Jumble Sale

Now I like markets--farmers', flea, you-name-it--but back in Vancouver, my favourite phrase was "garage sale" and I managed to get quite a few great things on those Saturday and Sunday mornings, some of which I then had to resell at the huge garage sale Bob and I had when we left Vancouver (but that's another story). When we first arrived in London, I had visions of trawling car-boot sales as a cheap and fun way to start accumulating essentials for our flat, but I guess winter isn't exactly the best time for that sort of thing. Since the weather started getting warmer, I've been wondering when community sales would start appearing in our neighbourhood, and I was excited to see a banner this week at a nearby school with those magic words "Jumble Sale: Saturday 10:30" emblazoned across its colourful cloth. This morning I went to check it out, and although I didn't find anything that would be useful for our flat, for 20 pence (45 Canadian cents) each I couldn't turn down a book I've been meaning to read for some time and a pair of super-comfy shoes--yes, shoes. I think my new favourite phrase is "jumble sale"! After I showed off my purchases to Bob, we went back and he had a quick look, but by then most of the goodies were gone. It wasn't a total loss though, as Bob pointed out a cute tile mural in the school's playground that I hadn't noticed: Walking away from the school, we decided to spend the day close to home. If you're a regular reader of our adventures, you'll be able to predict some of what that means: a stop at the Stoke Newington Farmers' Market, which sadly now requires that dogs remain at the entrance, a wander through Abney Park Cemetery,
a bit of refreshment at the Clissold Park Café, where another dog awaited his owner(s),
and a peek at the Clissold Park deer
and birds.

But lest you think we've gotten too predictable, we also ventured to a nearby market that we'd not yet visited: Broadway Market. A great Saturday market with a very pleasing mix of interesting market stalls and permanent shops, the lively street made for a lot of good food purchases, people watching, and community spirit. Besides Borough Market, it's the best farmers' market we've visited in London so far, and it's so close to home!



The market is right at the southern tip of London Fields, a green space that we've passed by many times on the bus without getting off. Today we decided to rectify that, and walked through the park that gave Martin Amis's crazy, wonderful, horrifying, postmodern-to-the-hilt novel its name. We thoroughly enjoyed our stroll through the park, and I stopped to admire this odd sculpture
while Bob enjoyed pretending to be even taller than he already is.

From London Fields, we made our way home with our perishables and relaxed for a bit before heading out again to a another nearby park that we hadn't yet explored, Gillespie Park Nature Reserve. As often happens with parks here, we were amazed by the oasis-like feeling of this green space tucked away in its urban surroundings. The ecology centre was already closed for the day, but looked like an interesting place to explore on another visit. Gillespie Park was built on reclaimed railroad land, and the ecology centre incorporates a piece of railroad track into its surrounding displays.
As a reminder of the nature reserve's very urban location, the new Arsenal stadium (you know, the one that I complain causes us traffic woes on match days?) is mere steps away from the tranquility of Gillespie Park.
We also walked past the old Arsenal stadium on our way to the park--it's very odd how close the two stadium sites are to one other. The old stadium is being reworked into a residential development that will incorporate the remaining partial facade of the old stadium, with an interior two-acre garden space on top of where all those football games were played and fitness facilities and parking below. Of course, the flats aren't going for jumble-sale prices, but that's not really a surprise . . .