The Wapping Project

 

The London Hydraulic Power Company was set up by an act of Parliament in 1883. A network of cast-iron pipes ran beneath the streets of London, and pressurized water drawn directly from the Thames River was piped to various locations to power machinery such as cranes, lifts, theatre machinery, and the Tower Bridge. The company built five pumping stations around London, and one, the Wapping station, operated until 1977. The building, an historic landmark, has since been converted into an arts space and restaurant.

Pink Saturday - watermelon salad

Pink Saturday - Beverly at the blog "How Sweet the Sound" hosts Pink Saturday. Let the color pink inspire you!

What's pink, cool and refreshing for summer, yet sophisticated enough to serve company? Watermelon salad.

This one is watermelon, basil, feta cheese and pistachios, served at Gordon Ramsay's gastropub The Narrow, on the banks of the Thames River in the Limehouse area of London.

We enjoyed it at a windowside table, looking at the river. The clouds threatened, but the storm never came.

This Pink Saturday, we're staying home, due to Carmageddon! Have a great weekend, all!

Super potatoes

We saw these beautiful purple and gold potatoes at the stall of Weiser Family Farms at the Wednesday Santa Monica Farmers Market. Their pretty coloring is only skin deep - the flesh inside is pale and starchy like a russet potato. The farmstand recommends them as a great baking potato.

What do you call purple and gold potatoes in Los Angeles?

Laker Bakers, of course!

The end of life as we know it.

 

"Carmageddon" - that's what they're officially calling it.

This weekend, starting around 7 pm on Friday, July 15, the California Department of Transportation is going to close the 405 freeway through the Sepulveda Pass, until Monday morning, July 18.

The 405 will be closed between the 10 and the 101 freeways so the DOT can take down a bridge in the process of widening the freeway.

With the 405 closed, the entire west side of LA, including Santa Monica, Brentwood and UCLA will be forced to travel on surface streets - or not at all.

Not at all is more like it. We're staying home. Because - believe it or not - our winding, two-lane mountain road is the next road through the mountains west of the 405. Which means it will be the first thoroughfare chosen by anyone who needs to go from the Valley to the beach.

People are coming up with some ingenious ideas, though. My favorite? JetBlue is selling tickets for flights from Burbank airport to Long Beach airport - for only $4!  The flight takes about 35 minutes - pretty darn good, I'd say!

Here in Topanga, we've laid in supplies and we're having a "stay-cation." We've invited our neighbors for a potluck barbecue on Sunday.

American ignorance?

 

You've probably seen all those studies that claim how ignorant Americans are - sometimes it's a study about the population in general; sometimes it's about students. The survey shows that an alarmingly high percentage of respondents were totally ignorant about basic facts of our country's history or the basic functions of government.

I always wonder who those people were. But yesterday I was talking to someone I've known for at least a year, and she surprised me.

We were catching up after a month of being out of touch. I explained that I'd been traveling, and that we went to London, England. My friend had been at a family gathering in Lake Tahoe. We both told little stories about our stay.

I told about the weather. During our London stay, the weather had been very unusual - lots of rain, one really hot day, some surprisingly cold days, and one day of really fierce thunderstorms. After a bit of back and forth, my friend asked, "So, in London, it's their winter now, right?"

My friend wasn't sure which hemisphere Britain was in.

My friend is in her mid thirties; she's smart, talented and has a good job. She hasn't been to college, but she certainly graduated from high school without trouble. Yet her grasp on basic geography - where is Britain located? - came as a shock to me.

What do you think? Is this common? Have you encountered similar examples of ignorance? And - playing the devil's advocate for a moment - does it really matter, if she has a good life in society?

*Update - misspelling fixed. Thanks Gary!

Summer pleasures

These pretty flowers are Helenium, and since they were photographed in England, they are probably the well-known garden hybrid called "Moerheim Beauty."

This genus is native to Texas, Northern Mexico, and the Southwest of the U.S. They are members of the Aster family. Somewhat drought tolerant, they like full sun and look great with other hot, dry summer flowers like dahlias, yarrows, black-eyed Susans, and crocosmias.

I love their cheerful bright color and the prominent round central cone - it feels like a chenille-covered button under your finger.

What says "summer" to you, in your personal landscape?

Warm beer

The grey-haired man in black accepted the glass of beer from the bartender, but then he tasted it and placed it back on the table.

"This beer is too warm," he said.

It was a Sunday, just after noon, and the Dog and Duck pub in Soho had just opened. The landlady was cleaning up the place after a raucous Saturday night. "It's not supposed to be cold," she said, taking him for a tourist unaccustomed to British pubs.

"I know that," said the man, irritated. "But this one is too warm."

"It's the same as all the others. We keep them at 14 C." She was having none of it.

"it's too warm," he said again. He set the glass on the table, turned and walked out of the pub, down the narrow street and away.

The landlady smirked and muttered at his back.

The other customers shrugged, watched the black-clad figure diminish down the street, and sipped at their own glasses of ale or cider. "Pushy bastard," said someone.

After a moment of silence - "D'you know who that was?" asked the man sweeping up in the corner. Everyone looked at him. "That was Terry Jones."

We all looked down the street again, but the former Monty Python comic was no longer in sight. But the glass of beer remained.

Pink Saturday - Columbia Road

Pink Saturday - Beverly at the blog "How Sweet the Sound" hosts Pink Saturday. Let the color pink inspire you!

Columbia Road is a narrow crescent of roadway, lined with small shops that are just a little too funky to be rightly called "boutiques."  These small cake shops, vintage shops, housewares and hardware stores are fun to browse in, but early on Sunday mornings, they aren't the main attraction that brings throngs to this East London neighborhood.

The Columbia Road Flower Market fills the street, with racks and stands full of cut flowers and potted plants. Everything from exotic orchids to mundane annuals is here for sale, and loudly hawked by Cockney-voiced vendors competing with one another for your business.

"Doy-ann-thuss! Two fer a fiver!" shouts one man, cradling an entire flat of garden pinks in his beefy embrace. "You've got lob-eee-lee-ah loike that, dah-lin', shood be four pots a fiver!"

At the stall next door, another vendor shouts, "Any two for three pounds!"

Further down the row, another vendor holds up a standard-pruned fuchsia in full bloom. "They's stolen that's woy they's so cheap! A fiver!"

I marveled at these blue Eryngium alpinum - I've never been able to grow this plant, and here were bunches of them.

Further down, a display of dahlias.

Or hydrangeas catch the eye.

As you squeeze through the crush, you might decide to take a break, buy a coffee or a pastry, and explore the little shops.

This one entices you with a phrase of poetry chalked on the door.

Inside, you find rustic pots, packets of seed, garden furniture, hats and tools.

You can even buy compost by the scoop here.

Other shops sell clothes, jewelry, or artwork.

We relaxed a bit before wading back through the tightly packed scrum. Such a sea of color and scent! It was irresistible! Though I knew it would be foolish to buy potted plants, unable to take them back to the US, there's no reason not to have cut flowers. I bought two bunches of peonies to bring back to our flat.

They lasted for days, filling our rooms with scent.

If you visit London, don't miss the Columbia Road Flower Market.

Ready for one

So glad it's Friday.