Sundial House

I do not feature Sandy Lane (or the similar roads off it) very often as, frankly, I find it boring with nothing noteworthy enough to be included. The road itself is dull too with the tall hedges on either side merely serving to emphasis the greyness of the road.

Lightening the gloom just a little are a few modern make-overs that are turning some of the blandness in to something more eye-catching and distinctive. One of these is Sundial House.

While I approve of the visual aspects of the changes I do not think that the either the size of the house or the location justify a price tag in excess of £2m.

Scarecrow

This scarecrow looks overwhelmed by the job it has been given to do. The front garden of this house on Petersham Road is stuffed full to tall sunflowers that dwarf the rest of the garden and the scarecrow sent there to protect it. The scarecrow hopes that somebody notices how sad it is as finds it a more comfortable place to stand guard.

Exit Expertravel

Expertravel, one of the stalwarts of Ham Parade, has closed. I remember it, as used it, when it was just Expertravel before it added the World Choice brand and the garish logo that went with it.

Sadly I never got around to taking a close-up of the shop before it closed but you can see the Man City blue colouring on the far right of the picture that I took of Ham Parade in February 2007.

Other vacant properties have filled quickly and I hope that the haste with which this one has been stripped and painted means that we will have a new tenant soon.

Stacks of scaffolding

The builder's banner suggests that this is merely a loft extension but the amount of scaffolding that surrounds this house in Northweald Lane implies a lot more. It has cocooned the house for a couple of weeks now and the butterfly has yet to emerge. I hope that it is worth the wait when it does.

Grass and flowers

Another look at some tall grasses and flowers in Ham Lands simply because they are always worth looking at, just like a child's smile.

Green field

I try, but with mixed success, to show Ham in balance; the old and the new, the good and the bad, the serious and the frivolous, the bricks and the grass. Now it's time to show a little more of the grass.

Ham Lands is the wilderness that defines Ham and lifts it above other city villages. Breaking through the cordon of trees that ring most of it brings unexpected pleasures such as large fields where the grasses and flowers are allowed to grow tall.

Media circle

Annoyingly I read via one of the local newspapers' on-line services (I read them all by RSS, Twitter and Facebook) that this image has been appearing across Richmond but I cannot find the story again otherwise I would include a link to it.

This example popped-up on the narrow road to Petersham Nurseries but is not connected to the advertisement for cafe that appears above it.

The timing suggests that the message has something to do with phone hacking and newspapers, but that is just my guess.

Beside the prison

The future of Latchmere House is uncertain now that the Prison Service is moving out and selling the site and while it is fairly safe to say that whatever replaces the prison buildings will be an improvement the open land between it and Latchmere Lane is another matter.

The prison is there behind the wall but the trees hide it well and the grass before it disguises the nature of the area. This is a pretty spot and needs to stay that way.

School works

Grey Court School in Ham Street is also taking advantage of the Summer break to do some work on its buildings. This former grand residence (and home of the future Cardinal Newman) is now part of the school that surrounds it, though I have no idea what they use it for.

This is another building site that I will be watching with interest over the next few weeks to see what emerges from behind the scaffolding and the stacked portacabins.