Even a found Christmas can be dull and gloomy and it was like that when I headed out to Brick Lane on the Saturday before Christmas – Christmas Eve Eve! I visited the hairdresser and trusted my head to her. I came away wondering just what she’d changed – there was very little hair on the floor and more time spent on diffusing and perfecting my curls than cutting – but the back did look better, I’d had a good time, and I wasn’t upset. That’s a major achievement.
I stopped at Ambala for some samosas and grabbed a chicken tikka roll for some lunch. But the view from Whitechapel was dismal.
The East London mosqueThe gloaming!
My friend, Judy, sent me a message when I got on the bus and we switched to talking for real (yes!). The whole of Cambridge Heath Road and Mare Street was the same dismal grey as Whitechapel Road had been. And then we passed Mare Street Market and the lights caught my eye. I had to get out to look more closely.
Inside was a real Christmas grotto. I wandered around and enjoyed the atmosphere, everyone laughing and everything glistening.
Every year there’s a feeling that Christmas isn’t really coming. It’s not in the air. ‘It doesn’t feel like Christmas,’ we hear. And no, it actually doesn’t. Krish says it’s the lack of snow but I don’t believe it’s that. I think it’s the loss of the magic we imagine belongs the season, remembered from when we were children and Christmas was all about laughter and presents. I was thinking tonight about coal fires. Suddenly I remembered putting the coal into the fireplace and lighting the newspaper below it and the smell as it caught fire.
I don’t remember but I’m sure I’m sure there were wished-for presents since we would write a letter to Father Christmas and burn it on the fire. The smoke and sparks would go up the chimney and from to the North Pole. This was surely true since very year at least one of those presents would show up. But I’m getting ahead of myself.
It’s been very rainy and windy. The days are short and it’s dark some time after 3pm.
No sign of Christmas in the Little Local. Where are the decorations?It’s 3:45 and The Narrow Way is dark and wet. This shop sounds a bit extraordinary Lisa and i went to Palm Vaults and there was a tiny hint of Christmas in this Cannelle
And all along Dalston Lane, can you see Christmas?
But we were heading into the Winter Solstice, For quite a few years I’ve been part of a Flickr group that celebrates each Equinox and Solstice with a day of photos from wherever its members live. I’ve missed a few but not too many. I knew this solstice I wasn’t planning anything very special until we were invited over to Krish’s friend Rosie’s flat for ‘mince pies and tea. Christmas at last? Continue reading “Then comes Solstice”
In this neighbourhood, there are houses being sold all the time. The real estate market is booming, even now with things looking so precarious.
When we first moved to Hackney no one wanted to live here. Over the years this has reversed to Hackney being one of the most desirable areas to live. In between there has been much buying up of cheap properties, large gorgeous renovations and the cheap, hasty ones, and the scenery is changing quite rapidly.
The cost of a one bedroom flat has gone from around £100,000 and less in 2000 to £500,000 and more in 2018. All of the buying, reno, selling cycle translates to scaffolding. What a business to be in! If I had invested money in it back when I first arrived, by now I could have been buying and renovating a home of my own.
Earlier this week, I was a bit dismayed when a truck pulled up out front with a large amount of wood planks and metal rods. More scaffolding was on the way. That would make about five houses in this little block that were being done over. My fear was that it would be this one, since there’s been a For Sale sign outside for some time. Scaffolding spoils my view and takes away my privacy, with men outside the window without warning. But phew, it was for three houses over. Sorry, guys!
Scaffolding
I suppose the farmers’ markets have been around long before the real estate boom but I’m sure they will have changed. They probably started as honest fruit and veg stalls, bread, cake, a few wholesome crafts – I think I even remember going to the Stoke Newington one when it was like that, and not so many years ago. Now many are artisan markets with stuff no one really needs, but it’s fun to look.
Niko, a stalwart, selling chocolateI kinda fell in love with the pottery at this candle stall Turnips – apparently once a Hackney staple – at this honest stall. He was packing up with way too much unsoldThe back of the market has a fragrant Christmas tree lot
Some places are quite Christmassy along Stoke Newington High Street. This year I’ve noticed that the shopping has begun very early. I’ve never seen such queues at some of the shops. Until the last couple of years you could go into a shop or supermarket on Christmas eve or even the day before and find completely empty shelves. One year we found ourselves without Christmas dinner and from then on, we shopped a little earlier too. Last year it seemed to have improved and I was surprised to see there was still a little selection.
If November was dark and rainy, December is starting off very mild and even sunny sometimes. And it’s getting pretty Christmassy!
On upper Well Street, the florists are bringing out their Christmas best
At St Paul’s church, the yellowed leaves are a nice mix with the trees on the tree lot.
And this Turkish kebab place on Kingsland Road is accidentally festive!
Check these daylight hours, though! By 3pm twilight creeps in and between 4 and 4:30 it’s just like night time. Yesterday I was thinking that, if I were working, it would be properly dark by the time I headed home. I’m not sure if other years have been so dark but they must have been. There’s just more cloud this year…?
Is it really December?
However, December has lots of promise. I started jotting things down on one of my quickly drawn up calendars – I like to do this on paper and revise it almost daily. And this week there will be two workshops (one a serious mental health one, and one a fun Christmassy one) two family visits and there’s company coming over for dinner, if Susanne doesn’t succumb to her threatening cold. And Hackney is having a Festive Lights event, marking the first night of Chanukah and turning on the lights of the Christmas tree. I love lights and candles so I’m in!
Doldrums for the weather and for my blog. Hopefully, the photos will tell the story of what’s been happening during this mostly dreary month. With any luck my ennui won’t show!
Taken early in November from my window. The bark is going and the leaves getting sparse
Street art in the back streets of Dalston – ethereal, magical
A catfish noodle salad box at Bánh Mì Hội-An, Hackney Central – Passable, cheap, not really a salad!
