"The Blue of You" by Amanda Huggins

In my office at Herald House (SM)

What happens when you go back to your hometown after many years away and find that everything you thought you knew about people has gone adrift and all you feared, everyone you loved, and the town itself is different but only to you. You had it all wrong. And there is newness in the old place, new people and new decisions to be made.

A book about love and loss, exile and return. You may recognise some of the chapters from stories first published right here in Stories of the Month. It’s a page turner from Amanda Huggins.

Buy from Waterstones or direct from Northodox Press or all online booksellers.

Stephen Moran

The Grand Union canal at Ladbroke Grove

Afternoon, Thursday 13 November 2025

 

Willesden Sports Centre by moonlight, 2009

Photo, 2 November 2009

WB Yeats "The O'Rahilly" set to music of a sort (demo)

Follow this link to see what that moonlighting so-and-so has to say about chords(?). How he has time to do all this while supposedly working for me, I really cannot fathom. Feargal, any thoughts? (Red) 

Circus Brazil at Ealing Common Fri 24 Oct - Sun 2 Nov

Poster on Whitton Avenue West

How to make quince jelly - illustrated

Is this thing working? Hello? I really don't know how Moran has time to produce something like that when he can't lift a finger to help our flagship newspaper blog. Give me patience! Will you give him a rocket please Feargal. (Red, via AudioBlagger™)

Accident at South Vale, Harrow

Don't know what happened here but I have previously seen a car almost do the same as it swung around this bend. That time, the driver swung the steering wheel the opposite way and the car then came straight at me but luckily slowed to a stop.

Ed.

Michaelmas daisy time is here

Michaelmas daisies in bloom, Whitton Avenue West, Sunday 5 October 2025

Chiltern Line fast train

Oncoming Chiltern Line fast train speeds past Sudbury Hill Harrow station, 11 Sept 2025

Looks a bit fierce, no?

Welcome to Harrow

Greenford Road, 31 August 2025

Welcome to Harrow, the noble and ancient borough of London, sponsored by Himalaya Carpets Ltd. - Lowest Prices on Carpets, Vinyl and Flooring

Update 12 September 2025: The advertising panel has been removed from this unlit roadsign.

Iceland store closed for days due to "IT system failure"

Thursday 28 August 2025. Iceland's popular local supermarket on Greenford Road close to Sudbury Hill underground station has been closed since Sunday.

A handwritten note in the window

Customer Notice in the window

Customer Notice
Due to an IT system failure we have had to close our store
Sorry for any inconvenience caused

Iceland supermarket, Greenford Road, North Greenford / Sudbury Hill today

Why Bluesky is better than Threads or X/Twitter

Link to post in Stephen Moran's Museum of Illusions

Physics

Some "How To's" for publishing

Here are links to some guides I wrote about how I setup and published printed books for Ingram Lightning Source and Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) and eBooks for KDP. The examples I use are my own Ghosts and Pigeons and some of Willesden Herald's New Short Stories book series.

WordPress Links

How to Use Ms Word to Format Books for P.O.D.

How to Format an eBook Using Ms Word

About Royalties and Pricing on Amazon KDP

If you want to see how the books and eBooks turn out using these methods, well - let me think now - how could you do that? Oh yes, by buy some of those I mentioned above. If you do, thank you very much.

Steve

Harrow Cricket Club this afternoon

Wood End Road, 2:33 pm, 24 June 2025

The Harrow Cricket Club buildings at "Payne's Folly". Also included is "Apple Tree" Montessori Nursery.

Ealing Council - Wood End Libary project kaput?

The fine Children's Library on Whitton Avenue West beside the large Wood End Primary School, was boarded up in 2021 and and demolished to be replaced by flats, to include a community library as well. Work was due to finish in 2023. Ealing Council's WoodEnd web page deleted. Photos: 2021, 2022, 2025. 

2021

2022

"Due to be completed by late 2023"

 

No work done for more than a year, overgrown with weeds

Derelict phone booth/Free Cash - Sudbury Hill (photo)

Filthy ugly thing outside Sudbury Hill tube station

Who is responsible for this eyesore? It has stood there in this condition with the broken phone hanging down for at least a year, I think. It's a pity because a lot of good work has gone into improving and making the area more pleasant for all. Harrow Council? (Ed.)

His nibs is moonlighting again Feargal ¦ via AudioBlagger™

How has he got time to write so-called poetry when world news is going ballistic? What about the new restaurant at Sudbury Hill - not a mention! I've had it up to here with the whole thing. Can we not replace them all with AL?

From the office of Sir Edmund Redmond

[Now who put that? That's under embargo. More incontinence! Red]

Voi eBikes dumped on the ground at Sudbury Hill

"Welcome to Harrow" sign behind dumped Voi ebikes, border with Ealing, 15 June 2025

Is this just something we have to put up with now, ebikes dumped here, there and everywhere? Blocking paths, sometimes forcing people with prams and children to step into the road to get past. In what sort of world is this acceptable? But nobody's doing anything about it. And in case you think those bikes could just be picked up by someone instead of photographing them, you probably have never tried to lift one - they are very heavy. Another problem with these ebikes, is that they are so heavy that hospitals A&E departments are seeing many broken legs as a result of riders having accidents where the bike falls over on them. And as for speeding electric scooters, what's wrong with walking? Just walk you lazy so-and-sos. [Ed.]

Sign: Welcome to the London Borough of Harrow

Looking north on Greenford Road, 2 June 2025

A new "Welcome to the London Borough of Harrow" sign has appeared on the border between Ealing and Harrow council areas on Greenford Road. It's exactly where the road crosses the Piccadilly Uxbridge Line at Sudbury Hill station, which is tucked in to the left on the other side of the road bridge.

