William Huskisson

What went up Judy’s Passage? Lupton’s Tower of course. My first House (JDRMcC) was at one end so I went up Judy’s Passage a lot. These days I go through Milkmaid’s Passage. It links The Green Park with St James’s Place and is a good route to my club.

Wetland

This is a bird’s eye view of the London Wetland Centre. Earlier this year the Lesser Spotted Prime Minister was seen here. She flew back to central London; ornithologists believe that she prefers a dry habitat. You will recall that she was seen in Burberry gathering nesting material as the breeding season commences.

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Categorised as Nature

A Must-See Show

If you go to the Mansion House, the Lord Mayor of London’s abode in the City, be sure to take a close look at the Dutch and Flemish 17th century paintings. They are hung a bit too high, “skyed”, but there are so many dos there that I suppose it is a safety-play. The point… Continue reading A Must-See Show

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Categorised as Art

Home Front

I took some well-intentioned advice after I bought bird feeders nearly two years ago, namely to buy food by the sackful. Accordingly I bought two paper sacks of bird seed from the RSPB.

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Categorised as Family

Gathering Winter Fuel

Good King Wenceslas looked out on the feast of Stephen, when the snow lay round about, deep and crisp and even. Brightly shone the moon that night, though the frost was cruel, when a poor man came in sight, gathering winter fuel.

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Categorised as Local

Robert Herrick

Aunts Aren’t Gentlemen is PG Wodehouse’s last complete novel, published in 1974, a year before he died aged ninety-three. At an age when his creative juices might be expected to dry up, it is right up to his usual high standard. If you want to know why Bertie Wooster is mistaken for arch-criminal Alpine Joe… Continue reading Robert Herrick

Mary Callery

You have seen this many times at the cinema or, maybe, for real. I have but without noticing it until I was watching La Bohème from the Met in Chelsea on Saturday.

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