We had hoped to find time to go over to Greenwich but that will have to wait for another visit perhaps, but we spent time in Covent Garden, where my friend bought a hand-painted jacket and t-shirt for her daughter and we did lots of window shopping. I visited just about every bead and fabric shop in London found the odd interesting thing that I got straight to work with. My beads and wire travelled with me and any moment I had spare was spent crocheting with sterling or doing bead and wirework....which meant that I was able to come home with a fair amount of work ready to be completed with clasps and other findings.
The weather throughout this summer so far has not been good, with the occasional welcome burst of sunshine - we were forced to carry umbrellas like weapons against the weather at all times, apart from one beautiful day where we enjoyed wall to wall sunshine. We did so much walking that I overdid it and was tired and sore due to my rheumatoid arthritis before heading back up to Birmingham on the train to pick up my car.
Birmingham Sunset...one of those lucky moments when the light made the sky magical.
We had been concerned about the security alerts after the major incident in Scotland a few days before and there was concern raised by the press that it was coming up to the second anniversary of the London bombings on the 7th July, but the whole city felt safe and peaceful and the police making themselves highly visible, we reasoned that it was perhaps one of the safest time to be in London; after initial reservations about travelling on the tube, we thought no more of it.
We headed back up to Birmingham where my friend has an apartment and stayed there for a while, during which time we visited Stratford upon Avon and we spent our time there drinking innumerable cups of tea and stuffing ourselves with food we knew we would regret at a later date, window-shopping the shops again - I bought some liquorice for Merlin as he loves it. We were in Birmingham over Friday and Saturday nights and at that time the entire city seems to turn into a roving party, most of it far too wild for us old people (being in our late thirties!) but much of it fun and harmless - we went dancing at a club in the old Jewellery Quarter which I know well by daylight as I visit there often to do business - it was so packed and hot that we soon lost our enthusiasm. I returned to lots of orders.
