inside London

6 January 2018

So here is another sort of diary of our trip to London with the littles. As always we are totally knackered, but it is always nice to get off the Island as a family and find some amazing inspiration to take home with us.
As it was New Years Day that we arrived, there were a lot of places still closed. Although I didn't intend to spend ANY money, I did find so many amazing things for not much and they may have accidentally made it into my possession. I will do another post about that after this one.

Little P was desperate to go to the 'dinosaur museum' again (aka The Natural History Museum) but we were not willing to queue half way down the street in the pouring rain and freezing wind. So we managed to convince her that there was another museum the same...so we drove to our old habitat of south east London to visit our fave Horniman Museum (she's been there many times as a baby but she had no memory of it luckily).
By lucky hap, they have opened a new butterfly house, which was small but very impressive we thought!








They also have a small aquarium there too...

And a macabre stuffed and pickled animal room, which is very fascinating to a 5 year old.




Outside I spotted this lovely shrub...any one know the name?


Day two we decided to entertain the kids and planned a trip to Stratford to the Discovery Story Centre. On the way we stopped at Leyton Village to have look, sadly most of the shops were still closed for the holidays, but luckily this shop was open...

Venner on Instagram here.



I literally could have bought everything had I the funds.
We did buy some small clay rings stands for our jewellery display...two sheets of wrapping paper and a nice tea towel for when we do up our kitchen.




We also had a quick stop by Chatsworth road but also most shops were closed : (
(actually our RUST shop was also closed so we can't really complain about this!)

Then we eventually made it to the Discovery Story Centre, which is the most unique and creative play space for kids. Every where you look is some incredible slightly dark creature or little cave to adventure in. Its on two floors with a cafe and cool looking outdoor playground too! (it was too wet and cold for us to go outside sadly). The kids loved it, it was £20 entrance fee but if you are local its a bit cheaper and you can also buy an annual membership which is a much better deal.
Visit their website for better pictures (it was hard to take photos without other kids in the frame).


The next day of course it's thursday = market day

Spitalfields Antiques market.


(we bought a few of those little brass animals £3 each!)


Sadly, they have recently revamped the market space with superdooper street food stalls, which although look amazing, it means that there is not as much space for the market stalls which is very sad. There are street food stalls everywhere in London now, but the antiques markets are all dying out! Poor show London Council!!





I bought these test tubes for propagating some cuttings in! And some nice knives.


Little P fell for this rather expensive polar bear, and to be honest I fell for it too! Needless to say, it came home with us.

Mr Leafy found a vintage fire engine of course, then fell asleep, of course.

Petersham Nurseries is also a favourite place of ours and happens to be on our route back to the Island. We quite often stop here for lunch, and I always love it!




Amazing things in their shops, I loved these little ceramics, and their indoor plants were half price! omg.




It's a very widely talked about place, and it is very expensive, but really you cannot not visit Petersham Nurseries because in my mind it is very unique, and has an atmosphere all of its own!

It is great to be home now, and luckily I had the foresight to pack away all the xmas decorations before we left, so we returned to a clean and minimal house, nice!

P.S i have to thank my dutiful Mister for taking most of these photos. In fact he really loves taking pictures these days, you can follow him here if you like>


and his Isle of Wight photography Instagram here>

1 comment

  1. Artemis, I dont know if you get pinged when a comment to an old post gets added....but that beautiful red and orange twigged shrub is most likely https://www.gardenia.net/plant/cornus-sanguinea-midwinter-fire-dogwood.

    I have been in mid winter Seattle funk (grey weather much like old Blighty's) and have been combing old blogs rereading posts to lift my mood. My memory so bad, they are like new! It has been fun just hitting random thumbnails at the bottom of your posts and seeing something from 2016 or 2013. Since we cannot travel, let alone go to the local cafe for a pint or a cuppa, this is the next best thing. So thank you for the mental health boost!

    I sincerely hope you and yours are coping ok with your own winter blues and that you have or will be soon moving into your new home. Here's to springtime tulips and cones of chips on the beach....soon!

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