Amazing restaurant bus, London

"Bustronome - Voyage Gourmand" Website link: bustronome.com

Spotted motoring along Harrow Road, NW10, about 11:15 a.m. yesterday, 11 Sept '24. You can see a chef working away by the window near the back. The bus is a double decker with tables upstairs and down. It's an extraordinarily long vehicle and probably keeps to wide open roads, as small roads and turns are out. 

Posters: "Kidnapped - Bring Them Home NOW"

On a postbox in Harrow, London HA1 today

Small but mighty

Basking in the sun this morning. A little Herb Robert and
Alyssum growing between paving stones. 18 July 2024

Home Fashion, First Avenue, London W10

Midday. "Home Fashion" furnishings shop. Corner of First Avenue and Harrow Road. 18 July 2024

 

Short Story of the Month, July 2024

In Pia Quintano's 29-page short story of the month for July, we're in New York, the capital of the world. Unless that is London or Paris or actually there is no capital of the world. It is though (U.N.). But what lies beneath the sheen of its river water, behind its apartment doors and in the minds of people you've grown up with? A child is missing. We're going into that water. (Ed.)

The Willesden Herald Story of the Month

July 2024: The River by Pia Quintano

"It felt like they were mining the East River, as if the heavy machines they were using to dredge it could easily unearth a car or the core of the planet. I could feel the FDR tremble under my feet but suspected that the heavy barges with their mysterious cargo would be undisturbed, as the men stretched apart the river’s seams..."

Pia Quintano

Pia Quintano is a New York City based writer/painter who often writes about characters who have experienced a loss that they have never been able to integrate. She spent a winter at the MacDowell Colony in New Hampshire and has had her fiction published in Havik, Lunch Ticket and Landlocked. She enjoys sharing her small apartment in New York with a demanding cocker spaniel and two lively parakeets.

Star of the Raglan Road (lyric video)

This is a hybrid of Raglan Road and Star of the County Down with a chorus and additional verse by yours truly. Míle buíochas to Phil Rynhart for the arrangement and all the music. (Stephen)

Late afternoon, Wood End Road

Wood End Road, Saturday 21 June 2024

Message to US Republicans

"What will you tell your kids?" Strong case made against Donald Trump by the Lincoln Project, Republicans in the tradition of Abraham Lincoln and against the would-be tinpot dictator and puppet of Vladimir Putin, friend and admirer of Kim Jong Un and other obnoxious men of that type.

Short Story of the Month, June 2024

Is it June already? There's a cold northwest wind blustering through rainy London, so I said to myself, let's go to Vietnam for a while, meet some interesting people, and see what happens. I'm still there. (Ed.)

The Willesden Herald Story of the Month

June 2024: New Moon by Michael Howard

"…He almost never shut the doors giving onto his balcony and when he did it was only for a few minutes at a time—half an hour at the most.

That’s how Tram came to know these things…"

Michael Howard

Michael Howard's writing has appeared in Mekong Review, New World Writing, Paste Magazine, Gordon Square Review, Creative Loafing, Hypertext Magazine, The Forge, and others. He lives in Vietnam.

Chalk directions/pavement art/fun

"Have a good day!"

"Step" ... "Jump"

"Hop on one leg"

...and into the sunset

Photos: 100+ yards? Along the pavement on the south side of Whitton Avenue West, 6 May 2024.

Short Story of the Month, May 2024

I think I remember a line from The Story of Lucy Gault by William Trevor, "Things can go wrong in an empty house." Also in a seemingly empty hotel and arguably an empty relationship, perhaps. Intrigued? Read our Story of the Month for May by Cath Barton to find out what happened. (Ed.)

The Willesden Herald Story of the Month

May 2024: At the Hotel Swinburne by Cath Barton

When we returned to our room after breakfast on the fourth day of our holiday, Arnold told me he didn’t like the mirrors in the hotel.

‘Really? We can cover that up if it bothers you,’ I said, pointing at the full-length one opposite the end of our bed. ‘I suppose some people get a kick out of looking at themselves performing.’

‘For goodness sake, Marie,’ he said.

Cath Barton

Cath Barton is an English writer who lives in Abergavenny. Her novella The Plankton Collector won the New Welsh Writing AmeriCymru Prize for the Novella in 2017, was published by New Welsh Review the following year, and is due to be republished by Parthian Press later in 2024. Subsequent publications are In the Sweep of the Bay (2020, Louise Walters Books), Between the Virgin and the Sea (2023, Novella Express, Leamington Books) and The Geography of the Heart (2023, Arroyo Seco Press). Her most recent publication is a pamphlet of short stories, Mr Bosch and His Owls (2024, Atomic Bohemian).

Chestnut tree beginning to bloom, Harrow

Chestnut tree beside the public bridleway woodland path, part of the London Capital Ring at the junction of Wood End Road, Orley Farm Road and South Vale, Harrow this afternoon

Brutally pollarded tree

Wood End Lane, Ealing today

Short Story of the Month, April 2024

This is a story that will linger in your mind and make you think about people past, present and future. They are out there. Ed.

The Willesden Herald Story of the Month 

April 2024: April 2024: “With Every Choice Something is Lost” by Mike Fox

“She was there most days, though it took me a while to realise. Still and unobtrusive, I began to notice her small figure, always in a white blouse part-concealed by a faded grey mac, standing in what seemed to be contemplation. Before long, as I passed through the churchyard, I found myself looking in the hope of seeing her.”

