Objet trouve
I’m house/dog sitting for friends from HK. They are posted here in London but have gone home for their annual leave for a month. The house is in Mortlake, near the Mortlake Brewery, (once Watney’s, now Budweiser,) where my Grandfather worked before the war, commuting daily from Millwall on his twin-pot BSA.
The riverside here is OK, not outstanding, but pleasant for a stroll and walking the dog – at least as far as the Ship inn, a so-so pub but a nice place to sit on a summer Sunday afternoon.
I thought this made an interesting composition…
And I have been adopted as a surrogate Granddad – this is Julian, my friends’ boy. He is two and a bit, so our vocabularies in Cantonese are about the same 
(Though I can usually mangle my Mandarin to get by in most situations.)
Photo Winner
Congratulations to Soutie for
The Vegetable Seller
Poetry Winner
Congratulations to The Royalist for
The Flood
Cute little boy, Bravo, and an interesting view of the river.
I don’t know Mortlake very well, but it sounds as though it is not an unpleasant place to be based for a while.
Did you see my recent poetic offering about Cyprus?
I was dragged up in Mortlake and most of my family worked in the brewery at one time or another. My Dad used to be a part time barman at ‘The Ship’ when it was a smart little pub, now it’s just an another boozer that’s been extended a bit and is neither fish nor fowl. If you want a quaint little pub and I do mean little, try the ‘Idle Hour’. Walk up White Hart lane to the railway level crossing and turn left down Railway Side, go past the tiny little £600,000 cottages on the left and the allotments on the right and you will approach a low railway bridge, jusr before it you will see the pub on the right, let me know what you think, great selection of beers for such a small place.
I have now
Captures the spirit of why Cyprus is a nice place for a holiday – if expensive – but gets a bit old if you don’t get away often.
I don’t know that part of the island at all well, up there near the Kokkina enclave. The history makes grim reading – massacres by the Greeks, counter massacres by the Turks, villages of both ethnicities de-populated. All pretty sad.
Thanks OMG – I’ll give it a go and let you know
It is a beautiful part of the island, Bravo, but you are right, it’s quite chilling to see the evidence of what is after all fairly recent history. Very sad, you are right.
Thank you for reading the poem, I thought you might be interested.
Bravo: since you mentioned Hong Kong… Have you ever read “Myself a Mandarin” by Austin Coates?
the burning question being, does the dog understand mandarin?
Btw, Bravo, what is that phallic object?
Christopher, No, I’ll look out for it. Christina, No, Cantonese only
Janus, it’s a cast-iron fence post. I’m guessing here, but I think it demarcated the tow-path… I’ll see if I can find some back-up evidence 
Iron pole- To tie the draft tow horses up?