Bits and Pieces

 Drawing with gold leaf-a shiny kind and a matte kind.

 Every morning Cassie follows me around until I am ready to sit down with my cup of tea. She then leaps on my lap for a brush (with a human hairbrush!) and a cuddle. Here she is gently ruining my tights!

 Back at the river last week. 

 This is when I was walking back to London Bridge. It looks as if they are keeping the building facade while development goes on behind.

 One of my favourite little pieces of pottery. Like a little 1920s face. 

 Very fancy taps in the art studios we visited a couple of weeks ago. 

 These two pictures were taken from the 22nd floor of some new flats in Greenwich where I was cat sitting two cuties. They (the owners not the cats!) said I could go to the top floor to have a look at the view so I did. It was amazing if a little dizzying!

Baby Mudlark

Since getting my permit from the Port of London Authority, which allows me to search the foreshore of the Thames, and dig to a depth of 7.5 cm, I have become a bit obsessed, and have brought home an awful lot of stuff. Some of it may go back into the river soon, in the location it came from of course. I have not found anything of great significance so far, and there seems to be less little bits and pieces to me than years ago when we used to search on the shore at Deptford. But then my eyesight is a lot worse then years ago! But I have found some interesting things, and a lot of rusty metal nails, bolts, washers and strips, some of which I have brought home as I love their weathered appearance and feel I can make something from some of them. A lot of this metal is from when the area had shipyards, and as well as making boats, they were also broken up there. I just love the oversized nails. I have lots of bones from Greenwich, as the shapes are fascinating. I think a lot of these are from when there were slaughter houses on this side of the river in the nineteenth century. Some bits of the shore are nothing but bones. I bought a book about the archaeology of bones, as I don't even know what most of them are. I have learnt about how the journey of a bone from living animal to archaeological remains is broken down and described, and that most vertebrate animals have very similar skeletons. I have made a mobile from one of the bones and am going to polish some of the rest as they are beautiful. Others may go back. I also have teeth! I love the sound they make when jiggled together in my hand.

 I have so far been to Greenwich, Bankside, (Where I found a clay pipe with a stem for the first time! I was very excited about that) Woolwich and Deptford. These pictures are from Deptford, and a few from Enderby's Wharf, further downstream from Greenwich, where I also went this morning. I was on the shore at Deptford at about 8.30, and stayed till about 10 which was low tide. The best thing about it was that it was a lovely peaceful walk, with only crows for company. I saw nobody else until just as I was leaving, when a man with a metal detector appeared. My favourite find there was the heel of a hobnailed boot, complete with nails. I also liked the small piece of china I found with a picture of a lighthouse on it. 

 Metal fish. 

 Looking upstream. 

 The sun on the weed made it this incredible emerald green. 

 Piece of brick with my initials on it on top of a beautifully weathered wooden post. (Which looks like a face-see below)

 The thing I see most on beaches are faces-in everything. This piece of bone face stayed behind as it was damp and algae covered.

 There are lots and lots of bricks, with many different patterns and manufacturers. 

 I like this piece of beach as it is quite open and has willow trees growing along the edge. 

 More bricks. 

Will share some of my more interesting finds soon!

Leeds Castle

My sister Jane got married on 3rd September to Will, her long term partner. She has been planning her wedding for over a year, and it all went beautifully. It was a lovely day and all of our scattered family were there. She asked that people did not share photos on social media, but I don't think she would mind a couple of selfies of me in my sparkly dress on here. (Well, one selfie, and one taken by  Andy) She looked beautiful and we had a lot of fun getting ready. I was her Maid of Honour, which sounds delightfully old fashioned, and I felt quite princess like! I never have my hair or make up done so the whole experience was really novel and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Her hairdresser was brilliant, as was her soon to be sister-in-law Joy, who did my make-up, very subtly.

They chose Leeds Castle in Kent as their venue, and it couldn't have been better. It is a beautiful setting, and the whole thing was such fun from the moment we arrived. The staff were amazing and so kind to my slightly flustered pre-ceremony-sister! We stayed in The Maiden's Tower in the Anne of Bohemia room, an experience in itself. So now, if anyone asks, I can say I once lived in a castle!

We met the family members still around for tea a couple of days later, and Jane very kindly bought us a year's ticket for the castle. Today my Mum and I visited to use our tickets for the first time. It was a beautiful day and we had a walk and lunch in the restaurant. We saw lots of birds on our walk so here are some of those.

 A Jackdaw posing with a parrot wind vane. 

 All the birds were so tame, as they often get fed by the tourists, so they were all very obliging when I was taking their photos. The pigeon is showing me his best side.

 A shiny crow.

 A confident duck.

 And his sweet friend.

 A massive footed Coot.

 Some Whooper swans amongst the tiny other birds.

 A black swan. These are originally from Australia. 

 A Kookaburra at the bird display. And a woman I don't know.

This is a Seriema. It can kill snakes in its native Brazil or Argentina. This one is young and is called Tash. She was very funny and looks like the road runner when she runs.

 I got distracted by the black swan weather vane and now see another bird underneath it. 

 This is Alfie the owl. Owls are apparently not as clever as their reputation would have you think.

 A Peacock with not many tail feathers left.

A wooden swan.

Playing

Small plastic babies have a woolly adventure!

Random Selection

Back again, two months on with a variety of random pictures taken over that time. 

Short captions added!

 Lily making use of the cool mat I bought for her. When she isn't using it I do-quite effective!

Arty Party Tintin inspired rockets. 

Cassie says, "Leave me alone."

The pink furry monster says, "Goodbye!"

Deptford Creek and Mumford Flour Mill.

Swan family in South Dock, Rotherhithe.

Flowers in front of the Hotel Lydmar in Stockholm, where we stayed for a couple of nights two weeks ago. More pictures of Stockholm below.

Boat sign.

Brass bird.

Happy rat sign.

Fucking Good Times!

Rusty green lorry.

The Vasa, a beautiful ship that did not sail far before it sank. It was tested a little while before its maiden voyage, by the very scientific method of a load of sailors running from one side of the deck to the other a few times. This caused it to list alarmingly, but the man who was testing it still said it was fit to sail. It wasn't. It was recovered three hundred and thirty three years later and looks almost as if it was made yesterday. Like a large prop for the Pirates of the Caribbean. Incredible!

Pigments used in painting the carvings at the time.  

Me and my flamingo. In our room was a huge display cabinet with all sorts of interesting things in, and it wasn't locked. So at some point I decided to try this amazing headdress on. I liked it, and wish I could have taken it with me!

Ava Max, performing at a large permanent fairground. We went to see her, as Andy's boss really likes her. She was pretty good, though not on for long. The whole time we were watching her, I was also watching this horrific tall tower, where people willingly put themselves through a death defying fall from a great height. It was fascinating to watch their faces at the fastest point of their drop.

More scary rides.