All the fun of the fair, and more!

Some of the attractions at the Merrist Wood College Summer show.

Greenwich Spring Time

The first good early spring weather was enjoyed by people in Greenwich Park ....

...and at the top of the hill, just viewing the city in the sunshine.

Who is in the square!

The title is a statement, not a question.

Filming for the Dr. Who 50th anniversary episode was taking place in London's Trafalgar 

Square after a rain shower. Actor Matt Smith keeps warm before the action starts.

The Doctor seen here with Clara his new companion played by Jenna-Louise Coleman.

Comet Pan-STARRS

C/2011 L4  comet Pan-STARRS as seen from my West London garden on an early April evening.

I saw it first as a naked eye object on 13 March, from Regents Park, London. 

It is now beginning to fade in brightness as it rushes a way from Earth and off into deep space.

The Temperate House, Kew.

The Victorian Glasshouse at Kew Gardens has received £33m in grants and donations.

This means it can go ahead with its refurbishment of the building designed by Decimus Burton.

The building was showing its age recently, but was still looking magnificent.

Bankside to Vauxhall

My Winter walk in Southwark with

old and new Backside buildings in view.

The first bridge on the stroll up river was the

Millennium bridge which leads to St. Paul's cathedral.

This footbridge is always very popular, seen here from the St. Paul's side of the river.

Later I reached a very well known landmarks at dusk,

The palace of Westminster and bridge.

At nightfall I reached Vauxhall bridge. Across the river on the left you can the MI6 building.

 On the right is the tower with the remains of the crane, hit the helicopter that crashed in Vauxhall.

Winter

This is number Four in a quartet of seasonal pictures of the same subject.

International Space Station

Here it is photographed above a cloudy sky in West London at 17:12 UTC  21/12/2012

It's path was captured as it transited West to East. The Moon is seen to the top right and

the track crosses the constellation of Purseus before appearing to pass the planet Jupiter.

The stella objects are trails rather than points of light due to the two minute exposure.

The ISS orbits the earth 15.5 times a day at an average speed of 27,700 kph.

at an average altitude of 350 km. The track is over a different place each orbit.

Sir Patrick Moore remembered.

The members of The Baker Street Irregulars Astronomy group

saluted Patrick Moore with their red torches, lasers and mobile

phone lights at their meeting place, The Hub, Regents Park, London.
photo credit BSIA

Patrick Moore died on 9th December 2012
An all rounder in every sense of the word, amateur astronomer, writer, cricketer,
golfer, chess player, xylophone player, composer and pianist. Above all it was
as a great populariser of astronomy. Countless people became interested in the
subject at all levels, some becoming eminent professionals in later life.
He presented 705 episodes of the monthly BBC television programme, The Sky at Night.

Sir Patrick Alfred Caldwell-Moore CBE, FRS, FRAS 1923 - 2012
RIP

Tino Seghal at Tate Modern.

The Tino Shagal "arts installation" in the Turbine Hall at Tate Modern

is very hard to describe, you had to experience it. It is different each time

it is observed. The group of  "performers" have rehearsed away from the

Tate before performing it in a forty minutes slot in the turbine Hall.

Sometimes everything was very still, with the performers standing

still or laying down on the floor, before becoming very animated.

There was also a lot of walking done before performers interacted with
members of the public face to face, reciting poetry or telling stories.

Soho Square

English singer-songwriter Kirsty MacColl 1959 – 2000

was killed on 18 December 2000.

Kirsty was holiday with her family in Cozumel, Mexico.

She had been Scuba diving in the sea, on surfacing from a

dive, she was hit by a speeding powerboat that had entered

the restricted area. She died instantly in front of her two sons.

At the southern entrance to London's Soho Square there is a memorial to her.

It takes the form of a wooden bench with an inscription.

The wording quotes lyrics from her song, Soho Square.

"One day I'll be waiting there / No empty bench in Soho Square"

The "Tanks" - Tate Modern

The new Tate Modern exhibition spaces are in the old oil storage tanks

that were used when the building was the Bankside power station.