Spring tides along the Thames...

...and crowds of young people packing the South Bank in the first warm(ish) evening of the year. Drinks, talking, laughter, a Friday, with work finished for the week.  I trundled my suitcase along (returning from family visit toi the West Country), enjoying it all. The wide clean sand was inviting, the water lapping towards it.  "Watch my case for me for a moment?" I asked a young couple, and scrambled down the steps. It was glorious to run along, a sudden sense that winter was over.I got a stick and wrote "Auntie was here!" on the sand, dipped my hands into the Thames and then hurried back up the steps - it would be an hour or more before these were under water, but there is something fearsome about the river's tidal surge.

Some sand-sculptors create wonderful castles and pictures in the sand - all to last for just a few hours before being swept away. Next day, as I retraced my steps on my way to another appointment, one such artist had made a most beautiful Easter scene, with Middle Eastern buildings and a Tomb with its stone rolled back...

I have a favourite restaurant not far from the river (I am not so daft as to give away its location, as it is mostly not too crowded) where I sometimes sit and work over a modest meal. A couple of hours spent thus, and then I headed for Soho, where a beautiful Mass for the eve of Divine Mercy Sunday was followed by a procession around Soho Square with the relics of St Mary Magdalene. Then Adoration with the Blessed Sacrament on the altar. Street-missionaries take lanterns and invite passers-by to come in and light candles. It is the most moving thing to see people walking  up the lantern-lit aisle, slightly nervous at first , but then touched by the glittering candlelit scene, and relaxed about lighting a little tea-light by the altar steps...