A Deer Parable

Last week when Aditi's family were visiting, I tagged along with them to Richmond Park.

Shortly after our picnic lunch, Aditi's parents declared they would spend the rest of the afternoon lazing under a tree. Disdainful of this sedentary attitude, Aditi, her sister and I decided to explore further, and try to track down some of the wild deer which roam free in the park.

We ranged far and wide, exploring as much of the park as time permitted. We trudged through woods, meadows and bracken, treading quietly, venturing into less frequented areas, trying to second-guess the deer. But the most exciting thing we found was a parrot-feather.

When we got back, Aditi's dad asked us whether we had managed to spot any deer. We admitted that we hadn't. Not without a hint of smugness, he tilted his head to indicate a spot to his left. There, hardly 15 metres from where they were lounging, three fallow deer were unconcernedly munching on grass. Apparently the deer arrived on the scene minutes after we strode off; at one point they came so close that Aditi's mum had to literally shoo them away.

I am sure there is a life lesson in there somewhere.

Village News

Three days ago I moved to Histon and Impington, a village (or more accurately, two intertwined villages) in Cambridgeshire, England. Next time someone asks me what village life is like, I will show them this photo I took yesterday on the High Street.

This incident, which took place in the neighbouring village of Girton, is the sort of thing which makes front-page news in these parts.

Seasons 6: Millwall Park, London

Move your cursor over the image below, and it should change to another image of the same scene in a different season. (If it doesn't work, check that your browser has JavaScript enabled.)

Base photo:	3 December 2014
Mouseover photo:	20 April 2015
Approx. coordinates:	51.49°N, 0.01°W

August 2015 has not been a good month for this blog: it is the first time in its seven-year history that a whole month has gone by without a single post (unless you count August 2008 when I briefly deleted the blog).

One of the things which kept me busy last month was moving from London to Histon and Impington in Cambridgeshire. So before I start posting photos of village life, here's a photo I took in London: the disused railway viaduct at Millwall Park.

The viaduct was built in 1872 as part of the Millwall Extension Railway. The railway closed down in the 1920s, but six decades later, trains returned to the viaduct when it was reused for the Docklands Light Railway. In 1999 the DLR was rerouted, leaving its original line to duck underground at Millwall and pass underneath the Thames and on to Greenwich. So now the viaduct lies in disuse once again, festooned by ivies which grow green in summer and rust-red in autumn.

Dying Factory Owners

An Indian Supreme Court case involving water pollution caused by dyeing factories is often (mistakenly) cited in other judgments as "Tirupur Dying Factory Owners Association".

For me the typo always conjures up images of aged factory-owners, some on saline drips or life support systems, gathering weekly to talk about succession plans, business prospects, and their own approaching mortality.

Then I wonder, how close to death does a factory-owner need to be, in order to join this association? Which in turn reminds me of a scene from the movie Whatever Works:

Boris:	I'm dying! I-I'm dying!
Jessica:	Should I call an ambulance?
Boris:	No, not now! No, not tonight, I mean eventually!

Millwall Fire Station (Then & Now)

Across the street from where I live, there is a restaurant called the Old Fire Station Bistro, where I have drunk many a cup of filter coffee.

The first photo you see below was taken today. The second photo is one I stumbled upon while exploring the archives of the Museum of London. It was taken sometime in the 1970s when the building was still a fire station, on a day when the firemen were on strike.

Among other changes, it appears that the signage at the top, which used to be relief lettering in an old-style serif typeface, has been replaced by painted lettering in a transitional serif typeface. As you might expect, I prefer the older version.

Image copyright: Henry Grant Collection/Museum of London
Used by kind permission of the Museum of London

Courgette-Flower Timelapse

Encouraged by the overwhelming response I received when I posted a photo of a courgette flower (0 comments), I now bring you a timelapse video (effective speed 720x) of courgette flowers blooming.

The video, like the photo, is of male flowers, but I'm pleased to note that our courgette plants are now also producing female flowers and, more excitingly, baby courgettes.

Full disclosure: The flowers open very early in the morning when the light is not very good, and close up during the day. So I actually photographed the flowers closing and played the video backwards, which to me looks more dramatic.

Jupiter–Venus Conjunction

Venus and Jupiter, the two brightest objects in the night sky (excluding of course the Moon), were very close tonight – just a third of a degree apart (for reference, the full Moon is about half a degree in diameter). We will not see a closer Jupiter–Venus conjunction until 2039.

I positioned myself at a spot whence, I calculated, I would see the two planets set over the Shard. But my trigonometric efforts were in vain; clouds obscured the view while the sky was still quite bright and the planets some distance above the horizon (at the upper left in the photo below). Oh well, I'll try again tomorrow.

Whenever I see Venus in the evening sky, I think of these lines from Terrapin Station by the Grateful Dead:

Counting stars by candlelight / All are dim but one is bright / The spiral light of Venus / Rising first and shining best...

Courgette Flower

Lately I have been remiss about posting because of my exams (which end in four days), but I couldn't let summer solstice pass by without comment. So here is a photo of our courgette flower, opening up to the midsummer sun.

We only planted the seeds in late spring, but the plants are already producing male flowers. Hopefully we will soon have female flowers, with fruits to follow.