Posts tagged with “London”

Caption competition

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Here's a dramatic shot from the beach volleyball delivery (see Beach volleyball in the City). It's an early Sunday morning, and there's no traffic in Canary Wharf. Then suddenly, the quiet is disturbed by the slightly menacing growl of two six-cylinder diesel engines...

Can you come up with a good caption? "Streetwise tippers" was my initial stab but I'm sure you can do better. Please drop me a line at the competition@bourneconnection.net address with any flashes of insight!

Beach volleyball in the City

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It's a tradition now - every summer we deliver 160 tonnes of RH37 sand (medium USGA sand) to Canary Wharf for Action for Kids' beach volleyball courts. This is the tenth year they lay on the event - it starts today (9 July) and carries on to 3 August (when there will be a lot of sweeping-up to do).

The event includes a number of tournaments featuring elite players, as well as amateurs in stirring moments like the Bartenders Tournament (tomorrow) and the Agencies Challenge Cup (on 27 July).

The picture shows two of our lorries lined up on Sunday morning, waiting to discharge some of all that sand.

RHS Chelsea Flower Show

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Lindsey and I had a great trip to the RHS Chelsea show yesterday - the weather provided a useful watering boost to the gardens in the morning (that's a polite way of saying we were totally drenched on the way across Chelsea Bridge) and then obliged with sunshine from midday onwards.

As you might imagine, the garden and floral exhibits were stunning - people were standing three deep to get near the show gardens. The Group is fortunate enough to have supplied four magnificent gardens:

  • Conway Landscaping - the Embroidered Minds Epilepsy Garden
  • Frosts Landscape Construction Limited - trade stand for Gaze Burvill Limited
  • Randle Siddeley - the LG EcoCity Garden
  • Senseless Acts of Beauty - the Pearlfisher Garden

It wasn't very easy to get to talk to anybody though - the show was very crowded. In total we spent about five hours at the show - and more or less the same time travelling there and back. London traffic!

Westminster Abbey at Easter

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Here's our tipper coming through the gate through the Sanctuary to Dean's Yard behind Westminster Abbey, carrying 20 tonnes of Kingsley No 1 sand. Not much room to spare!

In the 10th century, a community of Benedictine monks established St Peter's Abbey in Westminster. In about 1042, Edward the Confessor decided that he needed a proper burial church, and started re-building St Peter's Abbey to a style fit for a King. It was finished and finally consecrated at the end of 1065, just in time for Edward's death in early January 1066. King Harold and then William the Conqueror were crowned in the Abbey, and since then, it has been the site for all English coronations.

The present church was built by Henry III in the 13th century, who like Edward the Confessor was rather keen on magnificent buildings, especially when dedicated to the glory of God and also, not incidentally, reflected well on himself. Henry VIII dissolved the monastery but granted the Abbey cathedral status in 1540 - he may have been a Church reformer but also had an eye for for grand architecture.

The sports sand we delivered will help restoring the Green at the Dean's Yard, which is the great quadrangle inside the various remaining abbey precincts, formerly a sanctuary for various fugitives of the law. Pupils of Westminster School (which is partly housed here) have the right to play football on the Green - which may explain the need for some sports sand dressing!

There's 30 tonnes of granite here for Mr Selfridge...

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Here's GK12 delivering granite chippings and TS6 topsoil for GreenBlue Urban to the very heart of London's West End shopping.