Another Post With Lots Of Photographs,

so I will only be making one post today,

as it was Diana's day off it was glad rags on,

we walked to the station, it was a glorious day, we planned to catch the 9.45 to London Bridge, but it was cancelled, the next one in an hour,

we were soon thundering towards Victoria, which meant two changes of tubes instead of one,

it took us a tad longer, but here we were,

by one of the huge London pubs,

and the church at the rear of Borough Market,

a quick pose,

before we were down the steps,

to the first of the food stalls,

it is normally packed with stalls when we go to the market on a Wednesday, 

not so many stalls,

but also not so crowded,

having said that, all of the usual stalls were here, just the numbers of food stalls down a tad,

we crossed the road to the other side of the market,

where more produce stalls were, we will be coming back to this one later,

we started looking at the fruit and vegetable stalls,

we had finished our chestnuts,

we had snacked on them most nights as we watched television,

but the reason we were here is that last year we noticed some huge chestnuts so we wanted to buy a kilo or so,

our last chance at Elsey & Bent,

but alas they just had the normal sized ones,

so I picked out a few,

half a kilo later and we were on our way looking at some of the other stalls,

this is one I always stop at,

one of the fresh fish stalls,

for my treat of a pot of whelks, but today there were no pots of seafood to eat, perhaps they only sell the pots on a Wednesday?

open wide! it is in fact a monkfish, some times made into scampi, as well as other fish, your scampi not being a crustacean at all!

we were both hungry, and Diana was not passing this stall,

with out some seafood paella,

hands moving like lightening,

Diana was soon served, the portions were I think more than generous, Diana had 9 prawns in her meal box,

for myself I bimbled back to Northfield Farm,

for a salt beef sandwich,

we made our way back to the seating area,

the sandwich was huge,

time for our breakfast,

then back to one of the butchers,

to buy our evening meal, chicken breast with chicken sausage meat, bacon and leek stuffing, wrapped in bacon,

it was only a matter of time,

before we found another favourite stall of mine,

selling bubbly,

'Cheers!',

we passed one of the many cheese shops,

what a selection,

this shop never fails to amaze me, only selling different types of olives, the barrels three deep for the first few rows,

this shop offering something that we are familiar with when we lived in Thailand,

sugar cane,

with the machine to crush it for the juice while you wait, it can not be fresher from the cane than that!

we slowly made our way out of the market,

past another cheese stall,

with these enormous wheels of cheese,

we were on our way,

towards the Shard,

I am not sure what they were selling, but the truck certainly stood out in the street,

I must remember to pick up the car later,

I remember when in June 2021 we had booked a table here for a meal,

after taking the tube we soon arrived at Covent Garden,

there was no way I was dragging Diana past this shop!

just a quick look,

and we were soon walking towards the market building,

Christmas is in the air,

as is the Christmas displays at the market,

again Diana's photograph skills were required,

as a tourist asked Diana to take a couple of photographs,

and a quick pose from Diana,

only in the last week or so,

I made a post about ornamental cabbages,

and here was a barrowload plus a few boxes of them,

this one looking like a huge 3D snowflake,

then back for just a couple more,

by the Christmas trees,

there seems to be no end,

to the number of these French designed and built vans that are used for mobile food and drink stalls,

inside one of the main halls,

all decked out for Christmas,

at the far end in the square a huge Christmas tree,

and then it snowed!

lots of it,

Diana was so happy,

the first snow of 2021,

so photographs just had to be sent,

a very happy Diana,

we had to have a warm up after that, so a coffee it was then,

this was the same stall we bought coffees from before, but,

the last time we were here they were £4.50 each,

this time just £3.00 each, bargain!

up above the decorations looking so nice,

with super sized mistletoe,

we looked down a few of the aisles,

and at the downstairs dinning area,

which seemed quite busy,

going back to the outside,

we were back in the square,

and the huge Christmas tree,

well I just had to!

thank you Covent Garden,

Diana still had her coffee,

to keep her hands warm,

another look at the decorations, it must come to more than a few pennies to pay for all of these,

a pose where the snow had settled,

but it was soon melting,

the barrow with a nice display on it,

at the side of the building, there is a second hand/souvenir market,

I always find this stall fascinating, it reminds me of my time in the print trade,

and then I saw it, a Micky Mouse dial up telephone, as opposed to the newer touch dial version, I had one of the dial versions way back in the late 1970s, it brought back so many memories, I just had to ask the price, £150 was the reply,

time for our journey home,

into the church courtyard as we made our way towards Charing Cross,

and there it was,

a Nissan Fargo, all pretty in pink,

with a matching interior,

we were soon at Charing Cross,

walking past the souvenir stalls,

to the Embankment tube entrance,

arriving at Victoria,

there was one thing I had to do, make a donation to the Royal British Legion for their poppy appeal,

there it is,

and we were all set to go,

back home past the Foxgrove Lodge garden,

although it dos not look it, the skies were certainly starting to cloud over,

arriving home we had a new guest, Micky Mouse! I just could not resist him, after leaving the stall 2 times and then returning, I got him for well less than half the original asking price, he actually works but I am going to get him altered, so that when BT change the telephone system he will already be ready for the new pulse tone system, without that any dial up telephone will not work, and I know just the gentleman to do it, a trip to see Neil in Bromley next week is on the cards!

time for our evening meal,

the chicken and bacon roll we had bought today, it was just so delicious,

'Cheers!', what a fabulous day we really had,

I forgot to mention that when we were at Covent Gardens, we bumped into one of the characters we watch in New Tricks, in the later series, Steve McAndrew, above a still from the series, next for us a Midsomer Murder and a New Tricks before we were off to bed.