Palm Sunday; April Fool's Day

The weather has improved since yesterday and I realized that a couple of the photos from the park tour yesterday did not make it in the blog.  So, first things first.  The bird sculpture in Regent’s Park is so appropriate—given how the birds seem to “own” the park.

Second, one of the recurring thoughts I had walking through the parks yesterday was the early leafing out of trees.  

It reminded me of the Robert Frost poem: Nothing Gold can Stay.

In this photo of early green on a tree looking gold, something is lost--but in person it is golden.

Here is Robert Frost’s poem:

Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.

Sunday

Set out this morning for Stockwell Station and met up with an underground graffiti artist and two Aussie photographers for a tour of street art.  It turns out that I didn’t need the raincoat as the sun stayed out all day.  First stop was a housing project where the sunken, outdoor basketball court is one of London's only  legal graffiti sites.  Consequently, there were painters working and most of the art is covered over within a week.

I love the basketball metal net in the photo of the artist at work

There were people doing drawings, but I really liked the wall ramp leading into the sunken bb court.

Hopped back on the tube for a ride to Old Street and began a dodgy journey.  I took over 60 photos and could easily have taken more, but didn’t trust the surroundings to unzip my bag and remove Ipad2.  At some points we were shoulder to shoulder 10 people wide in alleys.  Here are some of my favorites.

The African boy below:

This Belgian artist does animal in black and white all over SE London and Paris (I am told--we will see).

Saw much of his work, but I have way too many to post.

These are some of my other favorites from today

The three dimensions of this worker on a ladder are SO realistic!

And, as far as realism goes, here is another lovely one.

Most of these "canvases" will be painted over in a matter of days or weeks.

And this one showed up two days ago on a side street off Brick Lane and reminded me of Trayvon Martin:

The work that goes into these in the dark of night and their transitory nature is amazing.  Another favorite:

Up close by C215

Insect by Old Street Station.

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There were so  many that it made me weary.  Plus, our guide introduced us to some artists we met along the way like Gold Spike, Candy Smile, Tony and Citizen Kane.  Interesting morning.

The Shoreditch area in Hackney is an artist village with galleries, vintage clothes stores, bars, restaurants, coffee shops, and a strange mix of retro house ware shops.  All cool, Lots of the people wear costumes making it hard to find where Hoxton stops and Shoreditch starts.  After three hours, my legs were worn out and I could not look at another piece of artwork or graffiti.I do have, however, hundreds of photos.

I came home to do laundry after a lovely supper of chicken walnut salad at the local Cote.  Thinking I would venture out again was pure folly as I am tired.  So, after a hot bath I will resume my read of an old PD James novel and prepare for a day of writing tomorrow.

Adieu