Brockley Murals

Just outside Brockley station these three murals sung to my eyes and whispered stories into my ears. There are four panels but only these three excited me with tales of the city, real and surreal. These murals were commissioned by the Brockley Cross Action Group and painted by Louis Henry in 2004.

This mural below by Getliffe sits on a wall nearby the other murals. I included it in today's collection because it just so succinctly expresses the the way I feel today...

Tonight, I don my halloween costume (Ringu girl) and venture out into the dark night. I'm going to a warehouse party in Shoreditch and I plan to be trigger happy with my camera. I hear there's a swing in the living room! My imagination abounds with cinematic scenes.

So happy Hallow's Eve my dear readers, trick or treat and all that. See you all where things go bump in the night. xoxo

For all the girls out there

Pretty by Katie Makkai

I shared this video on my facebook earlier this week but thought I also ought to share it here. This message can't be repeated enough:

The word pretty is unworthy of everything you will be, and no child of mine will be contained in five letters. You will be pretty intelligent, pretty creative, pretty amazing, but you will never be merely “pretty.”

Enjoy!

Inside London's City Hall

The following are interior views from London's City Hall's 500-metre (1,640 ft) helical walkway. The staircase spans the full height of the building.

City Hall, headquarters of the Greater London Authority (GLA), is located in Southwark, on the south bank of the River Thames near Tower Bridge. It was designed by Norman Foster and opened in July 2002.

All photography by Shehani Kay.

A Photo Tour of the Haunting and Gothic Nunhead Cemetery.

Jungly Nunhead Cemetery is a wild, overgrown fecund forest nourished on the bodies of the dead and littered with leaning gravestones. Also a charming nature reserve, couples, friends, dog walkers and families alike, stroll its narrow lanes and picnic among the dead on its 52 acres of wilderness inside London. Opened in 1840, it's the second largest of London's Magnificent Seven Victorian cemeteries. While it's not as famous as Highgate, it has an alluring, mysterious and haunting natural beauty all its own.

Off the main lanes are overgrown paths that lead to forgotten graves and jumbled headstones that have been strangled by vines and contorted by roots.

On top on the hill there's a stunning view of St. Paul's dome.

Headless, armless angels, overturned urns and broken crosses pepper the thick green wilderness. But I also managed to find these fine beauties intact.

We dined on the smooth stone of a family tomb and gave them our thanks. Lady bugs flew onto our arms, and into our hair and faces. The sun dappled the lanes and seeped through the branches to warm us. Yes, we had a rare autumn day: 10.10.10 in Nunhead was a 10 on all counts!

What I love about English graveyards are all the people who wander and stroll the grounds. I saw couples kissing under a canopy of dying leaves next to their dead countrymen and toddlers playing hide and seek amongst the tombs. Life and death mingled carelessly. This isn't only a place for goths and necrophiles, it's also a sanctuary for regular folk. In fact, the only people bedecked in black was me and my graveyard companion! Unlike Spain, cemeteries here are not just a place for the dead and forgotten, it's also a green refuge for the living to roam and play in. And that's a beautiful thing.

All photography by Shehani Kay. Nunhead Cemetery, in the London Borough of Southwark, SE15. See the Friends of Nunhead Cemetery Website more info.

Fearless tho in pain, I travel on

Fearless tho in pain / I travel on

First Book of Urizen pl. 21 1796, circa 1818

I've pulled out my dreams and schemes from up my sleeves and deep in my pockets and thrown them at the wind in the trees. I've watched them deflate & dissipate into the night air, stealing the trees in their wake. What's left on this rocky glade is a being without certainty and a now without expectation. This clearing away, this levelling, this scorched garden now holds within its womb fresh shoots ~ evolution's way of life reasserting itself into being. It is the seed awaiting to be born. It it the potential in every moment for everything to change, irrevocably. It is pain, blood, tears. It is joy. It is life. It is what it means to be human.

Everything is an attempt / to be human

First Book of Urizen pl. 10 1796, circa 1818

Photos and text by Shehani Kay. Two of the eight lost watercolours with handwritten inscriptions by William Blake that were recently discovered and acquired by Tate Britain. Currently on display at Blake and the Romantic Imagination (Room T3).

Eye Poems ~ Hertford in the early fall

There's a distinct bite in the air despite the sun. Summer is over, Fall has begun. Golden light and rusty tones have crept into the landscape palette, washing the scenery with idyllic magical hues. These scenes remind me to stop and breathe deep and let my eyes soak up these fast changing visual poems. This weekend, I invite you to stop and stare at the trees. It'll do your heart and eyes good.

Happy Friday!

xx

All photography by Shehani Kay Taken on the grounds around the Tun Abdul Razak Research Centre in Brickendonbury, Hertford, UK