Wednesday Worktable 18th May

Wow, I'm impressed... I have managed to keep this Wednesday Worktable thing going for 5 weeks now!  I think it may be becoming a habit!

So, what was on my desk today?

First Thing this Morning:

In the middle of my messy desk, was my binding board, with this book on it.  This is another Coptic-stitch binding, with 10 threads in 2 colours.  It is almost identical to the peachy-coloured Birds and Flowers book I showed on yesterday's post.  When it is completed it will look like this:

Birds and Flowers, Coptic-bound book.

I love this paper; the photos I've taken never seem to really show it off properly - it is much prettier in real life.  I have sold several books covered with this paper and hope the new one will sell quickly (once I finally finish it!).

I removed the binding board from my desk and put it to one side; today I didn't have time for that book. 

This is what I did this morning:

A second London-themed Sketchbook...

Pair of London Sketchbooks, with fabric covers, Japanese stab-stitch binding in black linen, leather strip and button fastenings in two different styles.

This is my "London" set of books!

Together with the "Autumn" set of two notebooks and a mini-album, these will be taken to the shop tomorrow, where I am teaching a bookbinding workshop in July. 

They will be on display, to encourage people to sign up for the workshop - which is making books with fabric covers. 

I'm excited! 

Later I'll post about what I did in the afternoon... :-))

Lizzie’s Guide to London–Part Three (at last!)

Hello again, all Blog Friends – old and new!

Well, a bit of an interruption – of the nicest kind – for the Blog Hop Party in aid of the Bloggiversary celebrations…

But I thought I would post about the rest of our family trip to London over the half-term holiday. 

There’s not a lot left to tell you though – we had big plans for the Monday and Tuesday, which were somewhat curtailed…

Lizzie's Guide to London - Part Three

Monday 25th October

A Trip into London Town

We’d been down the river to Greenwich and we’d explored the area round about our youth hostel, in the City; so it was time we went up to Town and had a look around.

The Boys had a Plan for their morning and I also had a Plan for mine… they didn’t quite match, so it seemed to make sense for us to separate at a certain point and meet up later.

We took the Tube (underground train for those who don’t know our funny language!) from St. Paul’s …

Actually, that’s not quite true, since we were prevented from getting on the train at St. Paul’s – it was closed and the area cordoned off by the police.  We don’t know why, but it did mean we had to walk down to Blackfriars instead. 

We all went as far as Holburn, then we separated – the Boys heading for Oxford Street and a particular Shop they wanted to visit (Warhammer related.. yawn.. zzz).  I headed to Russell Square, in Bloomsbury, with shopping of an altogether different sort in mind…

Bloomsbury, London – Map courtesy of Wikipedia

I love that name – “Bloomsbury” – it sounds like flowers and little city squares of old houses, with trees and green grass… it reminds me of “The Bloomsbury Set” and makes me think of poetry, Victorian novels, a certain age of elegance and exploration…

Of course, the Bloomsbury area of London does have some lovely old houses, still in great condition, many in those squares with grassy little parks in the centre. 

Bedford Gardens, Bloomsbury, London (photo courtesy of Wikipedia)

Other parts are more modernised and more filled with traffic.  In Bloomsbury you will find many great buildings, including the British Museum, where we went on our last trip to London about 3 years ago (another stay in the St. Pauls YHA and plenty of exploring). 

The British Museum

There are also a number of businesses that have been there since Victorian times (or even before) and plenty of reminders of its Victorian hey-day.

I was searching for a Particular Shop, on Southampton Row, right in the heart of Bloomsbury… I got off the Tube at Russell Square, feeling a bit excited… this was my own little expedition; for the first time in years, I was all on my own in London, going somewhere just for me! 

First Mistake (if you don’t count the extra walk because of St. Pauls station being closed).  Russell Square is one of the oldest Underground Stations in London; it’s also one of the deepest underground. 

There are two lifts to the surface, also a staircase.   The station was very busy and it was taking a long time for everyone to get a space in the lifts, so I thought I’d be clever and take the stairs.  After all, it was only 165 steps and I could do with some exercise…

So, ignoring the notice that warned me about the 165 steps, I started off up the old, winding staircase…. and took rest-stops at the various little landings on the way… and started to wonder if it had been such a good idea after all… especially when younger, fitter people started to pass me on the stairs and were complaining about the walk… and I started to feel a bit worn out and breathless… and after all, maybe 165 steps is too much for an unfit woman with asthma… but I’m further up than down, so I may as well continue… I must be nearly there… well, now I must be… now? … whew, 165 steps is a lot…

(photo courtesy of jonathan percy on flikr)

At last, the Top of the Stairs!  I won’t dwell too long on how I was feeling. It wasn’t elegant or pretty to be hot and exhausted at the top of Russell Square Station staircase.  I headed across the road and into a coffee shop… A hot chocolate and a sit-down later, I began to feel a bit better.  Well, that would teach me not to take the stairs next time! 

