(Click on the picture to see it full size, use a back button to return to this spot.) Every day there are more blooms. It started with white blossoms on some kind of a decorative fruit tree, then pink flowers that look like cherries but Kumiko tells me I am wrong, daffodils, little purple flowers, then the first magnolias and now I spotted few leaves coming out here and there. It is ironic, because the temperatures have just dropped and we often hover close to 0 in the mornings. This week has been one of the coldest so far. But I noticed an increase in the number of tourists in the natural history museum and so spring cannot be all that far away.

It is certainly nice enough to go for walks and one, which may turn into a weekly event, is a walk to the Portobello street market. It looks far on the map but it is only about 25 minutes and goes through some of the prettiest parts of London. We first go up the incline towards Hyde Park and then we have a choice. We can go through the park or skirt it on the west along a street that is closed to the usual traffic – it has gates and guards on both ends but is open to pedestrians. The heavily guarded Israel Embassy is on the south end, then comes the Romanian and Philippine Embassy,the residence of Russian Ambassador, and the Chancery of the Russian Embassy and finally at the north end the combined embassies of the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Along the way we pass the Kensington Palace where Queen Victoria was born and more recently Princes Diana lived. I think parts of the complex are still being used to house assorted lesser Royals, but have not yet run into anybody I would recognize.

Then we have to cross a rather busy road but soon after are in the quiet residential neighborhood of Noting Hill. And here lies the Portobello Road with its Saturday and Sunday market. Several kilometers of shops and street vendors. At a first glance it looks like one huge overpriced garage sale, but Kumiko has been able to find some nice things that were not too unreasonable. And I am told that the little shops do have some genuine antiques, not inexpensive, of course. I do not have the patience to go slowly from stall to stall (especially when it is cold) but my impression is that if you are willing to look you can find absolutely everything here. From clocks, magnifying glasses, old boxer gloves and bowling balls, maps and engravings, gas masks and hats of all the different services of Soviet military. German war decorations, Hitlerjugend arm bands and even identity booklets of the Soviet Communist Party. Only 5 pounds, this I may have to buy.

But you can probably imagine that none of this is interesting enough to pull me out of bed at 7:30 every Saturday. What I am heading for is further down the street, beyond the antique sellers. Section of the market is reserved for fruit and vegetable sellers. Very good selection (now mostly from S. Africa and Spain). The prices are an order of magnitude lower than in the supermarket and the fruit is ripe. I usually manage to fill my backpack for about 5 pounds and this is enough to last us for the better part of the week. Right next to the vegetable stands is a little hut which sells 3 kinds of sausages on French bread. Always a line of people waiting. The sausages are good and reasonable and the family (they look Polish to me) is just raking in money. I imagine they will be doing even better in summer time.

You may have noticed that I have not been posting many pictures lately. There is a reason. On the one hand when it is cold one does not feel like stopping and taking out a camera that often, and on the other hand the city is rather grey and sad, the pictures do not turn out all that well. I hope it will be different next month. I have also been experiencing problems with sizing of the pictures – still not completely used to the new computer. But I will figure it out eventually.

In other news, one of Kumiko’s quilting friend has come to visit and so Kumiko is in her role of a tour guide again. We are also starting to think of where to take couple of breaks this spring, location and timing still uncertain, but we have lots of ideas.









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