Ray's Photos

[Rayge]

A little behind on the editing (again), so today, two separate dips into the digital archives from the early 2010s, part two for pictures of critters, and one, for no particular reason, of West Wales in winter. Here we go...


Nant-y-Moch


Sea View


No Barbie Today


White out at Cefn Llwyn


Back to Mono


Not a Fit Night Out for Man Nor Beast


It's Behind You!

...

[Rayge]

Part Two


Tight Fit


Hay-Burner


Line-Up


None Can Resist Hypno-Dog


The Bad Guys


A Nice Pair


Two Terriers One Chair

That's a slightly larger helping than usual, but just in case you weren't satisfied, here's dessert



That was fun; I might do it again tomorrow, seeing as how next up in the diary section is a trip I made to That London with Herself and Him, staying in Richmond and taking a trip to pick up my mother's effects and ashes in the care home where she died, and then burying the latter in the family grave in Tottenham.
Goodbye to all that, and loads of pictures to sort through.

[Rayge]

Yep, a repeat of yesterday: first, West Wales in Winter – the winter of 2012-13 if I remember aright


"The Forestry"


Two Dogs One Stick I


Hairlines


Farmhouse


Exotic


Valley Floor

Brrr. Let's check out something warm-blooded...

[Rayge]

Part two

Bramble
hawkmoth's psychopuss


Redcoat


Casualty


Now That's What I Call a Tail


Bookends


Fluff Buckets

tomorrow, who knows

[Modesty Forbids]

Part One today returns to early April, starting in the garden, then going forth


Five of Cups


Peak Tulip


Ambush


Rolled Gold


Revision


Picnic
We're on our way with rocket salad


Picnic Site


More SheepBell

Tomorrow, we arrive

[Modesty Forbids]

Part Two is a creature feature (not for the first time)


Plumage


Bad Boy


Lurking in the Buttercups


Catching Up


Romeo Goes For It


Aerial Display


Jess

[Modesty Forbids]

Today, in part one, we arrive in south-west London in April. Part two, on the other hand is still frozen in Wet Wales in mid-winter.


Stoned Again
Drive-by shot at Stonehenge


Deco
Factory passed on the approaches to London


Bay
We were staying in Richmond with a friend of herself


Free!
It was the first time Scrap or I had spent a night away from home in nearly a year. The guy with the ball is Dylan; he lives there.


Sculpted from Life
In Richmond Park


Best Paw Forward

Tomorrow, a journey into my past. Kinda

[Modesty Forbids]

Part Two


Valley


Daylights


Thaw Spot


Emergent


Greened


Toppled


Reabsorption

More from a slightly less frigid landscape tomorrow

[Modesty Forbids]

Just this once, what I promised yesterday. When in London, herself drove me up to Hertfordshire to p[ick up my mother's ashes, which we then took back to Ware, where we moved at Xmas 1964, and then back to Tottenham, where she had lived the rest of her life up to that point, and where I was born and brought up, to bury them (unofficially) in the family grave. So that's part one.


The Old Homestead
The guy who bought it from me in 2014 gutted it, sanitized it and flipped it, turned the front garden into a car park and put the patch at the back down to astorturf, and now a couple with a couple of young daughters live there. All is as it should be.


Remnant
My father made those cast concrete forms and set them on the wall in 1965, two years before he died


A Departure
I don't usually post anything here unless I took it, but this one fits


The Lea Gazebos
When we moved there, these gazebos, most of them built at the ends of the yards of the many coaching inns on the High Street (Ware was the overnight stop between London and Cambridge), were in ruins. Now, they're an attempted tourist attraction


Contractual Obligation
I took a picture of the view from this bridge almost every time I went to Ware to visit my mother, from at least the middle 1970s. It was here that my father died, of a heart attack, in 1967. Nearly 50 years on, this is the last one in the series. I can't imagine going back to Ware again. It never felt like home to me: I carried on at my old school in Tottenham until I went to uni in 1966, and went back their weekends to hang out with Clive, the beardy guy now in Wales, and a couple of other schoolfriends


OK I Lied
This is the actual last one

Part two follows shortly

[Modesty Forbids]

Part Two
Back to West Wales, and also back in time, to October 2012, just a month or so after Chip died


Sweep
The Beach at Aberystwyth, looking north-west towards the Lleyn Peninsula


Storm Signals
and looking south


Full Frontal


Tilt
The very same Clive with whom I frolicked in London half a century ago, now a retired academic with an Irish wife and 5 Welsh children


Constitution Hill
With its own funicular railway


Red Kite

Tomorrow, a bumper diary edition as the mortal remains of the Aged P make their last journey

[Modesty Forbids]

Today, in two parts, burying Mom. But first, on leaving Ware for Tottenham, made a detour to visit Amwell, a local beauty spot on the New River (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_River_(England))


Tall


Comfortable


Wind


Waterman's Cottage

and so into Tottenham, land of urban decay, recent race riots and the Spurs


Seen it All
The porch of Tottenham's mediaeval church, at the entrance to the cemetery


The Other Side
Not far from my mother's parents' grave, our destination for today, are those of my father's family. This one commemorates him, his parents and his father's mother. One next door, equally forlorn and likewise almost stripped by time of its cover of blue chippings, houses his mother's parents.

