I really don't know clouds at all

Something fantastically subversive about clouds this morning, viewed from the bus going up Uxbridge Road. What worlds away from the small, frightened boy in an over-sized school uniform sitting next to me - the ticket inspector - the people punching fiercely into their mobile phones.... The clouds promise other worlds, in fact, beyond the bus window.

Yesterday's lunchtime Veronese at the National Gallery had a cloud-strewn sky. (Is there a Veronese without a stormy sky?) Plus dogs: The Supper at Emmaus (about 1555).
A large, aristocratic family surrounds Christ's supper after his resurrection. Everyone is clutching something; the painting swirls with movement.

Particularly love this lady on the right  - clearly the matriarch of the household, impassive, resigned, thinking oh no what now.

Dismantling a wall and diversions on Uxbridge Road

They are dismantling the Wall at St James's Piccadilly - pass by on my way to NatWest at lunchtime to pay in a cheque. Am sorry that I missed this but also sorry somehow that it happened. Cannot believe that presenting such a visual symbol of conflict in such a way can result in any good.
Lucy Winkett (Rector of St James's) is a role model of mine but she seems defensive in the Guardian.

"When we have been challenged about "taking sides" and "politicising the church" – which is a fair discussion to have – we are clear that we are not "pro" one side or another but we are instead campaigning for equal human rights for all people regardless of ethnicity or background. Sometimes the church will speak on issues seen as political in order to advocate for people who are suffering. We are supporting the ordinary people of Bethlehem at Christmas because we believe it would be wrong to sing about the town and meditate on its importance to our faith without acknowledging the grievous situation its citizens find themselves in today."

Later get far too strident with an old friend in the National Gallery bar. He has been to Israel/Palestine more times than I have had hot dinners and is genuinely shocked by my suggestion that he might be too overtly pro-Palestinian. "They are the poor and oppressed. What else are we do do?"
(On the table next to us someone I have not seen for years is chatting up a blonde girl with a transparent green Louis Vuitton bag. The last time I saw him was four years ago at a seminar in Swansea. He is absorbed in his conquest and buys glass after glass of champagne - takes out his Mac to show his photographs.)
A reading list from my friend: Anne Michael Fugitive Pieces and The Skin Divers.
Paul Celan's poetry - especially that set to music by Harrison Birtwistle (which I know will be far too challenging for me).
Driving rain outside. A deaf homeless man in the damp tiled tunnel in Charing Cross tube station - mouthing and gesturing to a comrade in a blanket a few yards away.
On Uxbridge Road there is a crowd at the bus stop. A ginger headed man wearing high vis trousers, covered in mud, and some kind of jerkin over a short sleeved shirt strides down to us and gestures. "It's no use waiting here - there's no bus coming. The buses are coming out of that road there see...." pointing towards a side road "you'll have to walk down to the next bus stop." What had he been doing? Lying in the road? Digging? Physically diverting the buses? His forearms are covered with tattoos and short ginger hairs. Why is he not cold?
He turns and walks a few steps beside me. "It's not very far," he says, nodding, encouraging.

As a piece of pomegranate (are thy temples)

The colour of autumn.

Wine, flowers in Cornwall and now the same shade again - the violet crimson of this pomegranate bought on Uxbridge Road... Still very much on the Elektra theme.... viscous red liquid dripping from it stains the kitchen table.

It looks so extraordinary - little wonder people read meanings into it. It's a symbol of fertility naturally - all those seeds - and of what else?

Remember once looking at the symbolism of the pomegranate in embroidery : pomegranate trees grow in Paradise according to Islamic tradition. It was the heraldic symbol of Catherine of Aragon, entwined with the Tudor rose on her ill fated wedding to Henry V111. There are a host of Virgins with Pomegranates - by Botticelli and by Leonardo to name a few.  It's not a fruit for the faint hearted.

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Virgin with Pomegranate/Sandro Botticelli

Virgin with Pomegranate/Leonardo da Vinci