Sunday: May 20, 2012
Desultory morning,
organizing pictures, writing blogs, sorting receipts. About 11:30 took tube down to Temple to
explore Fleet Street and environs, particularly Clifford’s Inn, where Leonard and
Virginia lived from October 1912-Dec 1913.
I knew that much of it had been destroyed (it was torn down in 1934) but
wanted to see what remained. Had thought
Sunday would be a good day to explore the City since it wouldn’t be busy, but
had not realized they locked it up tight on the weekend – couldn’t even walk
thru the Middle Temple. 
When I finally located the little back lane leading to Clifford’s
Inn, the door was locked. But I
persevered and went poking around until I found a way in through a gate to King’s
College. The college buildings are on
the north side with St. Dunstan’s Church on the west, and office buildings on the
other two sides. What remains of the
garden/ green is a much divided patch of hedges and unmown grass with scattered
benches, obviously used mostly by the students who’d left behind scattered detritus
of cigarettes lighters and plastic cups.
There’s a statue of Confucius at the center.
Mission accomplished, I wandered west through various legal
streets, finding this cat sitting in a window, complete with judge’s ruff.
Wandered around Covent Garden which was getting more and more crowded. There was an Arts and Crafts
Market as well as a whole building full of booths selling do-dahs, like old
type-high printer’s ornaments, jewelry, cheap scarves, bendable fairies dressed
to kill, every kind of lavender concoction you can think of.
Had a lovely time
browsing, until I started getting tired and hungry. So I settled down at one of
the many sidewalk cafes scattered about and ordered a warm Pims with apple
juice—quite the tonic for a damp cold day (I listened to the weather report and
was only wearing a sweater; they keep promising warmer weather…) and a plate of
Shepherd’s pie.
After this late and relaxing lunch, listening to a guy wi
dreds playing blues on his electric guitar on the plaza, I found I’d satiated
my desire to shop and made my way back home on the tube, easily switching lines
to get the shortest route home, avoiding the lines closed for maintenance and
suffering delays because of “a body on the line” (worried about that a little).
Took my clothes over to the launderette, only to discover it
was closed on Sundays. Met some of the
girls in the lobby and talked through tomorrow’s trip to Cambridge. Now to do a little hand-washing. I bought enough clothes today that I may be
able to make it wiout a machine wash.
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