Mudlarking - a different hobby

You know how much I love London and yesterday we spent a lovely day there with our friends P & B. We met up at our favourite Covent Garden pub The Crusting Pie where in the courtyard potential opera singers spend many an hour delighting the patrons of the pub with their renditions of popular opera arias. A wonderful experience and one that we've seen many times.

We enjoyed our day and ended up over on the South Bank before going our various ways home. We decided to walk back to our car parked near Tower Bridge.

We do this walk along the Thames a lot and this pub reminded me of the times that John and I have spent on the foreshore of the Thames - Mudlarking. We first heard about it a few years ago  at The Museum of London and they are linked to an organisation called The Thames Discovery.

Mudlarking dates back to the 18th and 19th centuries when people, normally children would scavenge for 'treasures' on the muddy foreshore of the Thames during low tides, for anything that had been washed up and could be resold. This was a way of earning a penny or two in their poverty stricken lives.

Nowadays, Mudlarking is more of a fun way of searching for archaelogical finds. It has been said that the Thames foreshore is possibly one of the largest archaelogical sites to be found in the UK. Articles such as pieces of household pottery and roof tiles that go back as far back as Roman times to more recent items of 17th century Delft pottery. There were Delftware factories across the Thames at Southwark and Lambeth. A popular find are the remains of 16th century clay tobacco pipes - which would have been used just the once and thrown away, possibly over the sides of the sailing boats of the day.

When we last went we were on the foreshore just beside the Millennium Bridge (you can't take photos because of the sheer muddiness of everything so the following are by courtesy of Google and Thames Discovery but are exactly what we experienced).

It's very exciting to forage amongst the mud and stones - you never know

what you might find washed up

 

Our time is limited as you always have to be mindful of the incoming tide

These are some of the items that can be found whilst scavenging -

our collection is very similar but for the moment are mislaid

(Whoops - I really must sort through that garage again!!)

 

 

 



We've normally been on a guided foreshore 'dig' with people from the Museum but if you go on your own it seems you have to have a permit and hand your 'finds' to the Museum in case they are precious artefacts.  I found a BBC article on this subject here if you're interested.

 

Hope you enjoyed learning about one of our 'different'  hobbies.

 

 

Bye for now

Patrticia

What a day that was

First of all I'd like to thank everyone for your lovely comments recently they really are appreciated, and to say a big welcome to all my new followers, it's great to have you on board and hope you enjoy what you read.

I know I've written several times about London 2012 but I hope you'll forgive me this one more time because today we've been to the Olympic Stadium to watch the Paralympic track and field events and I just wanted to share this with you. What a day that was, absolutely brilliant. Apart from the fact that it must have been the hottest, sunniest day for weeks, the events and the athletes themselves exceeded everything we expected.

We left home at 6.45am and arrived at the Park just after 8am

 

 It was such a thrill to actually be on the site after walking around the perimeter several

 times over the last six months

And to see the Olympic flame gave me goose-pimples

 



All of the events were spectacular and as we were in row 17 had marvellous views of them all. Just high enough to be able to see the whole arena in comfort, especially these Javelin throwers.



 

and the runners

 

After our session we joined the other hundreds in the sunshine

for a spot of lunch

 

I think I was so excited about getting to the park first thing that I failed to see the hundreds of wild flowers that had been sown along the banks of the walkway and spotted on our way back to the station.

 

 



 

The helpers, volunteers and staff were wonderful - so helpful. In fact as we stepped outside the station at West Ham this morning, we were astounded at the amount of helpers standing along the walkway, guiding and showing people the way to the Olympic Park. There must have been 70-80 along the way -a walk of about 30 minutes, all with happy smiling faces and wishing everyone a lovely day. So much thought, effort and organisation has been put into the whole spectacular event that was London 2012.

 

So proud to be British

 



 

Thanks for stopping by. See you soon. 

 

Simple pleasures

Today the children go back to school - but not in this part of the country as they are having a non pupil day for teacher training - that's after having six weeks holidays!! I'll say no more.

So, instead of taking L to school today, he came round first thing to spend the day with me - and what a day we had. Simple - but fun.

Firstly L helped me bake a cake in between playing on the WII and his DSI - the cake won.

Then, after clearing away and washing up we decided to go out and collect some bits from the woods to make up my Autumn table decoration which L is helping me create. You might remember that I made a Summer Jubilee/Olympic one back in June which you can find here. So off we went in seach of acorns, conkers, fir cones and golden leaves in our local woods.

However after much foraging, we found nothing - deciding that it was too early in the season so will have to go back another day.

Then, we went to another area where we could do some blackberry picking -

I had taken a couple of boxes with me just in case.

This time we were a lot luckier with our foraging

We met a few four legged animals on the way much to L's delight

And he even managed to find a fox / badger's hole - not sure which?

and this pretty butterfly

A well deserved reward for all his hard work this morning

Back home we turned out the blackberries which weighed approx 1kg

And by this time, the cake had cooled down

Well, thanks to that silly non pupil day, L and I had an excellent time and have vowed that we are going to go back to the blackberry bushes that were not quite ripe and also to look for more autumnal bits. Looking forward to making a yummy blackberry and apple pie, but L has now informed me that (1) he doesn't like blackberries and (2) he's allergic to apples !! - so all the more for me and his grandad then.

