After lunch we went out for our statutory exercise walk and to fetch our daily coffee. It is a dull and damp day, but warmish at 11°C. Even so, it felt rather depressing.

Bus stop closed

We sometimes use this bus stop in Pentonville Road (when travel is allowed!). It has been closed and a hole dug inside the shelter. This is work to deal with a gas leak. They have tried several times already to deal with it, apparently unsuccessfully. What is annoying is that they close the stop and cause disruption to pedestrians and road traffic and then go away without completing the job.

Jusaka closed

We expected Jusaka to be closed and were not surprised to find that it was. I rather suspect that it will remain closed now until after the New Year. I imagine that trade hasn’t been lively enough lately to justify remaining open. We hope that they can survive the economic downturn.

St John Street dull and damp

We went along St John Street. I waited for a quiet moment to take the photo but the road was actually quite busy, up to pre-Tier 4 levels.

Queueing for the butcher’s

We turned into Chadwell Street and I couldn’t resist taking a photo of the queue at the butcher’s shop. It stretched along the first block of buildings and round the corner into Arlington Way. This is one thing we don’t have to bother with but I hope it isn’t a sign of things to come as shops run low on supplies.

Dead tree

We walked down Arlington Way where we found this tree stump, newly cut. I assume that the tree was diseased and is being removed to prevent the disease spreading. It may be necessary but it always makes me sad. I don’t know how much trees feel or how much they are aware of what’s happening to them and I often wonder about that.

Myddelton Passage

We took a turn along Myddelton Passage beside the Shakespeare’s Head pub (which was closed, of course). We hadn’t visited this quiet backstreet for a while though I did photograph it from the other end on Sunday’s walk. (See Brave new Tier 4 world.)

No leaves but bunches of berries

The vines that straggle over the wall of the pub garden had died back and so had the usually verdant plants poking over the wall of the old New River estate. There were no leaves but there were bunches of small dark blue berries. My botanical ignorance does not allow me to identify the plants.

This brick wall, you may remember, is famous for the badge numbers carved into it by police officers in the mid-19th century. It’s something of a mystery why they would have been lurking here. Various theories have been put forward but none has been confirmed as far as I know.

Police badge numbers

Each one was no doubt carved over a number of visits and they are carefully done, though in different styles. The numbers and letters often resemble those printed in newspapers of the period.

“99 G”

We both liked this one for its well delineated 9s and its elegant ‘G’. Great care has been taken to make neat work of it despite the unevenness of the brick (though that would probably have been smoother and less pitted 170 or so years ago).

Christmas wreath, River Street

Were you expecting some Christmas wreaths? Where we walked today was something of a wreath-desert but we eventually found one, which I think is new to us, in River Street. It is a rather plain one and has been hung from a conveniently placed doorknob.

Decorative window rail

Near the door with the wreath is a window with an ornate rail. Some houses have real balconies, some have pretend balconies (too narrow to go onto) and still others have decorative ironwork like this. A fascinating variety.

Lights in tree and in the room

As we approached Myddelton’s deli, I was rather taken by the lights in this street tree which matched the lights in the first-floor window. It is the only tree in the street with lights which might mean that it is a private venture. Unfortunately, the camera has balanced out the intensity of the lights so that they appear dull in the photo. In reality they are quite bright and stand out even in the daylight.

Christmas wreath, Amwell Street
Photo by Tigger

In case you are hungry for wreaths, here is another one. We only managed two on this trip. (It’s my job to carry the coffee home, so Tigger took this and the following photos.)

Retro items in Pennies
Photo by Tigger

This shop in Amwell Street, called Pennies, sells retro or, according to its website, vintage, items. It always intrigues me though I have never been inside. It is closed now, of course, because of Tier 4, but its window display was quite pretty with coloured lights. Again, though, these don’t show up well in the photo.

House window lights
Photo by Tigger

Our (i.e. Tigger’s) last photo of the walk was this house window which had coloured lights in it which continually changed colour. Very pretty. They are between the curtains and the window and therefore best seen from the street. This is true of numerous houses as though the occupants are wishing passers-by a merry Christmas.