Rainy Parades

St Patrick's Day is on March 17th, and while it is not a public holiday on that day here in London (as it is in Ireland), in recent years a parade has been taking place on the nearest Sunday to the 17th.

March in London isn't exactly the height of summer in London, and it is frequently (almost always) cold and it rains a lot.

The cold and rain doesn't stop the bands which are taking part having some fun, and a large crowd is in attendance.  The parade starts near Hyde Park, winds its way up Piccadilly and eventually finishes in Trafalgar Sqaure

A St Patrick's "Day" parade is a relatively new innovation in London - the first one was about 10 years ago and very small,  with only a few bands and floats taking part. It has grown considerably since then, but still is small compared to the parade in Dublin, and of course to that in New York.

These sax players - apart from sounding great (at least to me)  - even had rain gear colour coordinated  with their band uniforms. They must be used to the London weather.

 

Countdown - 100 days

100 days to the 2012 London Olympics and in a rather wet Trafalgar Square, the countdown continues.

Given the number of days to go, there was a media scrum and an "event" .....

And some tourists provided some colour on a rather drab day - given the weather here in London, it will be probably as wet in July in 100 days ...

The Square seems to attract footie supporters also - this time from visting Barca. Shame the result of the game didn't go their way.

A Rainy Lunch Time

I usually like "good " light for my photography, but when I was in Saffron Walden last month for an RPS event, we were asked to take 6 images during the lunch time break, for projection later in that afternoon. Of course it was rainy .... but here's what I managed to capture - 

Don't think these images are going to make me give up looking for "good" light in which to photograph, but  perhaps it may I should carry a camera even when it rains ....