23 June 2009

Bye George..

One year ago the world said goodbye to one of my favorite wits - George Carlin. With his comedy, satire & wordplay he consistently opened my mind to new ways of thinking.

Youtube video of George: Click here


Great blog here about him: Click here

16 June 2009

High Anxiety

Great line from the movie:

Mel Brookes as Dr. Richard Thorndyke 'What's your sign?'


Madeline Kahn as Victoria Brisbane 'I'm sorry....it's unlisted.'


Only wish I could remember to use it when needed...

14 June 2009

Unbelievable


Today at 2:30pm I found a grey heron trapped, with a broken wing, behind a light fixture at work. The bird was laying flat on it's side and suffering from having been there all day in the sun - maybe longer if it had become trapped yesterday. I managed to get him (or her) out without much difficulty, avoiding being speared by its razor sharp beak and called security to get them to call out someone to take the bird to be helped. In the meantime we did manage to get it to drink some water

They tried to call the Regent's Park rangers - but found the rangers had turned off their phones. They then managed to contact the RSPCA - who said they would be there 'sometime before 7.'

I left work near 5pm and at that time they still had not come - I did make sure the bird had some more water, but I didn't think it would survive until he could be picked up. I called security after I got home
- near 7 and they had taken it and it was still alive.

I can remember back in '78 calling the RSPCA in Kings Lynn to come to the rescue of an abandoned seal pup in Hunstanton - a 45 mile distance - that took the rescuer 15 min to cover. The seal survived, even tho it was given little chance of doing so - I hope the heron now has a chance.
Shame that it had to suffer so long waiting for rescue.

UPDATE: The RSPCA did not take the heron away alive - instead they injected it and put it to sleep, before removing it.



13 June 2009

Fortune Strikes

Well, sort of... on Tuesday @ 6:59 pm, the London Underground went on strike... sort of. After riding in to work on the #113 bus Wednesday, I found out that my normal Tube route - the Nortnern Line was operating as normal, except for a few station closures. Warren Street - my closest- being one. This meant that I needed to walk to the Camden Station through Regents Park. Not a bad trade off tho, as I didn't have to dodge the heavy foot traffic on Marylebone.

This took me around the Inner Circle, past St John's Lodge and the near hidden (private looking) entrance to it's park. I decided to explore. What a gem of a garden! Beautiful, secluded and quiet.



There are well kept plant beds with many separate garden
'rooms', each with their own theme - including
an ornamental vegetable bed. The best thing I noticed though was the lack of crowds that I find in the main Regents Park gardens. Most of the rooms were empty and those that did have people only had 1 or 2 sitting quietly reading or as in one case - napping on a bench.
And no - he wasn't a transient.







With several works of art - bronzes - gorgeous plant combinations and a long landscape vista to St Johns Lodge, this garden has just joined the Chelsea Physic Garden & Hampstead Heath as one of my favorite places to visit in London.