Tag: Autumn
Nunhead, South East London – a wanderlust
If you’re looking for a mini escape in London, Nunhead offers the scenery and views for quiet reflection and gentle exercise.
Pitched on the hill between New Cross Gate, Dulwich and Peckham Rye, I’d recommend starting off at Telegraph Hill for breathtaking views of the City of London.
A short walk away, Nunhead cemetery offers grand Victoria architecture, in a lush green mini forest, open to all.
The oldest structures, weathered from the years, are classified as ruins and off bounds. They offer scenes from gothic eras, alike those filmed in Highgate cemetery for Dracula.
There’s a steep incline for a cardio friendly circular walk, offering many photogenic moments.
The thick foliage create an ideal temperature in autumn and summer.
The easiest way to get there from central London, is to get to New Cross Gate and walk up the hill
Lockdown urban London photos with people
Well here we go again, only this time things are a bit different.
In London, there are noticeably less people out after dark, but shopping malls and cafes are still serving take outs and grocery essentials.
This means the earlier photos from the lockdown in spring bear a significant difference to the way urban landscapes look now.
For example, there are a fair amount of labourers and cleaning staff going out and about their business as usual. Spaces look less derelict and more like Sundays before London got crowded millennium onwards.
In urban green spaces, people don’t consider being in fairly crowded conditions, a threat from covid anymore. Benches are open and cyclists have equal access to parks.
The level of interaction with larger crowds is a personal preference.
On a recent cycle with Simon around trendy Hackney Wick and guardian reader pretentious Hackney on Victoria Park, the crowds were heavily dense in many public play areas and entrances.
Away from the long queues outside to pick up coffees and take outs in places where some think it’s important to be at, our was certaintly picking a fish and chips from a good old reliable affordable local chippy just east of Victoria Park to the Wick.
No queues, no wait, no hassle. After a five minute walk, we were enjoying dinner on a bench in the park.
In my next blog I will write about meaningful ways to spend preparing for Christmas holidays and Christmas day itself.
Many get carried away with meaningless cultural traditions, missing the point. Culture can be as oppressive as American culture’s cultural non existence, when it adds no experiental reflection or mindful rest.
In a time of self reflection I couldn’t be luckier having met four days after landing back from a two month trip away early August 2019. And here we are still are today.
Back in the park, we sat watching the lowering sun introducing the mist, the temperature drop, the sensation of colours struggling to define themselves in this new reality.
I suppose this time, it is also the first time of the year’s season under covid for our urban neighbourhoods too. Well I say, we can only pay homage to this another new reality for the family albums to come.
Really, what’s there to complain about? And why not to?
Canary Wharf, Canada Place, London 
Wharf Market, Jubilee Place, CW 
Bow Gate, Victoria Park 
Hackney Wick 
Skate Park, Victoria Park 
Bridge over the canal, Bow
Shadow Play
After dark we have a blast
with flashlights in the night.
We play with the shadows
until daylight hides the sight.
Darkness becomes beautiful
with every flashlight sway.
The shadows are a form of art
where creative fingers play.
The wall is painted in the dark
and my hands make a design.
The sight of a duck or dog
are from the best of mine.
My fingers make much more
when I bend them into shape.
If the light fills the entire room
my masterpieces will escape.
The shadow’s are brought to life
in the darkness where it stands.
I control the beaming flashlight
that displays the art of hands.
by Shelley Williams
Autumnal English hews
Noticing the small changes in the way the air’s scent carries cooking smells, perfumes and sound vibrations…
The light moisture chilling the edges off living things…
The light mist flowing through the land, thickening and lightening as it absorbs the wind.
Wood burning in the city, logs burning in the fireplace, smoke climbing up from canal boat chimneys into the gaps of the urban air channels.
The yellowy orange with blues of the sunsets and the sunrises. A sun blessed season eclipsing into the vibrancy of the next. Nature signalling for a final celebration before it returns next year in spring.
The cozyness of the orange, greys, dark purples, bronze and blacks decorating cozy corners energised by alchemy, alcohol and warmth.
Get hyped. Pennywise is on his way back!
The sequel to Stephen King’s It, remade two years ago, will be hitting the cinemas this September.
Here’s the promo trailer:
In the trailer, Pennywise’s daughter, an old woman now, appears to be sweating excessively. Many fans expected Pennywise to burst out of her chest.
Old family photos of Pennywise and his children have his sunny disposition of undertones in his character.
This time, he is not hooking into fears. The adults mastered how to manage them.
He is after broken hearts, going much deeper into the psychological impact of trauma in adults.
Even if the movie was released in the middle of the summer, I would still surely escape to the darkness for a couple of hours for what appears will be an indescribable dark viewing.
Camden, for the soul
On the first chilly day of autumn, I walked out of the house for work to find my brain clicking into Camden cravings.
I’m not talking about the food options, the bashing vibes, the shopping or drinking ports.
That would be too much detail.
I’m talking about the warming feeling I get when I’m here.
In Camden Town, at sunset, on a crisp day. It feels like belonging, it feels like home.
I could climb under the cobble stones and sleep there for the night.
And wake up to crawl back up from beneath them, to see Camden in sunrise.
Cowboys and effigies 