Stoke Newington Church Street (16 December)

We took a break from trying to accumulate the necessities of life (cutlery, plates, towels, duvet, mop, doormat, teatowels, vegetable peeler, pillows, salt, sugar--you name it and we need it) and decided to explore our neighbourhood on a sunny Saturday. What we found was pretty great! We wandered up to Stoke Newington Church Street, a wonderful high street just a ten-minute walk away.

Clissold Park is just off Church Street. It was filled with people walking their dogs (and babies) as they took in the ambiance of the park, which includes plenty of space (promenades, fields, and trees),

an aviary, and an animal enclosure with

deer,

goats,

and rabbits. There is also a butterfly tunnel, but it didn't appear to be accessible on the day we were there.

And maybe the best part of the park is its café, which serves delicious-looking food and drinks (at reasonable prices, even) in a lovely building with a patio that will be dreamy in the summer. While we enjoyed our coffees, a server walked around looking for the person who had ordered the largest jacket potato I've ever seen, filled with an enormous amount of creamed something, with a large side of salad. He had to walk around both rooms of the café twice before finding the right person..er, baby. That's right, the owner of the jacket potato was a very cute toddler. She dug in, but predictably, even when she was done, the potato was still mostly on her plate. I wanted to get a pic of baby vs. potato, but our table wasn't at a good vantage point for photos. Too bad!

After Clissold Park, we wandered Church Street. Lots of people were carrying home Christmas trees, nicely wrapped in netting by pushing them through this green contraption outside this shop. We thought about getting a tree (so many cute ones!), but decided to wait since our flat isn't yet ready for decorating. We still haven't unpacked our clothes or cleaned the whole place, never mind deciding where furniture should go... By the way, for those of you back in Canada who may not know, flats in London generally come furnished. While this may sound strange, it's actually quite handy for people like us (of which there seem to be many in London) who arrive with clothes, shoes, and toiletries as their only possessions. It means that we don't have to buy a bed, wardrobe, sofas, or a coffee table. And while I saw many, many photos of nasty furniture in ads for flats, we lucked out and got pretty comfy and pleasing stuff. Anyway, I digress...you can tell that setting up house is on my mind.

Church Street is filled with interesting shops: a good independent video store, promising-looking used bookstores, a large health-food shop, Fresh & Wild (which we soon realized must have been bought out by Whole Foods, while retaining their name), and a lively mix of people. One of the main reasons for our Saturday stroll, though, was the weekly, all-year-round Stoke Newington Farmers' Market.

A great assortment of fresh and prepared foods were available and the aromatic espresso kiosk made us wish we hadn't just had coffee in the park. We'll have to try some next week. Another item for next week's list is the vegan loaf we sampled--the most moist and rich cocoa loaf ever. And they make all sorts of loaves and they're at the market every week. Mmmm... Finally, I saw something at the market that I've never seen before and couldn't even attempt to identify when I saw people walking around carrying sprigs. This sign cleared it up for me: The real stuff!