God Save the Slides

Despite some rainy, chilly weather, I took a long walk yesterday morning back to Camden Market to look at more old photographic slides. Just as I was leaving the last time, I found a second dealer with a bin I only barely had time to look through. It was the one with "Trish!" in it, as well as the Regent Street photo, so I felt it deserved closer scrutiny.

This time I brought my viewer and looked at every slide in that bin, which took about an hour. A lot of them were birds and flowers, which don't interest me -- they say nothing about time or place. (Of course I take lots of bird and flower photos, but it's different when they reflect my own experiences!) But I found another 50 or so worth bringing home, and I'll get some of them scanned this week.

Because I was sitting in the slide dealer's stall, I didn't actually watch the coronation. I saw snippets of it later. The weather was about as bad as it could be, but it looks like the crowds still turned out, which was good to see. I like Charles -- I think his heart is in the right place and he has some very sensible interests and views, like his appreciation for ecology and architectural preservation.

In Belsize Park I passed a street party where a handful of hardy souls had gathered to watch the ceremony on a large monitor.

(There were people sitting on the other side of the truck too, where there was a second screen.)

I passed buildings with bunting and saw other indications of national pride...

...like this boxer outside Waitrose, wearing his official Union Jack bow tie.

Of course there were some naysayers too.

Soon after I got home, our new hob (stove top, range, whatever you want to call it) finally arrived! Woo hoo! Dave is so happy, and it does look much nicer than our old one. Our landlords and management company had believed for weeks that it had already been installed, because of some kind of record-keeping mix-up at the appliance dealer's. (Or so we were told.) After we protested and made clear that we still had the old one, they slowly ironed everything out.

And here it is, complete with last night's dinner, Coronation Quiche -- which Dave made from the official royal recipe. It was really good. I had two pieces as I watched "Lady in Cement," a groovy Frank Sinatra movie from the late '60s that I love despite its sexism, homophobia and tortured plot. It's the second of two movies featuring Sinatra as a wise-cracking detective in Miami, and the banter between characters is pretty entertaining. Don't be offended by the film's shortcomings; just laugh through them. That's my advice.

I also managed to do a little gardening yesterday, despite the rain. I repotted a few things, including dividing some root-bound mint and planting the halves in separate pots -- just as I'd done for another pot of mint a week or two ago. So now we have four pots of mint, a mixture of peppermint and Moroccan mint. Dave is exasperated that I used four pots rather than throwing some of it out, but why discard perfectly good mint?