Rus in Urbe

There are still flocks of black headed gulls on the river between Hammersmith and Richmond. As many as a thousand have been counted below Richmond Lock, which must have been a challenging task. Soon they will all disappear to breed along the coast to be replaced in summer by terns.

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Categorised as Nature

William Pickering

I have been given a bottle of port by a generous friend who found himself unable to walk past Berry Bros & Rudd without making a purchase. It is a twenty-year-old tawny labelled William Pickering – not a port house with which I am familiar.

Frank Banfield Park

Is it fair that a critic forms an opinion of a restaurant, a play or an opera based on one visit? Probably not but conscientious restaurant reviewers (I’m thinking of Nick Lander in WeekendFT) make multiple visits before delivering judgement. Today I am going to form an opinion based on visits over more than thirty… Continue reading Frank Banfield Park

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Categorised as Environment

More Opera

Yesterday was Fulham Opera’s spot. Tomorrow, Saturday,  Franco Zeffirelli’s production of La Bohème is on at the Met. I will not be there but I will be in the Curzon Chelsea to watch it being streamed live from New York.

Fulham Opera Night

If you find that operas can be excessively long and expensive come to Fulham Opera on Friday 9th March. Tickets are an affordable £10 bookable on line here. 

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Categorised as Music

If you go down in the woods today …

If you go down in the woods today You’re sure of a big surprise If you go down in the woods today You’d better go in disguise! For every bear that ever there was Will gather there for certain Because today’s the day the Teddy Bears have their picnic.

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Categorised as Business

Chelsea Morning

Have you noticed this structure just off the King’s Road at the end of Dovehouse Street? It is a flight of stairs leading nowhere used to train firemen to deal with fires in blocks of flats. There are more beautiful buildings in Chelsea, two of which have a military heritage.

Princess Margaret

I am sure I am not alone in deploring Craig Brown’s vulgar “biography” of Princess Margaret. It is a scurrilous hotch-potch of unreliable, disloyal and deeply offensive gossip garnered from a muck heap of diaries and newspaper articles.

Strangers

Patricia Highsmith’s 1950 novel Strangers on a Train is pretty dark. Alfred Hitchcock’s 1951 film is a lot better. I’m hoping to introduce two strangers.

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Categorised as Business

Carmen

I was watching the second episode of Yes, Prime Minister in which Bernard explains to Prime Minister, Jim Hacker, that he has not much to do; no department to run, just chairing Cabinet meetings, Prime Ministers questions, and a chat with the Queen on Tuesday evenings.