A wonderful day....

and by that I mean a day full of wonders.
But first I must say thank you to those kind people who who sent me birthday wishes and commented on my last post. Comments from people whose work you admire are always precious.

For my birthday my best friend bought me and Art Fund card. What a wonderful present, I couldn't wait to start using it so I planned to visit the Oiticica exhibition at the Tate Moderen. I told Ken I would be back by lunchtime and on a beautiful golden September morning (I love my birth month) I took the train to London Bridge and thought I would walk along the South Bank of the Thames. As I walked from the train I thought "I have never visited Southwark Cathedral". So as there was no rush I made the deviation and found myself in the middle of Borough Market. What a delight, I am sure that this is one of those places that everyone but me knows about but for me it was a revelation, I was able to buy a piece of Ginger Parkin for my Yorkshire born husband and for my Lancastian self I bought Morecame Bay Shrimps. There was so much else I could have bought, here is a taste.(sorry about the pun)




I tore myself away from the sights and sounds and the tastes of the market and realised that I still hadn't visited the cathedral. It was worth the visit, although Shakespeare was buried in Stratford, I believe, there is a memorial to him here as it was so close to where here worked at the Globe Theatre.
As I finally made my way toward Tate Modern I realised that there was more activity than normal but then it was a beautiful day. I went to the Oiticia exhibition which made me think about using squares and oblongs. I promised myself I would try some different page layouts. I do not understand "modern" art I only know there are pieces that I like for their colour or form, I wish I knew more but it is like music there is a point where it appears to hold nothing for me. (Pop music stopped with Billy Joel as far as I 'm concerned:-))
When I came out, ready to quickly make my way to Charing Cross and home I realised that there was definitely something going on, when else do you have people dancing tango on the south bank of the Thames? It was in fact the Thames Festival . It took me three more hours before I reached Charing Cross as I enjoyed music from all over the world, dancing, bubbles, Punch and Judy, stalls and food and hundreds of people enjoying the autumn sunshine. What a delight.




I finished up in the newly refurbished Royal Festival Hall,where there was a "happening" organised by [re]design where various organisations had come together to allow all kinds of creativity, making badges from scaps of fabric, monsters from recycled blankets, knitted plastic bags, stools from old newspapers and a wish bench from old cardboard.
I made my wish and crossed the Hungerford bridge for home. I sat on the train with my mind teaming with ideas that will probably never see the light of day but THIS day was a rare and special treat.