The weather is still oscillating between sunshine, clouds and rain, possibly with thunderstorms. When we went out this morning, we were lucky to enjoy a sunny interval.

We enjoyed a sunny interval

Our first call was of course to the deli. We had a choice of tables and in addition to coffee, we ordered…

Toast!

…toast! Thinly sliced brown bread toasted and buttered while hot – delicious! The curious thing is that when I make toast at home, I always let it cool before putting anything on it. Perhaps I should consider changing my habits? 🙂

Amwell Street

After this agreeable second breakfast, we crossed our “village high street”, Amwell Street, and made our way to Myddelton Square.

Pigeons enjoying the sunshine

We entered the gardens where all was quiet. The resident pigeons were relaxing in the sunshine.

Tree “decorated” by Tigger

Tigger set about “decorating” a tree with nuts for the squirrels. The pigeons can’t take them from here but the squirrels can. They will discover them later.

Even though I was doing nothing but simply watching Tigger, I soon noticed a slow but distinct movement of pigeons in my direction. Pigeons definitely do recognise individual humans. Whether they recognise faces or general appearance, I don’t know, but they certainly recognise me. I’m now a marked man!

A pigeon on my knee

As soon as I sat down on a bench, the pigeons gathered around me. This one boldly landed on my knee. Another proof of pigeon intelligence is their ability to learn. When we first fed the pigeons in this garden, they would not take food from my hand, let alone perch on my knee, but as soon as one pigeon had dared to do so, others were quick to do the same. It is now difficult for me to sit on a bench without being mobbed by pigeons!

“My friend”

“My friend”, the one-footed pigeon, arrived and installed himself on my knee. He is now quite happy to sit there patiently while I break the shells to extricate the nuts. Other pigeons keep crashing the party and trying to grab a share. I notice that if another pigeon lands on my knee, “my” pigeon emits a cooing sound. I can only suppose this is a statement of ownership, meaning “Get off – he’s my human!”

“No more? Really? No more?”

As I said in a previous post, the difficult part is convincing the pigeon on my knee that there’s no more food. I have to stand up slowly and carefully so that “my friend” slides off my knee and flutters away. Such is the price of popularity!

White Lion Street

The day was wet and cloudy but we had things to do so off we went to Sainsbury’s as usual. This photo shows the dull conditions. Raincoats were a must.

Farmers’ Market

Despite the rain, the Farmers’ Market was operating but with noticeably fewer customers than usual.

No customers outside

The cafe had its tables outside but, unsurprisingly, there were no takers.

Stall outside the fruit shop

Some of the shops in Chapel Market also maintain market stalls. This one, belonging to the fruit and veg shop, added a welcome dash of colour to the scene.

Inside Sainsbury’s

Sainsbury’s wasn’t very busy, either. People were perhaps putting off shopping till later, hoping the rain would stop in the meantime.

At the checkout

The scene was more active at the checkouts because these, of course, form a kind of bottle neck. Even so, it didn’t take us long to complete this familiar formality.

The market, not busy at all

Usually, I have to zig-zag through the market to avoid people rushing this way and that, but today I strolled through without difficulty.

Coffee!

I bought our usual coffees and we hurried home to enjoy them.

Later, we had lunch and prepared for our next outing.

Aboard the 214

After lunch, we went out and started our journey by catching a 214. The rain had stopped and there was even sunshine from time to time. According to the forecast, there would be no more rain. Do you trust weather forecasts?

Cloudburst
Photo by Tigger

We changed to a 205 and then, as we were passing along Bishopsgate, the skies opened and there was a cloudburst. Were we destined to be soaked?

The sun shone

We had to change buses again at St Botolphe Street and were expecting the worst. But guess what? By then rain had stopped and the sun came out!

Reflecting the sky

This photo shows the wet pavements, so wet that they are reflecting the sky like mirrors, a blue sky with white clouds lit by sunshine! Crazy British weather.

Arriving at Asda

We were travelling to the large Asda store at Crossharbour in the Docklands. The journey seemed very long but we eventually arrived and could stretch our cramped legs at last. Asda closes at 5 pm and it was already 4:30 so we had no time to lose.

In Asda

This store is quite large and you could waste time trying to find what you seek but, fortunately, Tigger knew exactly what she wanted and where to find it, so we had soon finished. Now, though, we had to confront the checkout.

At the checkout

The people ahead of us had a lot of purchases but they were processed fairly quickly so the wait was not long.

A view from the bus stop

We went to the bus stop where I just had time to take this photo of buildings in Docklands before our bus arrived.

Canary Wharf shopping centre

We left the bus at Canary Wharf Station where there is a large shopping centre. We had come here, not for shopping, but for coffee.

Starbuck’s

The nearest coffee place was Starbuck’s. I am not keen on Starbuck’s but perhaps it was time to give them another chance.

Coffee at Starbuck’s

Don’t say I didn’t give them a chance. The coffee was as bad as I remembered. I drink mine black and this was like a cup of hot water that had seen a coffee bean from a distance. I took a couple of sips and left the rest.

Sculpture

Leaving Starbuck’s, we made our way to the nearest bus stop. Again we were lucky with our timing as I just had time to photograph this sculpture before the bus arrived.

