Then and Now

[tamaranth]

Then	Now
Twelve trains to Central London every hour (+ DLR)	Two trains to Central London every hour
Five rooms	Seventeen rooms
Looking at the pretty colours of the evening smog	Watching the stars come out from the football pitch lawn
Scaly carnivore, singular	Furry carnivores, plural
Virgin phone signal	No Virgin phone signal (Vodafone connection real soon now)
Bored teenagers on mini-scooters / yelling at each other	Birdsong
2500 books	About 1000 books (the rest are in the loft or headed/heading for new shelves)
straggly pot-plants	verdant vegetation
a river running past	a river running past (rainy days only, end of the road)
pikey high-street chain stores	nice mix of independent shops and chains
Maritime Greenwich, 20 mins walk	Brighton (2 trains an hour)
tumuli	South Downs
Bookshops that stay open until 11	Amazon
muggings	strangers who say 'good morning' and smile

Comments

[major-clanger.livejournal.com]

Sounds like an overall improvement :-)

(And I think you were being very charitable about the 'river' at your old place...)

MC

[tamaranth.livejournal.com]

It is so a river! It's the Ravensbourne, and it's tidal up to Brookmill Park (I surveyed it). So there!

[zoo-music-girl.livejournal.com]

I always thought that was the Quaggy River round the back of your flat. I love that name!

[tamaranth.livejournal.com]

nah, the Quaggy joins the Ravensbourne at Lewisham station (which is probably a wonderfully rich archaeological site and shows signs of reverting to savagery most evenings). I was surprised at how far up it's tidal: you can walk through Brookmill Park and see the slack water where tide meets current, on a rising tide.

[zoo-music-girl.livejournal.com]

I had a look at a map after I posted and I can see where it joins. Amazing that it's tidal so far up from the sea and the Thames!

[tamaranth.livejournal.com]

The Thames is so strongly tidal (and tidal further inland than it used to be -- now the tide goes as far as Teddington, but apparently only to Putney in Viking times) that I suspect most of its tributaries -- such as Deptford Creek, into which the Ravensbourne flows at Deptford Bridge -- are tidal simply by having Thames water forced into them. At a rough estimate, I'd say the Ravensbourne's tidal limit is about a mile to a mile and a half from the Thames -- and some of that's culverted, which forces the water further and faster in both directions.

[moral-vacuum.livejournal.com]

Although the proper name, IIRC, is the Kydbrooke.

[zoo-music-girl.livejournal.com]

Gosh, it's got a Wikipedia entry! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/River_Quaggy

The article for the Ravensbourne river says the Quaggy is known as Kyd Brook for part of its route. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/River_Ravensbourne

[moral-vacuum.livejournal.com]

Good save on the punctuation!

[major-clanger.livejournal.com]

The trouble is I have prejudices about rivers, mostly involving grassy banks, overhanging willows and ducklings. Which is silly, as of course I think of the Thames as a river, and by extension its tributaries.

Spent too long in rural Hampshire, I have...

MC

[pecos.livejournal.com]

You carry the ability to be happy no matter where you are, but it's a hell of a lot easier to pull the whole thing off if you're not being mugged and smogged and smothered, ya know?

Can I still come visit some time?

[tamaranth.livejournal.com]

sometimes being happy can be very hard work: I don't think that'll be the case here. And yes, please do visit!

[madcatwoman.livejournal.com]

On the whole, I think you're on a winner there!

[margotmetroland.livejournal.com]

Sounds fabulous and we're not jealous at all, oh no!

[tamaranth.livejournal.com]

that's all right then! After all, Brixton is so lovely in the summer. And at least you have a Major Rock Venue. We have Martletts Hall (featuring Ralph McTell in November).

[elinor.livejournal.com]

I take it the screaming kids adorable youngsters have gone, then?

Glad the new surroundings are all round more peaceful and relaxing. tanais and I may be down in Brighton at some time in the not too distant - is that close enough to you to visit / meet up?

[tamaranth.livejournal.com]

Yes, R and children left on Tuesday,it's lovely and quiet!

Do let me know when you're in Brighton -- we could meet up down there or go somewhere scenic (or of course you could come here if weather isn't up to much).

[lamentables.livejournal.com]

Unsurprisingly, I'd take Now over Then any day. Enjoy it!

[tamaranth.livejournal.com]

There's a lot I'll probably miss, once I get around to it (South Bank concerts without major transport planning, huge bookshops, street theatre, Greenwich remainder shops). But there's a lot here that I was missing in London. I have a year, after all, to see how it balances out ...

[latexiron.livejournal.com]

!

[tamaranth.livejournal.com]

it is full of zombies, too. But not violent ones as in Lewisham.

[techno-fear.livejournal.com]

It took me a while to get used to strangers who say Good Morning and smile when I moved to Yorkshire. I think I took a Buffy stance and said "What do you want?" on three occasions before I finally got it.

[ajshepherd.livejournal.com]

Sounds nice.
One day, I shall live in the countryside again... and repeat adinfinitum