Days 6-8: Whirlwind Visit to London

     We flew from Hamburg to London Monday morning  (August 25) for a quick stop to visit friends.  We had a lovely tea with our friends Shoba, Reg, and Priya; then it was on to see Suzanne and Norman.  Tuesday, Suzanne dragged us out of bed before the crack of dawn to attend a big flea market at the Kempton Park Racecourse.

Some of the outdoor vendors at the racecourse; notice that it still isn't quite light.

A view of some of the indoor vendors-it was crowded even at such an ungodly hour.

It was a lot of fun to look at all of the items, but I only bought one thing: a souvenir from Rome, Italy.  I love the micro mosaic jewelry and had hoped to buy a piece when we were in Rome.  Sadly, the closest I could find was a gorgeous micro mosaic plaque for 300 euros.  Imagine my delight when I saw this sweet little vintage pin from Rome:

My big purchase from the flea market


On our second day in London, Suzanne and I visited our mutual friend Stephanie Tomalin, who was kind enough to show us the new studio housing her antique and vintage bead collection.

Here is Stephanie holding one of the item in her collection, it's a little blurry because Stephanie is a bundle of energy.

Stephanie was kind enough to pull out some Balkan beadwork for us to see.

More Balkan bead crochet

Just another beautiful piece

This is a lovely example of the French beaded funeral wreaths.

detail of the center of the wreath


While Suzanne and I were up to our ears in beautiful beadwork, Don stayed "home" to visit the nearby London Wetland Center.

Main building of the Wetland Center

The 106-acre habitats were created by much work on the part of Sir Walter Scott out of 4 reservoirs that were made redundant in the late 1980s.

  Some of the wildlife that has taken up residence.

 Here are some of the houses in a prestigious development that provided about 2/3 of the funding needed for the wetlands center.

Houses that provided a majority of the funding

On Wednesday morning, thankful that the planned transit strike had been postponed, we arrived at Euston Station to take the train up to Barton-under-Needwood to visit our friends Stephney and Tim.