Mike Fox

Mike Fox has co-authored a book and published many articles on the human repercussions of illness. Now writing fiction, his stories have been nominated for Best of Net and the Pushcart Prize, listed in Best British and Irish Flash Fiction (BIFFY50), and included in Best British Stories 2018 (Salt), His story, The Violet Eye, was published by Nightjar Press as a limited edition chapbook. An illustrated collection of new stories is being prepared for publication by Confingo Publishing in 2024. www.polyscribe.co.uk

Grove Farm view

"Three"

Grove Farm local nature reserve, Ealing. View from steps at the southeast corner, Easter Sunday 2024

 

Two billboards outside Greenford

Corner of Cavendish Avenue and Greenford Road, Harrow

Two billboards on a gable wall. The top one from The Woodland Trust, advertises "Feeling crisis-y about the climate? Plant more trees". The one underneath at street level is a palimpsest of bits of old posters stripped away. Setting, corner of high street, people about 1pm, shops, a car, shadow of chimney pots from opposite building behind viewpoint. (Photo 24 March 2024)

Three poems from Day of the Flying Leaves (audio)

Bookmovie from Fonoteca de Poesia - Stephen Moran

1. The Hunter-Gatherer Children of Dublin
2. Eleven Homes
3. Visiting Molly

The text is displayed smoothly to look like book pages turning. My reading, I don't know, not too bad. I'm grateful to Fonotexa de Poesia for this, which I consider an honour. (Steve)

Short Story of the Month, March 2024

I love a story where you have to ask yourself "What is happening here?" And by the end you think you might know. (Ed.)

The Willesden Herald Story of the Month 

March 2024: Outlaws by Neil Brosnan

It’s bizarre; four women travelling together and not a single word being exchanged between us. It’s not as if we’re not all acquainted: his sister is driving, my sister is the front-seat passenger, and the driver’s daughter is sitting beside me in the back – doing something on her iPhone.

Neil Brosnan

From Listowel, Ireland, Neil Brosnan’s stories have appeared in both print and digital magazines and anthologies in Ireland, Britain, Europe, Australia, USA and Canada. A Pushcart nominee, he has won The Bryan MacMahon, The Maurice Walsh, and Ireland’s Own short story awards, and has published two short story collections.

Mobile NHS Covid-19 Vaccine Van at Sudbury Hill

"NHS Health Review - Make Every Contact Count
Worried about your health? Come and talk to us."

"NHS Covid-19 Vaccination Service
Walk-in vaccines available here today ..."

Two parking spaces have been reserved for the mobile NHS vaccine van, seen here.
Greenford Road, North Greenford, next to Sudbury Hill station, outside Iceland supermarket.

Short Story of the Month, February 2024

For February we have a story that touches on respect for local history and traditions and aspects of behaviour at home and abroad and people who are wonderful. So for once I have nothing funny to say in this intro. But I can assure you that it has nothing to do with interior design. (Ed.)

The Willesden Herald Story of the Month 

February 2024: "My Yellow" by Amanda Huggins 

... Avril shakes her head. ‘I understand the thinking behind it – I know they don’t want Davy to be frightened of the sea – but sending the young bairn out there in this weather isn’t quite the same thing as getting back on a horse after being thrown. And the clothes? He’ll catch his own death dressed like that.’
I turn away from her for a moment, clenching and unclenching my fists as I try to hide my irritation. ...

Amanda Huggins

Amanda Huggins lives near Leeds and is the author of two novellas and several collections of short stories and poetry. Her work has appeared in, among others, Harper’s Bazaar, Mslexia, Tokyo Week-ender, The Telegraph, the Guardian, and on BBC radio.

She has won several awards, including the Kyoto City Mayoral Prize, the Colm Tóibín Short Story Award, the BGTW New Travel Writer of the Year, and three Saboteur Awards. She has also placed in the Harper’s Bazaar Short Story Com-petition, the Costa Short Story Award and the Fish Short Story Prize, and been shortlisted for the Bridport Prize.

Tuesday: The magnificent trees of Westbourne Terrace

View down Westbourne Terrace from across Bishops Bridge Road waiting at a traffic light on red

On the point of action. The moment when an English traffic light turns red and amber.

TRAID charity shop, Shepherd's Bush

Three shop window mannequins dressed somewhat bizarrely

Wider view of TRAID shopfront

 "TRAID is a charity working to stop clothes from being thrown away. We turn clothes waste into funds and resources to reduce the environmental and social impacts of our clothes." 

Visit TRAID Shepherd's Bush for more details and how to donate or arrange a collection.

"Open storage," Wood End

Monday afternoon

This site beside the tracks used to be some sort of car breakers or suchlike. Then it was cleared and a sign went up and stayed for a couple of years, saying "Coming Soon - Clearview Homes." Now there's a sign outside advertising "Open Storage" with the number of square feet etc. The building just visible on the horizon is what used to be called Kellogg Tower, though it has a new name now it's been turned into flats. The intervening semi-wooded area is part of Grove Farm, a "local nature reserve". The railway is the Piccadilly Uxbridge tube line. (Wood End Road his afternoon)