Monday, May 25, 2015

Urban sights for country eyes

So, Country Mouse has been in London for nearly two months!   Heimweh! Nostalgie!

The London parks and squares are gloriously in flower, central London seems tidier than I remember it - less rubbish floating around but the same amount of indelible gum on the pavements.

Ceanothus hides a London fence


The weather has been favourable, too, a little rain and one totally unexpected hail-storm whilst I was safely in a taxi.  A couple of days of near gale force winds which proved that London pollen is probably more allergisante than that in the country.   Also my anti-histamine pills appeared to be two years out of date...

While a large part of London is still a building site, it seems to me that builders have got somewhat more considerate.   The hammering, banging, and clang of scaffolding hitting pavement, is still there.    But it does not appear to be accompanied by raucous pop music in any one of the many languages that are now heard in the capital. Not even whistling... Even the 'conveniences' are more - discreet? aesthetic? Though nowhere as elegant as the wooden, flat pack compost toilets made by Alexandre. Sadly, I have no picture of those.
and it gets gently lifted away..

London's rubbish collection seems to work 24/7 - again with no commentary or music from the people concerned. Somehow, the rattle of a restaurant's bottles falling into the rubbish cart is soothing.  In some parts of town attempts a being 'green' and encouragement to residents to recycle are aggressively obvious - below is a formerly 'fashionable' street in Southwark.  Who would pay hundreds of thousands to live with these at their front door?
sometimes there is a brown bin, too

One of the more imaginative of Southwark's inhabitants created a splendid solution - but it is not one that can be adopted everywhere. Can't just put anything, anywhere on a pavement in London. And it probably cost more than the ten odd euros we paid the commune for our wooden compost bins.

assume owner has Council permission...?






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