So
Country Mouse flew into London a new way, landing in a soft glide
along the side of the Thames to London City Airport. Fortunately
the plane was small and the pilot knew how to drive in straight lines
as well a fly in circles in the sky.
London
Transport was on its best behaviour and took me home by bus and by
overground in what seemed like less than an hour. I had not
realised how big and how dense, low rise greater East London is.
That is the joy of bus rides – seeing houses and shops and markets
and hundreds of uniformed children. Generation Y (earphones attached
to Ipod/phone) has become Generation D with official ID cards
hanging round their necks.
 |
| Reaching for the sun |
London
was in brilliant bloom, a joy to the eye but hellish for hay fever
sufferers. Our North London garden had repaid the winter love we
gave in a magnificent show of blossom and greenery. Like so many
inhabitants of Britain the plants are trying to escape to the sun.
My
two small efforts at gardening had mixed results. The mint plant
has taken well but is obviously short of water. And my salad
dandelion – salade verte, pissenlit, endives, noix & lardons
– had had too much rain and
was too big to eat.
 |
| too large to be edible - a survival technique? |
However,
my guilt feelings for having encouraged the tearing down of the
hydrangea that had climbed up from the basement to colonise the roof,
were a little assuaged. I save a few sticks that showed little
points of green. They seem to have rooted and hopefully will clamber
all over – horizontally – the front garden fence.
Only
one sad note: one of my favourite local shops has changed hands.
But the true, underlying sadness is not the change of personnel but
the change of shop layout.
As
you come through the shop door, access to the right hand area, where
all the newspapers and magazines were displayed, has been blocked
off. Customers are steered into the shop and cannot access any goods
without being seen by the cashier. Later I noticed other shops had
the same layout. Pessimism leads me to presume that there has been
an increase in snatch and run theft.
Odd
thing: there seems to be a rash of strange, multicoloured
hieroglyphs on London pavements. Slightly alarmed as this may
indicate digging works with consequent inconvenience for pedestrians.
No visible date on any and perhaps change of Mayor will delay
works.
