A day in London

The South Row of The Piazza, Covent Garden

Like millions of other people we watched the Queens Diamond Jubilee celebrations on the television, and thoroughly enjoyed it. I have said this before, only the UK could put on a show like that. Sadly the weather was not at all nice, but that is nothing unusual…!

Admiralty Arch looking towards The Mall

The Mall with Buckingham Palace in the distance.

A closer view of Buckingham Palace. this was taken on zoom with my camera, from way back down the Mall, I am quite pleased with the way it turned out.

The Union flags

We decided to go and see Alice in London last Wednesday, and although the celebrations were over I wanted to see the Mall while all the flags were still up. The Mall was closed to traffic as there were numerous lorries clearing up, it was nice being able to walk in the middle of the road for once! Lots of other people must have had the same idea as us, but then any June day in London is going to be busy. Alice is suffering from a broken toe so we didn’t walk all the way down the Mall, we went into St James’ Park instead and watched the ducks, and the silly, friendly squirrels.

Troops rehearsing on Horse Guards  Parade for a display on Wednesday evening.

The fountain in St James’ Park

I had never noticed these before, a lovely memorial

Admiralty Arch from The Mall

From there we walked to Covent Garden, a favourite place with all the family. As usual it was really busy there, the street acts were great, and Alice and I left my husband and son watching them and went to the bead shop…via the The Tea House, where we both bought some Strawberry and Cream tea, which is lovely

By the lake in St. James’ Park

As you can see from the photos the weather was variable, luckily we were in a cafe when it really rained. We all had a great day, Alice is home now for a month, then she jets off to China again for two months – jealous, me?? You bet I am, but she won’t smuggle me in her suitcase, so I will just have to give her a very long shopping list lol

Very tame and very scatty squirrels!

While a pigeon looks on very bemused!

Its back to work tomorrow after over a week off, I am hoping that our next weeks holiday in July will have better weather than last week, I hope someone somewhere is seeing some sunshine

The replica ‘Eleanor’ cross outside Charing Cross station, where the name Charing Cross came from.

Nelson on top of his column.

Deal Vintage Motor Show

A beautiful Rolls Royce

This is not my usual sort of blog, but I thought some of you would like to see some beautiful old cars and motorbikes, not to mention the vintage tractors and lifeboat models. The show was held on Walmer Green on Saturday, it was a beautiful day, there was a lovely atmosphere, and lots of people milling around admiring the gleaming machines.

The proceeds of the show went to the RNLI, which is a great cause, I hope they made lots of money

I think this is a Morgan??

I love this one it is a Rover

I am not a car person so only know the names of a few of the models, I hope you enjoy the photos

A Scooter, with rather a lot of lights, but it looks good.

Royal Enfield, this one looked really good.

An Ariel

After I had had a good look round I bumped into a friend who has a beach hut opposite the Lifeboat house, so I enjoyed a cup of tea with them and basked in the sun. I even got sunburnt, and have definitely gathered a few more freckles!!

A couple of the model lifeboats

The Walmer Inshore Lifeboat.

A Brocante and some bargains :)

Grand Canal, Venice (shame about the stain on this one!)

Every May Day bank holiday there is a Brocante on Walmer Green, the weather is usually pretty awful, if it is not raining there is usually a strong wind blowing off the sea, but it is usually worth a visit. There are probably about 100 stalls selling bric-a-brac of all descriptions from furniture, old jewellery, crockery to books, pictures and even army clothes.

Salisbury Cathedral

Ely Cathedral

We have had a few bargains over the years, my daughter bought all her willow pattern crockery that she took to University from there one year, and I bought a beautiful Chinese calligraphy set and a set of Chinese calligraphy another year.

Ripon Cathedral

Bristol Cathedral

This year the weather decided to be kinder to the stall holders, so I met my husband and son up there for a look round again this year. My husband is not really interested in this sort of thing, whereas my son is a bit more like me, he likes a good rummage! We had a look round, but I really wanted a good rummage on my own, so I suggested that my husband and son go home and leave me to it, which they did.

Trinity College Chapel

Rochester Cathedral

I then spent an enjoyable hour or so having a good look round, I bought a very pretty pair of earrings, then I found two local history books at a very good price (it is handy working in a Library at times!!) which we intend to sell on, we know they are worth more than I paid for them!

Carlisle Cathedral

Durham Cathedral

I was just about ready to head home when I spotted a photo album on another stall, so I had a look. The album was very tatty, and inside I could see a lot of loose pictures of the interiors of churches and cathedrals. I think a lot of you will know my interest in these kinds of buildings, so I asked the stallholder how much he wanted for the album. He asked me to give him an offer, which I did, a very low one! He upped the price just a bit but I played it a bit so he didn’t go any higher, and bought the album. The guy told me I had got the bargain of the day as the etchings would probably sell for way more than that!

Worcester Cathedral

Chichester Cathedral

I went home very pleased with my purchases, I took everything out of the album, disposed of the album in the bin and had a good look at the pictures. There are about 40 etchings and about half a dozen pictures all taken from old books, all of them of interiors and exteriors of churches with the exception of the Venice one shown at the top of the page. The guy was right they are etchings, original ones at that and hand coloured. A lot of them have ‘For Winkles Cathedrals’ written on them, so I did a bit of research on the internet. ‘Winkles Cathedrals’ is a set of three volumes printed in around 1833, and a number of the etchings are for sale on ebay, not coloured, each one selling for around twice the price I paid for the whole album, and none are coloured, all of mine have been trimmed, which is a shame, but I do have 21 of them! The man was right I think I did get the bargain of the day!! However, I bought them because I like them, so my intention is to mount them all up, enjoy them, and maybe get to some of the Cathedrals shown. I am still looking into the other 20 or so etchings, to find out where they have come from! I hope you enjoy looking at a few of my ‘treasures’  

York Cathedral