we were approaching,
the River Thames,
Canary Wharf in the distance,
on our right the O2,
and this structure reaching into the sky,
we were soon at the Blackwall tunnel entrance,
built by engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel,
in we went,
soon halfway across,
and out the other side,
then a sight seldom seen nowadays,
a milk float on a dual carriageway, and it was going at a fair lick too,
we were soon passing fields of rape,
which is gaining popularity for cooking oil,
we arrived,
to say it was huge,
would be an understatement,
we spent well over an hour in the first hall, which was the biggest, but there were several more, combined the area of them was bigger than this hall, plus all of the outside stalls,
it was overwhelming to say the least,
this stall is the place to come to for grandfather clocks,
the stalls seemed never ending,
with an enormous display of goods for sale,
this one specialising in glasses,
Diana's keen eye spotted this for me, a first edition of the Natural History of British Fishes, by Frank Buckland, his full name, Francis Trevelyan Buckland, an interesting, (for me), addition to my library of fish and fishkeeping, ticketed at £22, a bid of £15 and it was in the bag, more of the book later,
we continued,
our walk, passing the stall, I drooled over with porcelain from Clarice Cliff, Shelly, Susie
Cooper and others, a single tea cup and saucer by Shelly really caught my eye, I mentioned to Diana, being an optimist if it was £50 I would buy the cup and saucer, being a realist I said I thought it would be £150 to £175, being totally out of touch with Shelly prices I was surprised to find it was £275, firm, so no point in haggling over that then!
by now we were hungry,
so burgers and chips it was them,
for some reason, burgers always taste so much nicer at these sort of affairs,
delicious!
as we were outside,
after finishing our burger,
we walked round the outside stalls,
it was amazing,
just simple things like buttons and cotton reels, in their hundreds,
and do not get me started on tins!
and such a range of goods, this one specialising in door furniture,
all old and needing some TLC,
and what home would be complete without a cannon?
more mundane stalls had china,
and glass,
as well as novelty items,
Diana said this is just what I need for my man cave, as she is now calling the attic,
the whole show ground was packed,
and it was a beautiful day,
we moved to the edges of the area, where it was not so crowded,
these old suitcases all look so nice, but weigh so much for modern day airline travel,
speaking of modern, a dragonfly made from car and motorcycle parts,
as well as a horses head,
and the Eiffel tower,
but this is more me, I did not ask how much, but for myself it looked splendid,
repurposed items made into lamps here,
the outside stalls,
never seemed to end,
whilst there were a lot of food sellers, there was only one van selling ice cream, the few times we passed it the queue was enormous, so he had a good day!
we were still looking for an art deco table lamp and clock,
but try as we might, the ones we saw were just not quite right for us,
but that did not stop us looking at all manner of other items,
some of them most unusual,
one has to wonder why someone would want one, a gas mask, I mean what was the seller thinking when he bought I am guessing 50 or more?
we went back inside to one of the smaller halls,
there were several of them,
as it got late in the afternoon we made a move for home,
where I had a closer inspection of our latest buy, I just love old books, they contain so much more than what is published today, take just one small freswaterfish, the Bleak, (Alburnus alburnus), I have caught literally hundreds of them over my fishing career, as indeed have most course fishermen, but what many do not know is that the humble Bleak gave the world, through its scales pearl essence, as a kid I knew of this and the fantastic quantities of fish needed to make just one ounce of pure essence, but I have never been able to find out the process of producing the essence, until now, thanks to this book, and here is how the processes is completed,
I am sorry to say we do not yet have a scanner, so I had to photograph each page, it seems a shame that with books like this disappearing titbits of information will be lost, as an aside he was the most remarkable man, grab a coffee and have a read here, also just two days after he wrote the preface for the above book he died, relatively young, only two days after his
fifty-fourth birthday, in 1880, the likely cause of death was a severe
respiratory problem brought on by pipes, cigars, and a predilection for
exposing himself to the wind, the rain, and the snow, it is a great read if you have time, we arrived home safe and sound, we travelled 196 miles, and according to the car it returned an amazing 63.2 miles to the gallon, most of the trip was on motorways so we just kept at a steady 70MPH, so I guess that helped the fuel economy,
after our evening meal I was out,
the evening still light at nearly 8.00,
waiting for Steve,
I took the opportunity of photographing,
the wisteria,
at the entrance to the park,
we walked to the club,
and decided to sit outside as it was so pleasant, looking across the cricket pitch,
Steve and myself could just about see where Diana and myself live,
after putting the world to rights over a few pints we said our farewells,
and I made my way back under the cherry blossom trees now ladened with blooms, next a nightcap and with that we were off to bed.
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