Visit to Highgate Cemetery

This may seem a strange place to go on my day off, but this Victorian cemetery is just incredible and well worth a visit. It was a rainy day, which gave the atmosphere a etheral quality. As well as being a beautiful and intriguing site, rich in history, architecture, landscape and romance, Highgate is still an operating cemetery, with up to seventy interments and some thirty to thirty-five plots sold each year.


Grave of Alexander Litvinenko

These are just some of Highgate's famous interments:
Douglas Adams, author of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy/Jeremy Beadle, TV presenter, writer and producer/Charles Cruft, founder of Crufts dog show/John Dickens and Elizabeth Dickens, parents of Charles and models for Micawber and Mrs Nickleby/George Eliot (Mary Ann Cross), novelist/Michael Faraday, physicist/Alexander Litvinenko, Russian dissident turned critic, murdered by poisoning in London/Malcolm McClaren, performer, impresario, manager of The Sex Pistols, 'godfather of punk'/Ralph Miliband, left wing political theorist, father of David Miliband and Ed Miliband/Sir Ralph Richardson (1902–83), actor/George Wombwell, menagerie exhibitor/

Grave of George Wombwell, menagerie exhibitor

Karl Marx Grave

Patrick Caulfield, painter and printmaker known for his pop art canvasses

I would like ths as my gravestone. It's to the the point (none of this 'fell asleep' nonsense) and I love the simple geometric design.

 

Sleeping Angel (carved from a single piece of marble)

All this has reminded me that I must get around to asking for a grave location search for Duvee, my Fairy Godmother - but that's another story.......

Cricket

Add caption

A most enjoyable afternoon playing cricket - Rayleigh Ladies v Queen's NICU.





Jane & Cliff



The winning team (us)



"That way to the bar"

Mug of a mum!

The highlight of my year is over (Wimbledon):( I thought this week might seem dull, but at the moment I have 9 of my daughter's girlfriends in the house. They are meeting here between 10pm & 3am before setting off for holiday to Aiya Napa. I need to get up for work at 6am and really need more than 3hrs beauty sleep. And I do wish she hadn't told me of their plans to go on a booze cruise. There is an old Chinese proverb(!): "What happens in Aiya Nappa stays in Aiya Nappa". I so hope that's true - I don't want to think about what she will get up to.
My son has decided to cook a piece de resistance in the kitchen. He is a typical chef and will leave the kitchen in a right mess. Meanwhile, the dog appears to have developed diabetes and keeps making puddles on the kitchen floor. Apart from this (and more) - life's good!

There is only one.............

Had a fantastic day spectating on the new court 3. Saw 3 round 3 singles matches and a mixed doubles 1st round match - Heather Watson, aged 17, & Ross Hutchins (both GBR) won. Could Heather be one of our champions of the future?

Love is nothing in tennis, but in life it's everything.

Been a real couch potato today. Watched the complete series of Anne Of Green Gables (a childhood favourite) on DVD. Now I remember when I why I started specifying that my middle name is "Anne with an e" - truly a timeless classic.
Week 1 of the tennis is well underway. At great expense I have had my laptop rigged up so I can watch non-stop tennis whilst sitting in the garden. However, Monday has been the only day that's been warm enough to sit outside. Nothing to stop me enjoying a Pimms or 2 though!

In pensive mood

It's 6 months since I last blogged! Thought I'd have another bash. I have had 1 week off work on annual leave and have 1 more week to go. Had a jam-packed week last week: I went to the new RSPB centre at Rainham Marshes, attempted to attend a 50th anniversary MG ralley in Lincolnshire (but broke down after 25 miles and was towed home by the RAC), sunbathed on the cliffs of Hastings, visited my parents in Bexhill, cleared out the greenhouse, took my off-casts to the charity shop, went to the dentist, played badminton, went out for several meals, drank plenty of wine, celebrated my 27th wedding anniversary, saw Wicked at the Apollo, Victoria, walked along the beach at Walton on the Naze, went to a D'Ukes concert in Colchester, visited my father-in-law on Father's day, braved a car journey with my daughter who has just passed her driving test and braved a car journey with my son, who is still learning!

THE DIGITAL STORY OF THE NATIVITY