. A vegan menu is also being worked on.

The food really is delicious. They do not have a varied menu, but what they do tastes amazing, and this has gone to their advantage to perfect the perfect food.