January 17.....

A trip into town......

3.58pm. St Margarets station

4.37pm.  Piccadilly tube station

4.39 pm

4.41pm ..Piccadilly

5.22pm 

5.25pm ""The Old Coffee House'' pub. Beak Street.  Check out the alcohol volume on that puppy.

11.27pm....and now to get home

January16...

East Sheen Waste Disposal centre. 1.10pm

The amount of rubbish we throw away got me thinking today ...

Did you know

• Up to 60% of the rubbish that ends up in the dustbin could be recycled.
• The unreleased energy contained in the average dustbin each year could power a television for 5,000 hours.
• On average, 16% of the money you spend on a product pays for the packaging, which ultimately ends up as rubbish.
• As much as 50% of waste in the average dustbin could be composted.
• Up to 80% of a vehicle can be recycled.
• 9 out of 10 people would recycle more if it were made easier.

and

• • 1 recycled tin can would save enough energy to power a television for 3 hours.
  • 1 recycled glass bottle would save enough energy to power a computer for 25 minutes.
  • 1 recycled plastic bottle would save enough energy to power a 60-watt light bulb for 3 hours.
  • 70% less energy is required to recycle paper compared with making it from raw materials

January 15......

A 30 km bicycle ride on a cold but clear winters Sunday morning

Teddington Lock Bridge. 9.27am

River Thames. Teddington Lock. 9.29am

Local fauna in Richmond Park sitting peacefully catching a few rays of warmth and undoubtedly pondering the complications of life as a fox living in a metropolis.  10.18am

January 14......

What you see on a 3 hour walk through a frost laden Surrey countryside

A local church with frosted cemetery. 10.50am. Temperature 3c (36F)

Open fields and endless blue skies

A lot of time looking at this

Avenue of sunlight

A search for grass

No walk in the English countryside is complete without a hearty meal in a pub at walks end

January 13....

The things you see on a mid afternoon bike ride along the Thames

Hampton Court Palace

Ditto

Only barely a feasible idea in an exotic location in warm climes Houseboats make no sense on the Thames in the middle of winter.

So cold even the ducks stay out of the water...

January 12.....

The things you see on a winters evening jog at sunset....

Marble Hill House ...
 ''built in the 1720s for Henrietta Howard, Countess of Suffolk and mistress of George II and became one of the most fashionable residences of the period, where artists, authors, poets and politicians of the day frequently gathered.''

Looking West and upstream on the Thames

View towards Richmond Hill and the Star and Garter (Stately home providing nursing and therapeutic care for  ex military personnel)

Richmond Bridge over the Thames

January 11...

I always find there is a certain sadness to old business's that have long disappeared. You wonder about the  livelihoods lost. Old signs like this make you wonder who owned the business that was, the people behind it, and undoubtedly the quality of the product that eventually gave way to the realities of commercialism and something cheaper produced overseas that the public craved. 

St Margaret's. 3.22 pm