L has asked me to tell you that he helped write this post and hopes that you enjoyed our walk today.

See you again soon

Better late than never

I've been trying to catch up over the last few weeks on some of the jobs I had planned for the summer, which got scuppered for one reason or another. With the Autumn coming (my favourite time of the year) and a new study year looming I knew if I didn't get this one job out of the way, it would be next summer before I could reap the benefit.

So I went about turning this fabric into

these cushions

 

 

 

 

 

 

and this bunting

 

 

 

 

 

and Mr M set about painting the inside of this

 

 

 

 

Ta dah

 

And now my long awaited beach-hut/summerhouse is complete 

 

 

 

 

And filled with all the paraphernalia I've been buying all summer

 

 

 

 

 

This is the nearest I'm ever going to get to owning a beach-hut so looking forward to relaxing with a good book, a cup of tea (or wine in the evening) and listening to my favourite music with maybe a seagull or two in the background - well a girl can dream can't she!

 

 

Bye for now

Date and walnut loaf

A baking morning yesterday - and this is all that's left of my favourite Date and Walnut loaf, adapted from my 1960s Dairy Book of Home Cookery which I thought I'd share with you.

My late mum gave me this book when I got engaged in 1969 and it has really done me proud. It never lets me down and comes out on numerous occasions. No matter what I want to cook/bake, there is always something I can find.

Here's the recipe:

250g self raising flour
1 teas mixed spice
125g margarine
125g caster sugar
100g chopped dates
50g chopped walnuts
l egg
5 tablespoons milk


1. Heat the oven to 180 c or gas mark 4. Grease and line base of a 2lb loaf tin

2. Sift flour and mixed spice into bowl and rub in margarine finely and add sugar

3. Mix together with egg and milk

4. Stir in the choppd nuts and dates.

5. Place mixture evenly in the tin. Bake for about one and a quarter hours

Sometimes, like today I bake it in a small square tin, slice it and add an orange flavoured butter cream just for a change and add a few walnuts on the top.

Happy baking!

A lovely day all round...

On Saturday afternoon we went to The Globe Theatre in London with friends to see one of Shakespeare 's most outrageous comedies The Taming of the Shrew. We went last year to see Anne Boleyn and loved the experience of outdoor theatre so decided to book another play.

A wonderful performance by actors under the most searing heat in very heavy costumes. I don't know how they survived the temperature which was well into the mid thirties and being an open air theatre there was no getting away from the sun. We, the audience had a slight respite as the balconies were just under cover but boy was it hot!!

The story is about two wealthy sisters in Padua who must be married off. The modest demure Bianca has no shortage of suitors but who on earth will take the wild, ungovernable, shrewdish Katherina? Only the gold-digging Petruchio, a man as maddeningly strong-willed and perverse as Katherina herself, is equal to the task of bullying her to the altar.........   A brilliant performance which had us rocking with laughter. Shakespeare certainly had a wonderful sense of humour and not a rude joke or swearing to be heard.

The Globe  put on some wonderful plays during the season which lasts from early June to mid October. We booked our tickets back in February but they do sell, on the day up to 700 standing room tickets for £5 each, which is a fantastic way to see Shakespeare on the cheap if you are in London for the day.

When we got home that evening my neighbour knocked at the door with a parcel that the post van couldn't deliver. It was my course books from the OU for next year's study. Well I was like a child at Christmas - didn't know what to look at first - so exciting.  It's always overwhelming to receive these lovely shiny books in pristine condition and begging to be read  but as I'm only just beginning to catch up with my summer projects and chores after my recent eye surgery and holidays etc, I'm going to have to wait a few weeks before I get stuck in.  A lovely day all round!

Bye for now

Patricia

The Olympics are coming to town!

I don't know about anyone else but I've simply not had the time nor the inclination to write anything for the past couple of weeks and get the feeling from other bloggers that they also feel the same.  I think the holiday season as well as the lovely weather we are now enjoying plus, of course the Olympics (which I for one have been glued to), have given us a reason to take stock and slow down a bit.

Speaking of the Olympics, they are coming to our neck of the woods this weekend to Hadleigh Farm where they will be holding the Mountain Biking events. You might remember I wrote about Hadleigh Farm back in April.  It seems that the whole area is going to come to a standstill for two days, but even so the tension and excitement is mounting. Many cyclists have been spotted, cruising around town, doing a bit of sight-seeing and making themselves known to their awaiting audience.

There are flags and bunting everywhere and a general sense of camaraderie amongst locals and visitors alike.

Hadleigh has been getting ready for some time now and it's all looking
very patriotic and welcoming for the contestants.

This sculpture has been put in the middle of our local large roundabout as you enter the area which has been planted with some beautiful plants and flowers

This is the nearest we could get to the grounds as, like Stratford, security is paramount.

Looking forward to the Closing Ceremony on Sunday - if it's anything like the Opening Ceremony then we're in for a treat. Happy viewing and have a fabulous weekend.

See you soon

Patricia