I set off along Southampton Row, looking for No.76.  The numbering started at this end… so it must be a little bit further down… a bit further, on this side of the road… what number is that? Oh, twenty-six… hmmm, a bit further then… Good thing I had that hot chocolate and a rest… Number fifty… good I’m almost there… Seventy – oh good.  But what about all this scaffolding across this row of buildings – it must be one of those… Ah, relief, it’s not closed! 

Falkiner’s.  Well, Shepherd Falkiners, to give it its full title, since Shepherd’s and Falkiners merged in recent years. 

Who?  Falkiner’s.  The Holy Grail of Bookbinding Supplies… well for me anyway.  Shepherd’s and Falkiners have been around for years and years.  They make wonderful, traditional hand-bound books and sell all manner of fabulous supplies for us lesser mortals, who are trying to learn our bookbinding as we go, at home in our little studios….

(photo from Falkiner’s website)

And Paper, don’t forget the Paper!  Their supply of paper, on their internet site, makes my eyes go fuzzy… there is so much choice!   They sell a variety of plain papers, for the pages of books; then there is a huge choice of decorated papers, from all over the world, for use as covers, linings and end-papers. 

(photo from Falkiner’s website)

Japanese washi, chiyogami etc… lovely designs, elegant and beautifully printed;  A variety of mulberry papers, from the finest Tibetan tissues, to lovely heavy-weight Khadi papers in jewel-like colours;  Italian prints in traditional designs – like that popular Florentine Paisley-like pattern – and some more modern; French papers, elegant, stylish and richly coloured; local English papers, with copies of story-book illustrations, Art Deco and Art Nouveau designs, British designers’ work; hand-made marbled papers, from Italy, Germany, France…

It’s hard to describe the variety of papers available.  I would have liked to buy a huge amount… but I didn’t want to over-spend and also knew I would have to get it all home safely, so I stuck to a few sheets of special paper, chose the fine tissue I needed to make silk bookcloth for my Diary/Planner project – it’s a sort-of mulberry-style paper, not like the tissue that you’d use for gift wrapping etc.

Then I paid a visit to the Basement…The Bindery

(Poster available from Falkiner’s)

Bookbinding supplies, leather and tools… ahhhh…

They had printing presses, nipping presses, book presses, book-binding frames, knives, cutters, leather-working tools, embossing tools, bone folders, scissors, rulers;  there was a supply of binding tapes, mull (a form of muslin, used to line the spine of a traditional binding, to support the book-block and give it strength), needles, linen threads, gold leaf, heading tapes, glues, tapes, bookcloths in cotton, linen and silks…. and leather!  They had rolls and rolls of coloured leather, also boxes filled with leather offcuts of various sizes.  There were also ready-made book blocks, in various sizes, plus ready-to-bind diaries for 2011…

I could have spent all day there.

I could have spent a FORTUNE there!

 

I didn’t do either of those things… I did buy some lovely Italian papers, the mulberry tissue I needed, a great little bone folder, a copy of the fabby poster you see above, a roll of kraft paper, overprinted with a design of zig-zags, in magenta (they also had red, green, blue and orange… can’t have all of them, had to choose!).

I spent a modest amount and came away smiling even more than when I went in, ready to meet the Boys for lunch.

Who? Oh, yeah, them… the Boys… mmmm… almost forgot about them while I rummaged blissfully in one of the most wonderful shops in the whole of London… (but I didn’t forget them completely and sent a text message to say I was leaving soon, to meet them). 

I thought it would take so long to walk to the Tube, get the train and then walk up Oxford Street, that I may as well walk.  The distance was relatively short – along Bloomsbury Way, down New Oxford Street and into Oxford Street itself, to a little shopping mall, about half way down.  The Games Workshop (Warhammer shop) was there, also a food hall, where there are various food stalls with a central sitting area they all share.  We were going to meet there for lunch. Off I set...

Along Bloomsbury Way…. into New Oxford Street… a bit tired…. legs ache… sore feet… it isn’t much further though….

