A sunny, cloudy

What weather should we expect today? According to the forecast, sun, clouds and showers, one of those days so typical of these islands. Here we are approaching Chapel Market on our usual Sunday shopping run.

The Farmer’s Market

The Farmers’ Market was out in force as usual.

The main market

So was the main market with the usual weekday stalls and some others that appear only on Sundays.

Queueing for Sainsbury’s

We were a little early and when we reached Sainsbury’s, there was still a queue of customers waiting for the doors to open. Fortunately, we didn’t have to wait long.

Queueing at the checkout

We sped round the store with practised ease and reached the checkout where we had to queue briefly.

Hurrying through the market

Afterwards, I hurried through the market as usual to collect our takeaway coffees from Mercer’s.

Order your spare keys here

I did stop to photograph this stall which is one of those that is here only on Sundays. It provides a useful service and we have had keys made here.

After a visit to Mercer’s, coffee in hand, we went quickly home for lunch and a little rest, ready for the afternoon’s outing.

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You may recognise this view from previous posts. It’s taken from a table outside Myddelton’s deli where we went for coffee.

This is a little glimpse inside the shop. It is replete with interesting foods with a definite Italian bias.

After coffee, we set off on foot. Here we are passing Percy Circus but we did not stop as we were on our way to another destination.

We went down to the main road and caught a bus to St Pancras Church.

At St Pancras Church we encountered a crowd. We had come to see an exhibition being held in the crypt. The exhibition is entitled Ritual Britain and today is the last day.

The exhibition title, I think, disguises the subject. It is really about traditional British-English folklore. This is not a topic that I know anything about or have any interest in. I therefore will not parade my ignorance with ill-founded comments but just show you some photos with occasional comments.

The above-mentioned crowd was watching a group of Morris(wo)men who went on the perform a dance, or whatever they call their activity. As we arrived late, we did not have a clear view, not that that bothered me particularly. There was drumming, clashing of sticks and guttural shouts. It all meant something, probably.

To be honest I was more interested in photographing the Greek-style caryatids.

I did manage a photo of the Morris dancers after their performance though this is probably not very interesting.

To view the exhibition we had to join a queue. This would once have seemed rather an imposition but since Covid-19, queueing has become such a usual activity that we have learned to take it patiently. The ostensible reason for the queue was to monitor numbers entering in order to avoid overcrowding. I say “ostensible” because the person monitoring us did not do a very good job, being distracted by such things as taking photos of the Morris dancers, during which several groups of people slipped into the exhibition unchecked.

When it was our turn to enter, we went down the steps to the crypt and were asked to sign in. The crypt, consisting of low tunnels and side rooms, is actually quite a good venue for exhibitions.

This is where I give up any pretence of understanding (let alone explaining) what I saw. I just took a few photos. This one was labelled “Reclaim the Forgotten”.

This one was labelled “Cherish the Neglected”.

No, I don’t know, either.

This is part of a display of costume dolls. The crowds of people (despite the ostensible monitoring of numbers entering) made it hard to obtain unobstructed views.

Costumes for dance or rituals, presumably.

Not real heads, happily.

There were lots of pictures but as photographing pictures (making a picture of a picture) seems a rather pointless exercise, I photographed just a token one.

There was also a film but we did not wait to see it, I’m relieved to say.

After this visit to the crypt and its strange contents, I was glad to catch a bus home where we could make tea and look forward to a relaxed evening.