Custom made blue borough record shelves

Lewisham's very own White Stag Spotted in Deptford.

The stag spectre can be glimpsed over the wall from Deptford Church St. The area is located in the north of the borough, just within the boundary line.  

He appears to be sharpening his antlers on the grounds of an abandoned building. The building was originally a slaughter house and then in later years, a factory and mechanics. While lying empty it got used to house local squat parties. 

 Tags cover the walls, both younger and older strains here together. 

'Ask' 'Dowt' 'Plank' 'Jets' 'Esko' 'Mood' 'Drape' 'Oie'. 

The ground has been dug out and wooden structures are built against trees to form bike and board ramps.

New distant sighting of the Wild Walker

The deer shaped spirit was spotted from Fordmill Road in Catford. [Thanks go to Timbo for his eagle eye.] It is the last road bridge over the Ravensbourne before it is joined by the River Pool and flows into and partially under central Catford, running by the train line. He is virtually hidden at the end of the straight, walking out of sight. 

Road Patterns

This animated map of London elegantly traces the mazes of roads forming patterns like nerve fibres of a human brain or the arteries veins and capillaries of some great beast. Layers of networks build up and adjust through out the capitols history, from the ancient roads left by the Romans through to the urban sprawl of the city today.

Robert Macfarland on Wild Landscapes

 Robert Macfarland - Unexpected Wilderness - The Other Side of Essex


Macfarland's lecture on landscape and the human heart


 Robert Macfarland - Unexpected Wilderness - Night Time



and ..
'Writing Wild Places - Wastelands To Wonderlands' Exhibition at the British Library, May - Sept 2012

Rubezahl - The Mountain Spirit

Josef Madlener; Der Berggeist (The Mountain Spirit)

 Rubezahl is a figure in German folklore, the tutelary spirit or genius of the mountains that derive their name from him. He is responsible for the weather of his peaks, and the thunder and lightning, rain, snow, and fog there reflect his capricious moods. He is Prince of the Gnomes in the Riesengebirge, and all lesser spirits are under his sway. The respectful way to address him is as "Lord of the Mountains" or "Lord John." "Rubezahl" is a name of derision and means "Turnip Counter," and it still angers him. According to the old tale he once captured a princess and swore he would do anything to win her love. She set him to counting the turnip seedlings in a vast field, and while he was busy doing so she made her escape.

 Rubezahl is a shape changer, and appears in many forms, and can be anything from a gnome to a giant, and can be astonishingly ugly or "as fair as Apollo." He appears most often as an old man with a staff that appears to be an uprooted tree. He is something of a trickster, and his nature changeable. It was written of him in 1783 "...Rubezahl, you should know, has the nature of a powerful genius: capricious, impetuous, peculiar, rascally, crude, immodest, haughty, vain, fickle, today your warmest friend, tomorrow alien and cold;...roguish and respectable, stubborn and flexible..."

 Between the historical lands of Bohemia and Silesia lie theRiesengebirge (Giant Mountains). There is a very old map of the area, and striding among the mountains may be seen a strange gigantic figure, horned and with a tail, walking upright with a tall staff. This is the earliest known picture of Rubezahl*, the Lord of the Mountains.

 Rubezahl stories have been collected in many German books over the years, and many artists have painted him. Josef Madlener painted a picture of him as Der Berggeist (The Mountain Spirit); J. R. R. Tolkien had a postcard reproduction of this picture and labelled it "The Origin of Gandalf."  - [Source] diaphanee.tumblr.com

[Seen below.]

Following the Middle Kid Brook

 Running Past blog trace the small stream as it winds its way from Shooters Hill through Kidbrooke. It joins the Quaggy in Lee Green from a pipe in the brick work.
Here.