Journal

Pointed in Portland Gallery Nelson and Park 1 Nelson and Park 2 Park and umbrellas

Dropped in on Hatchard’s, buying Stories of the Sea, edited by Diana Secker Tesdell – and sporting one of the most beautiful book covers I have ever come across, based on painting of the schooner Volunteer under full sail.  

Thrilled to see the statue of Sir Keith Park in Trafalgar Square for the first time.  The statue should stay.

As we scuttled around in the rain, we dropped into the Portland Gallery, which was showing a glorious sculpture of two big cats, leopards or cheetahs, and an intriguing collection of big-hatted figures. As we had lunch in the National Gallery, overlooking the Park memorial, people scurried this way and that with their umbrellas. My brain was constantly turning over material for the GRI report I have to finish in the next few days.

Kew 1 Kew 2 Kew 3: Charles Jencks’ ‘Bootstrap DNA’ Kew 4 Kew 5 Kew 6: Self-portrait Kew 7: 3 egg shapes Kew 8: detail Kew 9: Banksia, right Kew 10: blossom

Have been writing almost flat out since Friday morning, but we managed to take a walk in Kew this afternoon, which was glorious. A decompression of sorts. What a treasure the place is. Bumped into people we knew, almost inevitably. Then back to the keyboard.

Landed or ready for take-off?

The only time I went gliding, shown in the photo above, with me in the front seat, I was around 17, I think, and the turbulence made me feel quite green.  Imagine the photo was taken by Tim, who insisted that I try gliding rather than what I had wanted to do, which was to parachute. A form of aversion therapy? If so, it turned out to be remarkably effective.

Lisbon airport The 2BP Magnolia blooms Birthday Sam Our Magnolia stellata blooms Flowering currant – scent of Spring Fallen sapling Ripples and raindrops Fish on bicycles 1 Fish on bicycles 2 Reeds 1 Reeds 2 Rusty predators Puddle Magnolia again

What a week!   Monday involved flying to Madrid and then Lisbon, because of the BA strike, to speak at a conference on ‘Business and Poverty’. Hadn’t realised that this is European Year for Combatting Poverty and Social Exclusion. Met some wonderful people and keen to spend some sensible time in Lisbon at some point.

Otherwise, the remaining two working days were a mix of writing, meetings, A SustainAbility Board meeting (after which a bunch of us had the most delightful decompression over a couple of bottles of wine that BP found in the SA kitchen) and Sam’s birthday on 1 April, when I also fell for one of the most elaborate April Fool’s stunts I have ever come across. Well done Alex (Nick).

Have spent much of the Easter holiday writing, among other things the first of a series of Fast Company blogs to appear later in the month. Today, in fitful sun and rain, Elaine and I walked around the Barnes wetlands, which sported a number of rather delightful sculptures on wildlife themes. My favourite, by far, were the fish on bicycles. They have apparently been there for some time, but it’s been a quite a while since we last walked around. 

Flying fish goes underground in DC

A flying fish (the emblem of Volans) winged its way through the ether this morning, in the form of an email from (Zheng) Jieying in Washington, D.C., where she had spotted this ad in the Metro. Uplifting.