Continues below

[Modesty Forbids]

Part Two


End of the Line
When I first came here, more than 60 years ago, the only name was that of my grandfather, who died in 1939. My grandmother followed in 1955, and my mother's youngest brother, Bill, was also buried here in 1994; those were the official ones. I personally planted the ashes of Aunt Gladys and others here, and there has been a proliferation of pots dedicated to my uncle Albert, his wife Flo and four of their six children, presumably set up by my cousin June, the last survivor (presumably – no one knows what happened to Christine). It has subsided, and many of the surrounding graves have been cleared


Last Duty
I was very conscious as I scrabbled away that this was my last filial duty, and I was glad


Restored
That's me saying goodbye to my family of origin. Never say never, of course, but I can see no reason why I may come back here


The Way Home
In 1962, my school moved premises from south to north Tottenham – to just off White Hart Lane, in fact – and so my South Tottenham mate, Bob Burton, and I, would walk back home through the cemetery path, engaged in vigorous debate about the relative merits of various soul singers


Blossom
Because I can, right


The Tower
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_Castle

Tomorrow, back to Richmond, and the pretty stuff

[Modesty Forbids]

Today, in part one, a continuation of yesterday's efforts, going for an evening walk to Richmond Hill and then down and along the Thames.
And in part two, West Wales five years ago (be still my heart)


Old Maids
Vintage delivery van permanently parked outside the shop


Victorian Valuables


Balustrades


Rooms with a View


The Folks on the Hill


Scull Set
An evening row by Richmond Bridge


Cruisin'

[Modesty Forbids]

Part Two


Oi!
Aiofe objects


Aging Elf


Hippy Trails


Refreshments


Nightlight


Daylight
Just about

Tomorrow, more Richmond, and something else

[Modesty Forbids]

Moving right along, a two-parter to finish off the walk around the Thames at Richmond


Mandarins


Clementines


Red Brick


Wistaria
Bleeding a beautiful scent into the warm evening air


Wait for Me!


No Chavs

[Modesty Forbids]

Part Two
Continuing...


Balconia


Bend


Style


Westering


Last Look


Enough with the Walking
Himself takes over Dylan's Bed

Tomorrow, the day after.

[Modesty Forbids]

Having trouble accessing my photobucket accounts, so today's helping is cancelled. Sorry about that.Update: it's back

Today in part two we are off on a jaunt to Windsor Great Park, while in Part one, it's October in Wales.


Bone?


Postbox at Sunnyside


Hamlet


Book


Two Dogs, One Stick, DXIX


Retreat

...

[Modesty Forbids]

Part Two
On the way to Windsor


Golden Bough


Golden Boy


Lily Pond


A Bridge Over Untroubled Water


Paws and Pads i


Paws and Pads II


Currents
An Altered Image

[Modesty Forbids]

Today, part one is getting arboreal in Windsor, while Part 2 - hell, I'll think of something when I get there.


Oaks


Jack


Jackand Oaks


Textures
Love the swirling at the base, the grooved spiral in the middle and the thicket of boles just above head height


Talking of Thicket...
Our Hero ear-semaphores his idiot delight about being surrounded by new stinks and sticks


Markers
The trunks of dead trees are left to bear standing witness.

[Modesty Forbids]

Part Two
Still stuck in early digital years (2010-13) but, tiring of Wales, though not of leeks, opening at random a new folder thenfrom (I know it's not officially a word, but you get the notion),
we get to see some early pictures of the garden under construction


Clear Water
Just finished putting in the flower beds and stone surface in the top corner, previously covered in grass growing on about 20cm of topsoil rubble and rubbish.
Full circle reached now, 5-6 years later, as I attempt to get it back in some sort of order following the demolition of the outbuildings.


Under Construction
Making a hedgehog den to be covered with brushwood: now a huge pile of logs, sticks and general botanical mayhem


Eye-Opener
Spraxis


Premium Seating


Rainbow Coalition


Queenly
Aponogeton dystachyos, aka the water hyacinth, has a fragrance that lives up to its name, provided you can get your nose on it...

Tomorrow, more of this