Spring flowers and bunnies (one at least)
After two days of clear skies and frost, today was cloudy and a little warmer. I got out to the park, and photographed some winter aconites, and then went to the library. Busy, busy...
The winter aconites, pushing up through the muddy ground of what will eventually be a lawn. These are closed, because the sky was cloudy - gwendraith posted a much better picture yesterday, taken when the sun was shining. I've always been rather taken with winter aconites, probably because although they were in one of my flower fairy books when I was a child, there were none in the garden, so I'd not seen them in real life. They don't look anything like regular aconites, which are purple and much taller, so I suppose the name comes from them being equally poisonous. Which reminds me, I was given some aconite seeds for Christmas, so I really must plant them (along with the mandrake and hellebore).
Just past my library is Crouch End Town Hall, a handsome brown-brick Art Deco building. The main entrance is especially pretty, with limestone carvings of a deer hunt on the lintel, and openwork bronze gates decorated with slightly stylized animals. I've meant to photograph it for ages, and finally remembered today. A few years ago, I was looking for animal designs for embroidery, and these would have been perfect.
The main entrance
One side of the outer doorway.
Part of the deer hunt carving over the door.
The owl
The crane or stork (I think)
The rabbit (my favourite)
The red squirrel (also my favourite).
There are some interesting Art Deco town halls, built between the wars in the outer London boroughs. I wonder if there is a book about them anywhere?
The winter aconites, pushing up through the muddy ground of what will eventually be a lawn. These are closed, because the sky was cloudy - gwendraith posted a much better picture yesterday, taken when the sun was shining. I've always been rather taken with winter aconites, probably because although they were in one of my flower fairy books when I was a child, there were none in the garden, so I'd not seen them in real life. They don't look anything like regular aconites, which are purple and much taller, so I suppose the name comes from them being equally poisonous. Which reminds me, I was given some aconite seeds for Christmas, so I really must plant them (along with the mandrake and hellebore).
Just past my library is Crouch End Town Hall, a handsome brown-brick Art Deco building. The main entrance is especially pretty, with limestone carvings of a deer hunt on the lintel, and openwork bronze gates decorated with slightly stylized animals. I've meant to photograph it for ages, and finally remembered today. A few years ago, I was looking for animal designs for embroidery, and these would have been perfect.
The main entrance
One side of the outer doorway.
Part of the deer hunt carving over the door.
The owl
The crane or stork (I think)
The rabbit (my favourite)
The red squirrel (also my favourite).
There are some interesting Art Deco town halls, built between the wars in the outer London boroughs. I wonder if there is a book about them anywhere?