Down New Oxford Street – which was a lot longer than I remember… sore feet…. why did I wear my brown boots anyway? They are at least 6 years old…. they’re getting too old for much walking, even if they are flat…. tired legs…

Now Oxford Street. Very full of people… busy shops… could fancy a day shopping here… no, I have to meet the boys… besides, if I don’t sit down soon, I’ll fall down…

Got to the Mall.  D. took one look at me and said, “Lunch time!  You sit over there and I’ll get lunch.”  Phew!  Such a relief to sit down.   One baked potato and coffee later, I thought I was ready to carry on to Regent Street, where we hoped to visit Hamleys Toy Shop, then Covent Garden and perhaps the Rainforest Cafe (if they could find us a table).

Nope, once I was on my feet, it was clear that I couldn’t cope with much more.  We headed for the Tube.   End of shopping trip.  I kind-of staggered my way back to the hostel and spent a couple of hours resting on my bed.  On the way back from St. Paul’s underground station, D. bought me a new pair of shoes – some comfy trainers.  (It’s not that my boots weren’t comfortable, I just think they have got old and stretched, so there was no support for my feet).

Not quite the exciting afternoon we’d planned, but there you are.  Maybe we were a bit ambitious with our plans, considering how much walking we had done on Saturday and Sunday. 

D. went to the M&S food shop round the corner and bought a posh picnic for our tea (yummy!).  Once we’d eaten, it was about 6pm and we all felt rested.  Put on the new trainers (bliss!) and headed out…

Leicester Square

A fairground in Leicester Square – Fun!

A couple of likely lads…

A couple of blokes we met… Mr. Shakespeare, Mr. Chaplin, Sirs!

Trafalgar Square

The famous Fountains were all lit up…

National Gallery by night…

A certain famous Admiral, atop his Column

(Admiral Lord Nelson, for those who don’t know)

After exploring Leicester Square and Trafalgar Square, we wandered into China Town and strolled around.  It was a pity we’d had our dinner – the smells from the numerous restaurants were wonderful – I did so wish I was hungry!!

Tired but happy… on the Tube back to St.Pauls

My pillow was a very welcome sight that Monday evening!

* * *

Just to finish, I’ll tell you about Tuesday.  The original plan was that we’d spend the day in London and come home mid-afternoon, which is what we had done the last time.  The hostel has luggage lockers, so although we had to check out of our room, we could leave our bags. 

We were going to go to St. Pauls Cathedral, then on to a tour of the Globe Theatre, across the river. 

But we were just too tired.  All the walking and busy sight-seeing had caught us all up and we just wanted to go Home!  So, we did!

A train journey from Blackfriars to Bedford Station.  A short taxi-ride to our village… home in time for our Lunch!

It was disappointing to miss our chance to see the Cathedral and the Globe.  However, it was such a relief to be home again – I think we had done enough for one trip.  There can be a Next Time, as we are lucky enough to live reasonably close to London.  Maybe next year…

The End!

Thanks to Stacey and Heather for their suggestion to solve my Blogger editing problems – I am trying Windows Live Writer to produce this post.  Let’s see how I get on…

* * *

Firstly, if you're looking for the post about the Celebrating Blog Friendships Blog Party on 6th November, see this post.


Also Jo has published an update post today, with a final checklist of those who said they'd like to join in.  Please check her post here, to make sure your name is on the list!

* * *

So, the mini-holiday in London… (this post has a fair bit of writing and lots of pictures – you may wish to go now and get a cuppa & a biccie!)

* * *

Lizzie's Guide to London -Part Two

Sunday 24th October

Day-Trip to Greenwich

(and a night-time adventure!)

We had a strange night.  The bathrooms were right across the hall from our room, which made it a bit noisy, as families got their children settled for the night. 

Also, the room was a bit warm, so we had to open the window – then there were the usual Saturday night noises to get used to, not to mention the striking of the St. Paul’s bells, on every quarter-hour and the big, “Great Tom” bell booming the time on each full hour.  That was nice, but took a bit of getting used to! 

Once everyone had settled down, it was about 10:30pm and I started to drift off…

At around 11pm, a group of students came in and started going into the bathrooms.  Doors creaking and banging, voices, sounds of teeth-cleaning (they left the doors open so they could chat!)… I thought it would settle down soon, but it went on, and on, and on.  The chatting became louder, then there were sounds of thumping, zips and velcro, more chatting… then a man’s voice. I thought it must be the dad from the family room next door, asking them to be quiet – it was after 11:30 by now – but it went on still. 

Eventually, after the Clock struck midnight, I went out to see what was going on – by now DS was also awake and I didn’t want him up all night. 

