Shadow Shot Sunday and Felty Doodling

Last Sunday in North London. Archway tube has this building towering above it. The Queens is a pub in Crouch End, where we were last Sunday, visiting Clare and Gary. While Clare and I made our books, Andy and Gary visited second hand record shops and pubs. We met in The Queens for a drink and food before returning to South London.

Today while cleaning, I saw the shadow below, and, as I snapped it, also took this one of my hands. Both photos make me think of some kind of creature.

Felty doodlings as we watched the very last part of Lord of the Rings. Don't felt whilst looking at the tv would be good advice. I stabbed myself very spectacularly while doing that!
For more shadows from around the world, visit HeyHarriet here!

Yesterday

I had a lovely day out yesterday, doing some of my favourite things-walking around London streets, seeing an exhibition, visiting a beautiful shop or two and, best of all, spending time with a friend. (We were doing all of these things together-I didn't do them first and then meet up with her!) To read a more elegant, and altogether more detailed account of our day, you can visit Kenda here.

I started my wandering at Westminster, past famous landmarks and off along the Thames to the Tate.

At the Tate, I waited to meet Kenda. We had arranged a time and hadn't done anything such as wearing easily identifiable flowers, as we were sure we would recognise each other. We did! It is a little nerve wracking for us shy people to actually meet each other in person but we needn't have worried. As Kenda says, the day flashed past, and before we knew it she was catching her train back to Birmingham.

The view from the steps as I waited.

We saw the Chris Ofili http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-britain/exhibition/chris-ofiliexhibition which gave us plenty to talk about!  (If you have wandered here because you searched for Chris Ofili, I would like to add a couple of links for your perusal. (Added 26.7.17) Artsy, a website making art accessible to all with an internet connection. This is their Chris Ofili page.) We had a leisurely lunch at the Tate and then wandered down the river back to Westminster. My favourite days are those without a rigid plan, so our indecisiveness as to our next activity was perfect! We decided to visit Anthropologie. Artistic inspiration is easily found in that shop and we both came away with ideas for future projects!

Next we hopped onto a tube and visited VV Rouleaux in Sloane Square-a shop I have read about but never been to. I loved it-ribbon heaven! Thank you for taking me there Kenda!

I had a lovely day and really enjoyed meeting one of my blog friends for real. It was a worry that in person we wouldn't get on, but thankfully we did. I look forward to the next time!

These shirts caught my eye on the way home.

Pizza and a stroll along the Southbank

November the 1st is Andy's sister's birthday so we all met up for pizza at the Pizza Express on the southbank. We were actually early so had a little look around a delicious smelling food market near the restaurant. I bought more cake glitter and some Chai tea and Andy got pomegranate molasses and wild sumac-which smells lovely and is a gorgeous deep rusty red colour.

We walked back to London Bridge. I love walking along this part of the river. It is so pretty. Yesterday I noticed that the benches have lights under them. I wonder how long they have been like that?

I was strolling as I took some of these, hence the blurs!

The Oxo tower. We have been in here once only for cocktails. So expensive but so tasty. There was a most amusing full length glass door which fooled everyone drinking on the balcony into thinking it was not there (me included so I feel ok about being amused at the others!)

Art under a bridge on Southwark Street.

More art. This one was rainbow coloured which I liked better. As we were getting near enough to take a picture it changed to red! It gives the photo a much more seedy feel. I think it changed with the hour as it had just got to 6 o'clock.

The moon popped right out seconds later!

Rat On The Run

Taken in Ruskin Park today. This photo is so awful that I like it. Blurry action shot of the fastest animal in the park. We (Joan and I) also saw pigeons (of course), parakeets, crows, squirrels, dogs and a dove-who was friends with the pigeons.
The Richard Long exhibition was excellent so if you get the chance go-it is only on until the 6th September.

Monday Meander

I went into town today with every intention of seeing this exhibition. However, it is on at Tate Britan, not Modern-how could I be so wrong?! Anyway, I had a very pleasant walk along the river from London Bridge to the Tate and later to Charing Cross. I am meeting my Dad tomorrow morning at Kings College hospital so I might go to the exhibition in the afternoon!Icecream outside the Globe theatre. I love icecream vans, how they look kind of vintage, even the modern ones. I like the little flags and the large sign on the front. I am not that keen on icecream though-only occasionally.This man was very busy with his sand sculpture. He was earning a little money while he created. I donated £1 and managed to get it in his bucket which was about 10 feet away, earning a 'good shot' compliment from the man standing next to me. It must be all the years I played netball.This man is doing what I am just too cowardly to do-I hate all the attention you get when you draw or paint in public. At least he has chosen quite a secluded spot.Talking of spots, I saw these on Steven's Happy Accidents and then on Tiny Red. They are quite impressive but also quite tatty. They must have been up for a while and have lots of minor graffiti all over them.More skillful graffiti here.And some ironic graffiti here-this is back in Greenwich now, Blackwall lane to be precise. Poor old building.

