Saturday, October 17/2026

 J has made a new corvid friend. A bit more camera shy than our crow friends at home. Though they weren’t at home when we left twelve days ago, having abandoned our driveway and pine tree a couple of days before we took off. 

Friend is a magpie who may or may not have a nest above the adjoining roof. J has been leaving small offerings on the window sill - a couple of half grapes or a little peanut butter - and the magpie has been keenly spotting them and picking them up but is gone in a flash. A flash too quick to aim a camera. 

Seems the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds has magpies about right. They’re omnivores and scavengers.

Courtesy Cornell 

Friday, October 16/2026

Food never more than a few steps away on Kilburn High Road and not only in the many cafés and restaurants. Street corner markets and little ethnic food shops and take aways are everywhere. More than one place to pick up a roast chicken from the rotating spits on the way home and probably salad ingredients and flatbread from the same source.

Interestingly, the high road changes character in the mile or so as it heads north. Banks and larger stores and supermarkets in the south as well as open markets. Pubs dotted throughout. Take aways - non chain - with things like fish or lamb in pita to the north. But everywhere the cafés with two, maybe four chairs outside and people stopped at any time of day for shawarma or just a coffee.

Thursday, October 15/2026

Watling Street (Kilburn High Road and its continuation) was also of historic interest after the Roman invasion and the post invasion events are better recorded.

First was Boudicca, a Celtic tribal queen who led an enormous revolt in 61 AD against the Romans, destroying the Roman town of Colchester and burning Londinium, at that time a small commercial settlement. The Iceni and other tribal followers are said to have numbered about 120,000 and they succeeded in killing an estimated 80,000, including the defeat of a Roman legion. 

However Boudica and her rebels met defeat in a battle on Watling Street - exact location debated - by a much smaller Roman force led by Roman Governor Suetonius who achieved a position that protected the Romans and prevented the rebels from retreating. The result was catastrophic, even allowing for some exaggeration. According to Tacitus there were 80,000 tribal deaths to 400 Roman ones. Boudicca survived but died shortly after, rumours said by drinking poison. She is still revered as a British freedom fighter.

Less dramatically, but still in a military vein, much of the length of Watling Street became the border between the part of Britain covered by Danelaw to the north  and east and the Anglo-Saxon territory to the south and west following Viking invasions. Danelaw lasted from 878 to 954, when the last Viking king of York, Erik Bloodaxe, was driven out. They’re long gone, but there is still recordable dialect differences north and south of Watling Street.

And on Kilburn High Road round the corner? There is the Juniper Pub. Rebuilt not much more than 125 years ago, but licensed in 1486 - the year Henry VIII’s parents married.

Wednesday, October 14/2026

Suspect I have been influenced by reading Bronze Age history (approximately 3300 to 1200 BCE). Well, in the Middle East, where we now spend half our time, two thousand years ago is relatively recent history.

So Cyprus, identified on this map as Alisaya,does have recorded history going back into Babylonian period and beyond. Hindered, as in many countries, by the fact that it was not until about 3500 BCE that writing was invented, and so reliance becomes on archaeology, where, happily, new scientific developments have allowed the writing, and frequently the rewriting, of history.

And so to Kilburn, and specifically to Kilburn High Road, about two and a half blocks from where we stay. Kilburn High Road is a small section of a much longer road, one which begins in the east coast at the English Channel ports in Kent and extends to Shropshire in the northwest near the Welsh border. It’s extremely old, probably thousands of years old, but began life as a rough track used by pre-historic Celtic tribes who will have used it for trading and communication. 

Would be pleased to know more about the origins of the road but most information begins with the Roman invasion, saying only that they had paved Watling Street, as it was known previously, a dirt track. 

The lack of pre-Roman information on the road is more than made up for by available Roman period (a little less than 400 years) and post Roman events. To be continued.

Tuesday, October 13/2026

Same flat as last time. Houses along this road are Victorian and Edwardian, most of them divided into flats. We’re on the top floor, at the back and up 39 steps. 

The back flat looks out over trees and roofs and a hooded crow lands frequently on the roof beside out window. Hooded crows are the kind they have in Cyprus but there they stay pretty clear of people, probably because farmers shoot them.

Courtesy Wildlife Trust 

Britain also has carrion crows, a little bigger and more robust than the American crows we have in Ontario. It’s carrion crows that Jenny enjoys - and leaves water for - in Thames Ditton.
 

Monday, October 12/2026

 London is one of our favourite cities and Kilburn one of our favourite neighbourhoods in London. Love the little corner markets there every day except Sunday. Usually produce that’s slightly cheaper and somewhat more attractive than the fruit and vegetables in the supermarkets. And both better and less expensive than the same produce at home in Canada. Though the comparison is not quite fair. London is a big city and Canadian comparisons should be to Toronto or Montreal or Vancouver. 

We spent some time in the village of Seascale in Cumbria about twenty years ago. Population something under two thousand, with variety significantly less than in UK cities and prices quite a bit higher. Plenty of seaside charm, though.

Lemons, of course, much cheaper in Cyprus, though avocados, which also grow there, surprisingly aren’t.

Sunday, October 11/2026

 On the way to the tube station we pass the occasional object seeking a new home - as well as some only fit for the bin men. Should probably say bin persons, but somehow that sounds silly rather than egalitarian. As well as the child’s toy, which has been there at least since Friday, there’s an electric fan on a stand. Think that it would have been helpful to put a sign on it saying “WORKS” - although perhaps it doesn’t.

We’re off to have lunch with Jenny and Doug in Thames Ditton. Lovely being able to see them each time we’re in London. Much catching up after a cheerful Prosecco and during a roast gammon lunch. They, along with their daughters and families, are booked on a Christmas cruise to the Canaries. Celebrating Doug’s eightieth birthday as well as their fifty-fifth wedding anniversary.

Pink toy still by the roadside as we return, although the electric fan has gone. And in front of a shop that has closed there is, along with uncollected rubbish, a mattress in pretty good nick. It was there yesterday as well, but then there was a man on it, lying face down, presumably sleeping - or possibly worse - and I felt he deserved some respect and didn’t take a photograph. No protection from rain or cold, but definitely better bedding than some city homeless achieve.