Comes Round Again

Last year I photographed (and probably posted) photos of the pink flowering cherry trees that brighten my morning walk to the railway station.  There is something about trees swathed in little pink tutus that just makes me want to capture them every year.

London, at the other end of the train journey is also starting to break out in cherry blossom.  This time last year I was running a series of postcards from London for Mr T who was having to get used to the fact that I was away from home a lot more than he had been accustomed to in Greece (and he was no longer going to the office with me).

Here, therefore, are a few more spring postcards from London. 

They no longer build hospitals like they did in 1816, less decorative, less of a statement about the philanthropy of the benevolent (and potentially immeasurably wealthy) benefactor of the piece of prime real estate.  This is across the road (onto the south end of Waterloo Bridge) more or less, from the main entrance to Waterloo station (which was built later, in 1848).  The Wiki link below describes the gulf between the wealthy few and the masses who relied on places like this.

1816 was in the 'Regency' period in English history - the final years of the 'madness of King George III' in which his son Prince George discharged royal duties until King George's death  in 1820.

For context, 1816, also known as the 'Year Without Summer,' 'Poverty Year,' and 'Eighteen Hundred and Froze to Death. ' The eruption of Mount Tambora in Indonesia in 1815 triggered a change in the global climate. The heavier material fell to the ground and the ocean's surface.  Harvests across Britain and Ireland failed under heavy rains and low temperatures. Famine was prevalent in north and southwest Ireland and across Europe. It was the worst famine of 19th-century Europe and riots, arson and looting took place in many cities.

Nature is not always a happy or kind place.