Shadow Shot Sunday

Strange lamp in the Phoenix in Denmark Hill. It is a lovely pub in the Victorian waiting room of the station.

Benches outside the Phoenix.

What happens to a yellow rubber hotwater bottle when it is left in the garden for three years.

It's Lily again! That cat gets everywhere. Here she is enjoying sitting on her log-it was my log-for doing woman of the woods type handywork in the garden but now it is Lily's!

This has come out the wrong way round-but it is still shell O'clock-or is it tile O' clock?

These are the bridesmaid dress hollyhocks from a few posts ago. I love these!

I am on holiday for a week now so will have blogging withdrawal no doubt! I look forward to seeing you all when I get back! Visit Heyharriet here for more shots (but not yet as I am early!)-I will visit when I am back next week!

Lovely Weekend

This weekend our friends Sarah, Roel and Milly visited from Holland. We had a lovely time! I have so many photos that I have done mosaics-they are shameslessly mainly of Milly who is so sweet and loves to have a photo! At home and then on the way to Butler's Wharf for lunch.

Milly looking at the view, the view she was looking at, tower bridge in the distance, Milly and HMS Belfast

Let's go! Milly is such a keen tourist, so interested in everything!

On the way to the Gherkin-I am not sure what it is really called-that's bad isn't it but anyway! We were looking for the shop that sells cake glitter-it is at the bottom of the building-Konditor and Cook. It was shut-Sunday you see-but at least we saw the cake of the building and some glittery cakes.

Milly had a look at the map for us so we could find Liverpool Street Station-then she's off!

We got the DLR to Greenwich and had a quick drink at The Trafalgar pub on the river. Later on Milly helped me feed Lily. She is really good with cats-so gentle and quiet. The picture of the cats is for you Milly if you are looking!

We had such a lovely time and are looking forward to New Year in Holland!

Here, There and Everywhere

On Saturday my Dad, his wife Joan and her grand daughter Polly visited for a day out in London. I finally bought myself a new A-Z. It has no missing pages! It is not all bent and scruffy yet! I didn't really need it to get here-but I took it anyway for later. I wanted to share this photo as it made me laugh at just how bad it is-the way I have lined the tree up perfectly to obscure the building behind!

We visited the Natural History Museum because my Dad wanted to see the wildlife photographer of the year exhibition . I love this museum-I would love to live there so I could spend as much time as I liked looking at all the fantastic things they have. Not sure if I could cope with so many visitors coming round though.

The exhibition was very good. There were some excellent photos by young photographers, including one of the overall winners. Her photo was of a dramatic chase of a giraffe by a lion, with two rows of watching Oryx. My favourite one was of a fox, just leaping and about to pounce in a sea of green, in front of a dark wood. One of the most incredible photos was of a tree frog and a snake gripping onto each other's mouths, the frog with his hand around the snake's neck. The photographer took the picture, then watched them for three more hours-after which he went to bed! So we will never know what happened.

Polly wanted to see the creepy crawly room-lots of fun, but, well, a bit creepy! This was my favourite exhibit in there-a new version of incy wincy.

Incy Wincy Spider, didn't climb up the spout.

She fell into the sink, now she can't climb out.

If a thoughtful person were to set this spider free.

She would catch more household pests and eat them eagerly!

Next we got a cab to Harrods as Joan wanted a Harrods teddy bear. Harrods is quite weird-kind of old fashioned seeming. I can't remember when I last went there-I think it was when I was about 12. It was very busy and quite hard to move around in. There were ordinary things amongst the luxury goods-a tin of beans for 95p anyone? This is the watch I took a brief fancy to. I liked the unusual way the numbers went. I think I would ruin it at work though so I didn't bother to buy it.The little green things are not limes-no, they are limequats! Have you ever heard of them? They are the green version of kumquats and so probably taste equally weird and bitter.I liked the food hall with its beautiful tiles and its loving peacocks. Next we got the tube to Notting Hill and walked down to Portobello market. Dad bought a number of old wooden and brass edged rulers, one for measuring hats and one for measuring barrels.

It rained quite heavily and went very dark. I was trying to take photos of the pretty Notting Hill houses but trying to keep up with the rest of the group. This is the kind of result! I quite like the sparkly rain though. George Orwell lived here.
This is a great shop-full of pretty and interesting collections of things-handles for drawers, rings made of shells, little 1920s Japanese terracotta birds (see below), Indian wooden printing blocks and antique brass padlocks to name but a few. This was my one purchase from the antique dealers-old thimbles for £1 each-a bargain and a new form of percussion instrument. Not sure what they will become yet but I like them.

Little pretty birds...

My attempt at altering my photo-the birds in their little junky new home.

We rounded the day off with an impulse move. It was about 7pm, we were at Charing Cross and there were no trains. We were tired and hungry. I remembered this place-The Cafe in the Crypt under St Martins in the Fields next to Trafalgar Square. It's great-cosy, plays lovely classical music, serves good value, delicious food and wine! The perfect end (or nearly!) to the day.