Temporary closure of Chamberlayne Surgery following vehicle collision

Local News

GP Pathfinders’ Chamberlayne Surgery, located at 124 Chamberlayne Road, Kensal Rise, North West London, is temporarily closed after a car crashed into the front of the building in the early hours of Tuesday morning (3^rd June).

Staff from GP Pathfinders are currently contacting all affected patients to reschedule their appointments at one of GP Pathfinders other surgeries:

 

• The Eagle Eye Surgery in Alperton
• Hazeldene Medical Centre in Wembley
• The Crest Medical Centre in Willesden

 

Patients with scheduled appointments, who have not yet been contacted, are encouraged to get in touch with GP Pathfinders as soon as possible on 0208 902 4792.

 

The surgery is expected to reopen within the next 24 hours following essential cleaning and the installation of a secure temporary frontage. Builders are already on site carrying out the necessary repairs before a full rebuild of the front begins.

Deborah McBeal, Chief Officer of GP Pathfinder Clinics, said:

“We are in touch with patients who had appointments at our Chamberlayne Surgery and urge anyone we haven’t yet reached to contact us directly. Patients requiring urgent care will be seen at one of our other locations. We understand how disruptive rescheduling can be and are doing everything we can to meet our patients’ needs during this time.”

 

No staff or patients were present at the time of the incident.  The police were called and we are not aware of any injuries.

By Email

Fiction: “The Rest is Silence” – Rwanda 1994

An engaging, longish story by Brecht De Poortere, set in the Rwanda of 1994. It begins "Our son Lucas had come home from nursery that day in a lot of pain."

The Hudson Review: “The Rest is Silence” by Brecht De Pootere

… Up until the phone call, it had been peaceful outside: nothing but familiar sounds you barely notice unless you focus on them: the singsong of cicadas, the crackling of a radio, the barking of the neighbor’s dogs. …

Fiction: “Knock Knock” by Lily Hyde

 

To knock, стучать: to inform on someone (Russian slang)

A disturbing Stranger’s Guide, a longish short story about Life in Crimea, when you’re surrounded by paid informants and people who are torn between making a living or making a stand or going away. Read Knock Knock by Lily Hyde.

Slow train to Marylebone

Chiltern Line slow train near Sudbury Hill Harrow today

"You are in a PSPO zone"

Public Spaces Protection Order

New sign, Greenford Road near Sudbury Hill station, Harrow

It's debateable as to whether the glaring sign itself is more anti-social than some of the behaviours it forbids. [Ed.]

Discarded "Lime + Uber" eBike blocking footpath

Tyrell Close, Harrow, Tuesday

Depleted Earth Site?

Electricity substation, Wood End Road, Harrow

What does "Depleted Earth Site" mean? Google doesn't seem to know exactly. This is outside a local electricity substation.

Update: It appears to be just a fancy way of saying that if you step through this gate you will fall into a hole. There’s a deep hollow behind the fence.

Radio Harrow information poster

Radio Harrow poster at Northwick Park hospital. See about volunteering. Link: www.radioharrow.org

Northwick Park station

View to the back of Northwick Park Station from the northwest corner of Northwick Park, March 2025

Sudbury Hill Harrow station

Small station on the Chiltern Line, 15 March 2025

Trains stop here about every half hour only during peak hours and only on weekdays. The platforms are short, so only trains with a small number of carriages can use this station.

Review: "Anora" - a snorer

Sarah Hegarty's damning review of Anora, winner of the Oscar for best film, 2025

Harrow Cricket Club and Apple Tree Montessori Nursery

View of Harrow Cricket Club and Apple Tree Montessori nursery buildings, 28 Feb. 2025 

Affinity Water - leak at Sudbury Hill for several days

Water leak at Greenford Road near Sudbury Hill, 27 February 202

This leak has been running for several days. According to Affinity Water’s “report a leak” map, the leak was reported on 19 February and has been investigated and located by one of their technicians on 25 February. (See details below.)

Screenshot of the leak on the “report a leak” page (detail)

Update Friday 28: Still bubbling up, water spreading across the road etc.

Update, 1 March: Still the same. To call it a puddle is a bit of an understatement, it's spreading across Greenford Road. Video today: 

Broadway Living, Ealing: What is happening?

Site of Wood End Children's Library

Site of the former Wood End Children's Library, 23 Feb 2025

Note: The display states "Work is due to be completed by late 2023. There has been no visible activity on the site for several months. The development is supposed to include a new community library. The library was demolished in February 2022. See  Wood End Library and Children's Centre demolished (photos). 

Question for Ealing Council, what is happening here? The website link given leads to "Sorry page not found." 

Update: 22 April 2025 - still the same. (Supposed to have been "completed by late 2023")

Bald Cypress

Bald Cypress, Whitton Avenue West, 23 Feb 2025

Trainspotting

Piccadilly Uxbridge Line train spotted at Wood End, November 2015

Watching Miss Austen?

Jane Austen's memorial and gravestone

Perhaps you might like to see Cassandra’s sister Jane Austen’s memorial and the inscription on her gravestone over at on that moonlighting hack Moran’s private website. What price loyalty? (Red)

Mpox clinic self check-in screen

Corner of First Avenue and Harrow Road, W10

Queens Park street scene, Monday, 6 January 2025

Digging out sheep from under snow

* The Big Snow of 2025 on the Galtees * Brothers Tom John William & their nephew Billy Cunningham along with their Hill Sheep Farming Neighbours are out on the Galtees with the last few days digging out their sheep who have been trapped in what has been the worst snow fall in decades.

[image or embed]

— Carlow Weather (@carlowweather.bsky.social) January 10, 2025 at 8:31 AM

Extraordinary video from Carlow Weather on Bluesky