Aboard the 205 for home

The first bus took us to Aldgate where we changed (again with scarcely a wait) to a 205 that carried us the rest of the way to the Angel and home, thus concluding our adventures for today.

We tarried over lunch – with Tigger listening to the radio and me writing the previous blog post – until I thought to look out of the window and see… the sun shining! We quickly put on our coats and hurried out into the sunshine.

Busy crossroads

Whether it was the sunshine lifting people’s spirits or just the usual Saturday activity, the streets were quite busy with both vehicles and pedestrians.

Taking the vacuum cleaner for a walk
Photo by Tigger

One of the more curious sights was this one: a lady walking along with a shopping trolley while dragging a vacuum cleaner as though it were a little dog on a lead!

At the Clock Tower

We walked down the end of Goswell Road where it meets City Road at the clock tower. As you can see, the sky was full of clouds, which caused the sun to appear and disappear, but, for the duration of our walk, at least, the rain held off.

We passed the gymnasium which is now fully functioning again, of course. Its large windows allow a clear view of the activity within. In the foreground was a row of what looked like couches with people lying on them performing strange contortions. They were all synchronised in their movements and so must have been following instructions.

“Extreme yoga,” remarked Tigger.

Whatever it was, it looked painful. (Discretion of course forbade photographing the people thus engaged.)

Electra speeds by
Photo by Tigger

Turning up Chadwell Street we arrived in Myddelton Square where we found Electra performing her circuits. Tigger managed to grab a discreet shot of her.

Myddelton Passage

This time it was Tigger who suggested we take a look to see how the pub vine was faring. Accordingly, we walked down the peaceful little street called Myddelton Passage. The pub at its garden are at the far end.

The pub vine

The vine was looking very healthy and luxuriant, its leaves flickering in the wind almost as though it was greeting us, aware of our interest.

Clusters of grapes

There were abundant clusters of grapes and they had grown noticeably bigger since our last visit. I said then that I didn’t think they would ever be edible but I am beginning to have second thoughts about that.

Grape cluster
Photo by Tigger

This close-up by Tigger will give you an idea of how the grapes are developing.

The “Time Traveller”
Photo by Tigger

One of our little hobbies, as we go about, is to spot time travellers. All right, they are not really time travellers – people who have arrived here from another time (then again, how can we really be sure?) – but who, in dress and demeanour, look as though they belong to a previous age. There are surprisingly many of them, like this lady, who could just have stepped out of the pages of an Agatha Christie novel. What does she think, I wonder, of our strange world of the future?

The reservoir

We returned home past the reservoir in Claremont Square. At present it looks rather bare. Like many grassy areas, it had been allowed to grow uncut during spring and had become like a meadow with long grasses interspersed with flowers. It’s rather sad to see it shorn of such beauty and we can only hope that it will be allowed the flourish again next spring.

Sunlight and shadow in Milne Street

Now, with a glance back at a familiar scene enhanced by the interplay of sunlight and shadow, we turned for home, happy to have escaped the rain and enjoyed our walk.

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?

After lunch, Tigger announced her intention to take me out and buy me coffee and cake. I was quite happy with this kind offer, of course! At this point, I did not know where I was being taken and that added extra piquancy to the pleasure.

We caught the 153

We went to St John Street and caught a 153. This suggested that we were heading for the City but that was all I could guess.

London Wall, near All Hallows

We left the bus at All Hallows in London Wall, the last stop before Liverpool Street Station and in the heart of the City. We walked for several minutes through the busy landscape of London’s banking and financial centre. There is always something interesting to see here, often things you missed on previous visits.

Sculpted lintel

As an example, here is the intricately sculpted lintel over the door of 82 London Wall. What high-powered business operates within? A dentist’s clinic, actually!

Black Sheep Coffee, Cutler Street

This is where Tigger brought me, to a branch of Black Sheep Coffee. Tigger knows the City well and Black Sheep is one of her favourite coffee shops.

Inside Black Sheep Coffee

This branch is long and narrow but we found a table with two comfortable armchairs where we could relax and watch the world go by outside the window.

Coffee and cake

With our coffee, as promised, we had a cake each, a muffin for Tigger and a croissant for me. Croissants may be the primordial French breakfast food but, as far as I am concerned, they are good at ant time of day!

A circular arbour

Afterwards, we walked through the streets, heading towards Liverpool Street Station. We stopped here, in this curious circular arbour which Tigger knows and likes but was new to me. One often comes across such unexpected places in the City.

Bishopsgate

We reached the main thoroughfare called Bishopsgate after an actual gate of the City that once stood here. It led us to Liverpool Street Station.

Inside the station

Liverpool Street is actually a side street leading off Bishopsgate and the station takes its name from that street though most people enter and leave through the entrance in Bishopsgate. It is a large and very busy station despite not being as well known as some of London’s more famous stations. Many City workers arrive here in the morning and depart from here in the evening. Beside it is an important bus station, which is where we were going now.

Homeward bound on a 153

We did not have long to wait for our bus and were soon aboard a 153, en route for the Angel, a convenient and comfortable way to conclude our Coffee in the City.