An interesting sight… Our room was by a fire door, which led to a sort-of cul-de-sac, with two bedrooms and a shower room.  There was a group of about ten or twelve students – mainly girls – sitting around the edges of the cul-de-sac, leaning on the open fire-door, all the way up to our bedroom door.  They were in their sleeping bags, with their rucsacs on the floor next to them.  They seemed to be camping (!?) and showed no sign of preparing to go to bed. 

So I had to ask them to please either go down to the lounge and chat there, or to go to bed and sleep.  I was nice, but pointed out there were family rooms next to them, that they had woken us and probably the family next to us and that there were children in these rooms, trying to sleep.  They did look sheepish and apologised, then I heard them all going into rooms, or downstairs – whatever.  Peace at last! But how weird…

So we were a bit sleepy in the morning, but at least we managed 7 hours or so (and DS went straight back to sleep, so he had about 9 hours).  Warm showers woke us up okay and we were hungry enough to forget about bed.

Breakfast photo from tripadvisor.co.uk

We went and ate breakfast.  The breakfasts in the hostel were pretty okay. Lots of choice – cereals, yoghurt, ham, cheese, croissants and chocolatines, toast, fresh fruit, hot food – bacon, eggs, sausages, grilled tomato, baked beans, mushrooms… nicely cooked too, choice of fruit juices and also hot chocolate, tea and coffee. 

Some girls at our table arrived with trays piled high. I thought they must be good eaters… but they used the toast, cheese and ham to make sandwiches for their lunches!  They wrapped them in napkins and had an apple each too – definitely a clever money-saver for students travelling in London!

So, we were ready to go OUT on a sunny October Sunday morning…

St. Paul’s Cathedral, early morning.

From St. Peter’s Hill, up to St. Paul’s…

…from St. Peter’s Hill, down to the Millenium Bridge and the River Thames.

Walking across the Millenium Bridge in the early morning

Millenium Bridge views to St. Paul’s

We crossed the bridge to the South Bank, because we wanted to catch a river ferry from the pier at Bankside.

The replica Globe Theatre on the South Bank.  We planned on going there on Tuesday, for a tour.

HMS Belfast, by Tower Bridge,

Our Thames Clipper ferry, arriving at Bankside Pier. We went down the Thames to Greenwich.

National Maritime Museum – We spent a couple of hours here, exploring lots of interesting Maritime history.  There was an exhibition of Toy Boats as well, which was fun.  Lunch in the cafe, then a stroll to Greenwich Park.

Greenwich: Old Royal Naval College (now part of Maritime Museum)

Colonnade between Old Royal Naval College and the Queens House

I can imaging ladies and gentlemen from long ago, strolling under the shelter of the colonnade, looking across Greenwich Park…

… there’s certainly a great view from here!  View across Greenwich Park, to the Royal Observatory

From the Observatory hill, across Greenwich Park, to the Queen’s House and Maritime Museum.  In the background, Canary Wharf – see the tower with the pyramid roof – the Isle of Dogs and other buildings along the North bank of the Thames.

What a contrast, between the old and new!

The site of the Prime Meridian, Greenwich – designated as the point of 0 degrees Longitude and the home of Greenwich Mean Time (which, incidentally, Britain reverts to tonight as British Summertime ends for the winter).

The famous Meridian Line.  There was such a queue to stand on this and have your picture taken… we didn’t bother.

Instead, J stood on the Old Meridian Line, just below the courtyard of the Observatory… Standing in two Hemispheres at a time!  That stone above his head has an inscription describing the Meridian.

The Greenwich Royal Observatory.  This is the rather nice garden.  We went into the Camera Obscura, in a little house to the side, where we could see Greenwich Park and the Maritime Museum reflected in real-time, on a white curved table – little people and their dogs walking along, children running, pushchairs and skateboards…  All good fun.

From the Observatory, the views across the Park and up the Thames are even better.  The highest point for miles (which is why the Royal Observatory was sited here, of course!).

After looking round the Observatory a bit, we headed for the Planetarium.  This building has replaced the old London Planetarium, which now belongs to Madame Tussauds and has shows about a different sort of “star”!

Photo from waymarking,com

We had tickets for one of their shows and spent half an hour drifting around the Galaxy, learning about other planets in our Solar System.  It’s quite exciting actually and they have a brilliant system, which projects amazing images of the sky, photographs of the planets, star maps etc, all onto their curved ceiling, which you view from a comfy seat that is conveniently tipped back slightly, so you don’t have to crane your kneck (v. good for me, who can’t tip my head back!)

We headed back to Greenwich Pier about 5pm and caught another Thames Clipper back to Bankside. 

Dinner at Pizza Express, just across the road from St. Paul’s Cathedral.  We’re spoilt rotten! 

We slept like babies!