[OT from cottage renovations]
[crossposted from Google+]

Sanborn fire maps are a familiar tool to anybody who has ever needed a times series of historical maps for some location ( Read more... )

[OT from cottage renovations]

in its own way this is really quite encouraging.  here we are 65 years later and it looks like there are only ~21,000 of them still lying about, but at least somebody's come with a method of predicting where they are. 

( Read more... )

[OT from cottage renovations]

from Across The Water comes news that the Voice of the London Underground has been sacked.  perhaps her plea of having been misquoted will cause them to reconsider.  one certainly hopes so.

best of all is the spoof announcement in which she admonishes: "We would like to remind our American tourist friends that you ( Read more... )

[OT from cottage renovations]

"We will have to see whether fashionable Londoners really do flock to William Barlow's restored masterpiece to while away their evenings sipping champagne and watching the long Eurostar trains gliding in and out" (BBC).

I am v. much looking forward to doing exactly that on the next trip Across The Water. 

[OT from cottage renovations]

interesting story.  be sure to scroll down to the comments. 
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/4997470.stm

[OT from cottage renovations]

the Wonder Boy's London trip wasn't intended to be about detail photography or railways, but nor was it completely devoid of opportunity to burn digichrome on such subjects.

(click through these thumbnails for higher resolution images)

blooms

London seems to have been about a couple of weeks behind the Grove as ( Read more... )

[OT from cottage renovations]

(click through these thumbnails for higher resolution images)

Wednesday

after an overnight flight from Dulles to Heathrow we found our way to Cousin Gillian's flat in Kew ( Read more... )

updates and illustrations to follow.

more later ...

not much bandwidth here so just a quick update:  we are here, have been having a wonderful time, and cousin Gillian hasn't thrown us out.  yet.

updates and photos will have to wait until our return tomorrow afternoon/evening. 

Heathrow tomorrow morning ...