love + friends

I love London. For churches at night and having your heart broken several times over by the words of a long-legged, tattooed man with a voice and strummings that might just be heaven- (or hell-?) sent. For all its galleries (particularly the British Library this time, which totally delivered on all levels. More later this week). For cafes in antique shops and dropping your mobile down the loo (before pissing) because you're too busy looking at the decor, and so having to negotiate the city and meet friends without being able to call or plan ahead. For little kids who somehow know that their mum needs to talk. For dodgy footwear and cold ankles but a beer for a reward. For borrowed leggings and bad burger bars late at night. For friends.

And I love coming home to a bright cold sky, a warm house, my cats and a roast on the table.

grave cat

Bonnington Square, SW7.

The part of the wall that no one was allowed to paint over.

An interesting place - how come I never knew about it when I stomped these parts?

top four in london

See these:

Pure Beauty - John Baldessari at Tate Modern
Authority to Remove - Jill Magid at Tate Modern
Ed Ruscha at the Hayward  
Passing Thoughts and Making Plans - Artists using photography as part of their process (including Rachel Whiteread, Tacita Dean, Cornelia Parker, Richard Wentworth & Sarah Jones) at the Jerwood Space

three

On the afternoon of the private view for The Art of Lost Words, in which I launched In Absentia, a book about owls, I came across these three little chaps in Hyde Park. I would never have spotted them without the help of an excellent friend and an unknown birder. My first owls in the wild.

Pelt scraps

Peckham High Street, London, 2008

Press

Natural History Museum After Hours, 2008

Saturday After Five