Thoughts from Finchley

Weekly Photo Challenge: Down

2e0mca — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 13:02:32 +0000

One of the joys of childhood is to look down on trains passing under a bridge. Often those first glimpses are from the shoulders of a patient parent. We soon grow tall enough to see over the bridge parapet ourselves…. Oh! the pleasure of being enveloped by the clouds of steam and smoke as an engine passed beneath and then the rush to the other side to watch it disappearing into the distance leaving a smell of warm oil and coal. Such were the memories of my childhood when trips to Hadley Wood were a popular picnic treat for the family and journeys to Scotland were by night train. Back then all the mainline expresses were commonly in the hands of Steam locomotives.

Of course, sooner or later, we grow up and many of the joys of childhood are forgotten or become faraway memories of a time when the sun always shone. For some of us though, that early encounter with the view from the bridge stays with us into adult life. I still can’t resist standing on a bridge watching the trains go by and I’ve been doing it off and on for the last 40 years.

Willesden Junction has always been a popular mecca for trainspotters / railway enthusiasts, featuring a confluence of lines from all points of the compass and all regions of British Railways (with the exception of the Scottish Region). Around 1920, as the new lines were built for a local electric service to Watford Junction from Euston, a footbridge was built across the main London to Crewe lines for a new footpath connection. Ever since it has been a popular location for enthusiasts to look down on the passing express, outer suburban and freight trains whilst also affording a view of the trains operating around the North London Line. Here are a couple of then and now views looking down from that footbridge…

Willesden Junction 1982 and 2010

Willesden Junction 1986 and 2012

A-Z Archive: H Challenge

2e0mca — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 09:12:18 +0000

From My Archive I Choose…

H is for High-Rise

Apartment blocks in Paddington

I wanted to convey the starkness of High-Rise housing in this image so I retained the converging lines of the buildings whilst removing an intruding section of an adjacent block from the right of the frame. I then converted the image to Black & White, upping the contrast, before applying a Charcoal filter and thin black frame.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Regret

2e0mca — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 12:24:10 +0000

Ahmet is going to regret this Hong Kong Phooey challenge…

…as the Referee is going to give him a Straight Red Card. Of course, some players don’t regret their actions…

…They just look bemused and say “Wot’s That For Ref?”

It should be noted that Ahmet’s challenge looks much worse than it was – in fact the opposition manager stated that he didn’t think it warranted a Red Card and they offered to supply video evidence in his defence to the FA disciplinary hearing. But the referee on the day saw the challenge from almost the same angle as my photograph and I can fully understand why he would give a Red Card in the circumstances. The FA stood by their man and Ahmet received, I believe, a 4 match ban.

Cropwell Bishop

2e0mca — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 14:22:22 +0000

A couple of weeks back I had the pleasure of reading the first episode of Tony’s latest comic series Dave’s Dilemma. As a precursor to the series Tony included the relevant section of his previous comic series – 2011 A Rat Odyssey – which included this hilarious episode Unfortunately in laughing at it once again, I upset the unwitting victim of the tale – Cedric. Clearly we need to be aware that comic characters do have feelings. So, I offered to email Cedric some Stilton Cheese to make it up to him. Unfortunately my ISP, complaining that the smell was corroding the server’s printed circuit boards and hard drives, sent it back. So I’m having to Blog it instead – Hope that’s alright Cedric?

So here we have some Cropwell Bishop – a fine example of traditional Stilton Cheese from the county of Nottinghamshire. Ripened for 15 weeks, it has a creamy texture and strong flavour. The cheese is available from Waitrose and also from the Cropwell Bishop Creamery. Their website is very informative so it’s well worth a visit

The Write Stuff, With thanks to Lucid Gypsy

2e0mca — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 19:29:19 +0000

Well, I read Gilly’s post and was silly enough to say I’d give it a go!

The idea is to write… You know, that strange action involving a pen that you usually only have to do at the checkout when their computer is down.

So you get a piece of paper and, ignoring the niceties of trying to do your best handwriting from the days of primary school, write down the necessary items from the list below: -

1, What is your name?
2, Blog URL?
3, Write: The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
4, Favourite quote?
5, Favourite song? (at the mome)
6, Favourite band/musician/singer? (at the mome)
7, Say anything you want
8, Tag 3-5 bloggers

Gilly would like to know if you do this! Hurrah!!

So Here’s mine…

and I’m tagging…

http://kateshrewsday.com

http://refrigeratormagnate.wordpress.com

http://thirdhandart.wordpress.com