Tigger went into work from Wednesday to Friday this week. Though it may sound weak-willed, in her absence I sometimes find it hard to “get up and go”: it’s all too easy to sit around all day, plinking on the computer keyboard. The dull weather hasn’t provided much encouragement.

Sunshine in Pentonville Road

Yesterday (Friday), I did bestir myself, briefly. I had been meaning to go out and look for books in French as I had finished those I bought a while back. So I geared myself up for a visit to the Oxfam Bookshop in Upper Street. The weather forecast predicted cloudy skies but when I set out, the sun was shining.

Artificial lawn, Angel Central

I passed through Chapel Market and then Angel Central as this is a fairly direct route to the bookshop and avoids the busy main road. In the Angel Central shopping center, they had laid an artificial lawn with wooden seats and flowers in the courtyard but, despite the sunshine, no one was sitting in the seats.

Decorations add a dash of colour

The decorations, presumably in honour of the advertised “Summer Fête”, were still in place, adding a dash of colour.

Illuminated arch

During the recent rebuilding of the centre, this illuminated arch was added. I’m not sure it does anything to enhance the attractiveness of the place while taking up valuable space.

I took a few books with me to the Oxfam Bookshop to donate, three of those I had bought recently which were therefore in new condition and should be easy to sell.

This shop used to have a good stock of books in foreign languages but it no longer does – I don’t know why. I went through all their titles in French but was hard pressed to find anything of interest. In the end I plumped for the above book. It won a literary prize which should be a recommendation, I suppose, but having read the first few pages, I can’t say it has captured my enthusiasm. I rather think it will be on its way back to the shop soon.

Puddles in Claremont Square

In view of the foregoing, you can imagine that I was looking forward to today when Tigger doesn’t go in to the office. Tigger goes back to work on Tuesday, so we have three days to ourselves till then. Unfortunately, we awoke to cloudy skies and heavy rain.

Snail, enjoying the damp conditions
Photo by Tigger

In the late morning, the rain ceased and so we dashed out to make the most of it. There were others also out making the most of the damp conditions. Tigger photographed this snail walking along the rim of a recycling bin.

When the weather turns wet, the snails and slugs become adventurous and go exploring. That’s fine until the weather dries up again, leaving them stranded far from friendly greenery on dry pavements and walls. We have rescued many such.

A change for the better?

As we walked through Claremont Square, the weather seemed to take a turn for the better. Blue sky appeared between the clouds and the sun shone. Had the forecast been superseded by reality?

Sitting outside Myddelton’s
Photo by Tigger

We hurried to Amwell Street and Myddelton’s deli. While I went inside to buy coffee, Tigger grabbed a table. It turned out that, even though they were under the canopy, the chairs were wet from the earlier rainfall, so we spread our rain jackets over them to sit on.

Coffee and croissants
Photo by Tigger

To cheer ourselves up, we bought croissants with the coffee.

The clouds close in

As we consumed our coffee, the clouds began closing in again. Then the rain started. Even though we were under the canopy, it blew in onto us. I quickly finished my coffee (I’m always the slower of the two of us.) We put our rain jackets on and made for home.

At home, we had lunch and kept tabs on the weather. Would we be able to go out again later?