We Three Trees of Orient Are

Parrotia persica (commonly called Persian ironwood) is a deciduous tree in the family Hamamelidaceae, closely related to the witch-hazel genus Hamamelis. It is native to northern Iran and southern Azerbaijan (where it is called Dəmirağac) and it is endemic in the Alborz mountains. (Wiki) It was Urban Tree of the Year in 2014.

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Categorised as Environment

Local News

Two years ago the NHS Trust that runs Charing Cross Hospital put forward a plan to re-build it. Work was intended to start this year and be completed by 2021.

A Degastation

Off to Cambridge and Degas feeling sick and giddy. I have doubled my dose of Losartan to 50 mg and now my blood pressure is so low I can barely function. Degas was a multi-tasker as the exhibition at the Fitzwilliam demonstrates.

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Categorised as Art

Studios

  If you drive over the Hammersmith flyover you are sure to to have noticed this parade of artists’ studios by Barons Court station.

Munro Bagging

I wonder why there are so many sculptures depicting humans and animals or fish? Does the chap paying wrestle with the problem of which to have and then think – I know, I’ll have ’em both?

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Categorised as Sculpture

Popgood & Groolley

Since I was made redundant two and half years ago I have taken on a few honorary jobs. Hitherto I have not mentioned them but as the latest has been made public I want to keep you in the picture.

Two Fine Lutyens Memorials

There are twenty Grade I listed war memorials in England (out of over 3,000 listed war memorials) including the Arch of Remembrance in Leicester designed by Lutyens, his largest war memorial in England. I have not seen it but on Friday I visited another of his memorials, also Grade I listed.

Betjeman

I have been trying to buy Lord Mount Prospect by John Betjeman and these days you can get anything … at a price.

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Categorised as Poetry

General Stewart

If you walk along Pont Street you may have noticed this house opposite St Columba’s Church. Both were built in 1884 but the church was destroyed by a bomb in 1941 and rebuilt in 1955. No 67, known as Farm House, was commissioned by Major General Sir Herbert Stewart KCB but he never lived there.… Continue reading General Stewart