Walking up St John Street, Islington, on my way back from the library, I noticed that this pub has changed its name to Dame Alice Owen. It has had several previous names, the last I remember being the Blacksmith and Toffee Maker.

The halcyon era of the traditional pub, which some of us still remember, is long gone, what with the public’s changing tastes, the smoking ban and cheap supermarket beer. Many once successful pubs are struggling to survive or have closed down altogether. The remainder are having to re-invent themselves to find new ways of attracting customers.

I have never visited this pub so I cannot say how successful it is or how likely to survive in the short or long term. Time, as they say, will tell.

Dame Alice, incidentally, was a local philanthropist living from 1547 to 1613. She is remembered today mainly for the school that bears her name but she did other good works including founding almshouses.

A curious tale relates how plain Alice, as she was then, was walking in Islington fields when she stopped to try her hand at milking a cow. As she rose from her milking, an arrow, shot by one of the archers practising nearby, pierced her hat, luckily causing her no injury. This fortunate escape seems to have inspired her to engage in good works. It is also said that the archer later married her but only as husband number three.

For the purposes of this blog I will refer to myself as SilverTiger. I live in North London with my partner whom I shall call Tigger. She will play a part in my posts as she is a very important and beloved part of my life.

I do not promise to update this blog regularly but only when I feel moved to do so. It is a blog about our daily lives, including our outings and travels and it will be simple in style and content. You are welcome to read what I write and to leave comments if you wish to do so. I may add an email contact address later if it seems to good idea to do so.

My intention is to write my posts “on the hoof”, that is, during the day while I am engaged in the activities described or in the evening when I have time to look back over the day and reflect on what I have been doing.

Sometimes I will add photos to illustrate my posts. These photos will normally be taken with the camera on my Apple iPhone 6. Any editing will usually be done with the few editing facilities available on the phone. This probably means that they will not be very good photos though I hope they will still be worth the bother.

I will compose my posts using the WordPress app. available for the iPhone. This is the most direct way of working. It also means that there will be no fancy formatting of my posts though if there is need to do so, I can post-edit an article on my PC.

If you have any questions or observations, please write them in a comment. Comments are not moderated and will appear straightaway but I reserve the right to delete spam and any other comments I find objectionable.