Fish

On the occasion of a visit to Kingston this morning, we found that the fish usually to be seen on the upstream side of the bridge by the police station were indeed present, and had strayed from below the northern bank of the stream to the middle, which was not usual. I thought that my telephone had a fair stab at capturing the scene, with the snap above zoomed up before inclusion here.

Blackberries at the top of the southern bank coming on fast, with at least two black and near ripe. Need to get cracking in a couple of weeks or so if reference 1 is anything to go by.

Market place, perhaps a bit hot for sitting out, was rather spoilt by a loud busker. Presumably managed busking as by the time we came by again, perhaps an hour later, the singer was handing over to a violinist. Then in the church, which turned out to be the most convenient place to take coffee and cake, despite it being the Sabbath, we had a small but loud choir plus organ. Good when the organ piped down a bit. Cake was also good, something new to me involving orange flavouring and chocolate icing. We sat under a plaque memorialising three children of various ages, of one family, who had died within days of each other, perhaps in 1859. One supposes fire or epidemic of some kind.

Two loud men, one young, one middle aged, both of whom needed to keep up a steady drone of talk to impress both themselves and their interlocutors. Both these last, one male and one female, were very patient.  Not sure I would have managed so to be.

The market offered fish, but I did not see any sausage opportunities either there or in the vicinity. That is to say saucisson sec or kabanosi, not the stuff we serve with mash. And I passed on the very dark cherries on offer.

One of a number of trolleys we passed in the course of our outing, all from the Waitrose in the basement of the big John Lewis just up the road. This one by the Hogsmill (of the fish), underneath the Guildhall right. Not collected today in deference to BH, who prefers not.

The Guildhall proper is snapped above, a handsome building from 1932, now the headquarters of the council of the London Borough of Kingston (upon Thames, for the avoidance of doubt). The people who had made a grab for Epsom back in the 1960's, but who only got as far as the crossroads at Malden Rushett. Perhaps what they were really after was the important electricity sub-station there; Epsom was just a feint. I had thought the Guildhall more or less redundant, but Wikipedia explains that it is only the court house bit which has been turned into a wedding venue. Listed at Grade II.

On the way home, lots of lycra on cycles out in the midday sun. Too hot for me, even without the lycra.

Reference 1: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2020/08/fifth-and-last-blackberries.html.