greenwich market goodies and olympic faffing in the park

Hello! Would you like to meet some of the fabulous characters at Greenwich Market? Let’s start with this little fella here. *Quack*

And here’s Amy Lee: she runs a stall, The Fluffy Cosmo, and sells lots of lovely little handmade critters. I’ve seen her there often and I just bought one for my studio mate for her birthday this weekend (but shhh, don’t tell her). Amy will happily make dolls to order, if you have anything specific in mind.

And just next to the market entrance, there’s a great new shop selling bags, handmade by this guy, Matt, and his partner Sophia. I’ve been carrying around everywhere a bag I bought in Greenwich (rather bizarrely, at a surfing shop, which has gone out of business). But it’s getting pretty grey and tatty. So it was time to invest in something new. You can read about how Sophia & Matt started up their business over on their website, in the ‘About Us’ section.

And here’s Lush Designs, two women who make amazing screen printed items: cushions, lampshades, tea towels, cards, aprons. I have their fox pillow sitting in pride of place at home on my sofa.

Okay, now some fun tidbits from the market. Here are some old clay pipes, the kind you find along the shoreline at low tide. (I blogged about them once here.)

Lovely old tins:

Oo, gosh. Does ‘boys’ fun’ include getting a thrashing from the housemaster?

I was sorely tempted to buy this 1971 Ladybird book about how computers work, but I managed to resist.

I was awfully curious about how the Olympic setup was affecting Greenwich Park, and yup, there’s a lot going on there.

Here’s a massive arena on the front lawn, between the Royal Observatory and the Colonnade where old merchant seamen like to smoke their pipes and have their lunches. (I had a long chat with one once, named Norman.)

For all the upheaval, the park actually looked okay. I don’t think they’ve removed any trees, or at least not any major trees, and the grass may take a bit of time to recover, but that’s not such a big deal.

Right at the beginning, there was talk that they were going to fell some of the ancient chestnuts, but I think they’re safe. (If not, you’ll find me chained to them and I’ll be missing a few illustration deadlines and could you please bring me flasks of tea and sandwiches from time to time.)

Hey, remember that cool ship-in-a-bottle on the fourth plinth of Trafalgar Square? Well, I don’t know if it’s permanent, but it’s found a good home at the National Maritime Museum. Yay! I love the patterned sails.

Even with the Olympics stuff going on, there are acres and acres of park that are totally untouched. I love our park.

And I’ll give our market duckie the last word.

*Quack*