Where to start?

It's been a while since I last posted and as a result I'm not sure what to share with you first Last week I had fun showing you what I made for the 'Put a little love in your Quilt' blog hop. It was exciting to take part in a blog hop again and I'm slowly visiting everyone who took part to see what they made. My table topper has been gracing the top of my coffee table, there for all to see. However, even with the topper as a reminder, my dear husband John  managed to totally forget about Valentine's day. Never mind we're going away the last weekend of February and he has promised to buy me some fabric from my favourite quilt shop.

This week is lovely as I haven't been at work so I've had time to catch up with life and my blog reading. Yesterday evening I had a relaxing time catching up with Barbara's road trip over at Cat Patches  I had to go back quite a way so I could get the flow of their journey and as always Barbara's photos were amazing. I've also had time to do some sewing but there isn't a lot I can show you as the bits I've made are for another blog hop in early March.

So what can I tell you about? Well on the 30th January John and I went on another walk to discover more of London We started at Greenwich station and walked as far as Limehouse station which is only just over 5 miles. We had planned to walk further but there was so much to see that we run out of time. If we had continued the walk we would have been walking in the dark. From Greenwich station we walked to Island Gardens. On the way we came across a public toilet, which was most welcome, but was also gloriously old fashioned with heavy wooden doors and toilet seats, lots of white tiles and big pull chains. It took me right back to when I was a young girl and all the public toilets were fitted out like this.

Just inside the park was a statue of King William IV

A little further along the path in front of the Maritime Museum was this ship in a bottle. 

I once watched a video on how they get the ships into the bottle and you can see how it is done here.

We walked up the hill to the observatory and took pictures of the museum and across London.

Behind the museum you can see Canary Wharf's cluster of tall buildings. London has clusters of tall buildings with low level buildings in between and of course no tall building is allowed to block line of site of St Paul's in the city.

The next photo is looking slightly to the right from the one above and I've put an arrow to mark the milennium dome or the O2 Arena as it is now known. The last time we visited the 02 was to see Neil Diamond last year.

We retraced our steps down hill and past the Maritime Museum and we passed by the Royal Naval College as we headed to the Thames.

Once at the Thames we walked along the riverside path  towards the Cutty Sark. I couldn't fit it all in as I couldn't move back any further due to the river being in the way.

The Cutty Sark is a British clipper ship that was built on the River Clyde in 1869 and was one of the last tea clippers to be built. 

Following the opening of the Suez Canal 1869 steamships were able to take the shorter route to China, so the Cutty Sark was only used for the tea trade for a few years. After that it was used to carry wool from Australia and on this route the ship held the record for the fastest journey time to Britain for ten years. Steam eventually took over this route and so the ship was sold to a Portuguese company in 1895 and was renamed. In 1922 the ship was bought by retired sea captain Wilfred Dowman, and it was used as a training ship in Cornwall. After his death ownership of the Cutty Sark was transferred to the Thames Nautical Training College. In 1954, the ship was transferred to permanent dry dock at Greenwich, London, for public display. In 2007 whilst undergoing conservation the ship was badly damaged by fire. It was restored and reopened to the public in 2012

From here we went into the Greenwich foot tunnel to cross under the Thames. From the opposite bank we could see the Cutty Sark. The dome in front of the ship is the entrance to the foot tunnel

As we came out of the foot tunnel we spotted a small coffee shop and we stopped to enjoy tea and carrot cake. It was very yummy. Back on track we were following the Thames Path which took us past several wharf's and docks each with their own name. In the past different industries had operated from each wharf. Several buildings remained  but many had been re-purposed often into living accommodation.

This is the remains of the dock where the Great Eastern was built. The SS Great eastern was a steel steamship designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel and built at the Millwall Iron works on the Thames

We briefly left the Thames path to head towards the Millwall outer dock. On the way we passed this old chapel now being used as a theatre and meeting place. The Frankenstein poster was rather appropriate for this Gothic building.

We spent some time investigating the outer dock which is now used as a water activity centre. These two dockside cranes remain. They look a little like alien invaders.

Back to the Thames path where we saw the base of a huge dock crane forming the base of an outdoor area for the floors in these flats. Great re-purposing and design.

The base of this crane was huge and rather scary to walk under.From here looking across the Thames this was the view.

This shows another cluster of tall buildings in the City of London (otherwise known as The Square Mile) which is north of the river. The tower on the left is the Shard a 306m high tower of steel and glass which is south of the river at London Bridge.

Leaving the Thames behind we headed into Narrow  Street which runs parallel to the river. This is the oldest street in Limehouse. Here we found this cute statue but I can't remember why it is here.

Looking one way down the street. Many of the buildings are being done up and modernised.

We walked through Rope maker field to the Regent's canal towpath

and on into Limehouse Basin

We crossed the footbridge next to the lock and weir. The weir was fascinating.

We past a few more large boats and narrow boats before heading to Limehouse station which is on the DLR - docklands light railway.

From the station it was a quick journey home with only one change to get onto the Northern Line tube. A great day walking and lots to see. I'm finding these walks fascinating as they are taking us to areas of London I've not explored before or if I have it was a long time ago.

At home Picasso was in serious cuddle mode, first from me, then John and finally Lucy.

He really does get in some odd positions and being a black cat he isn't the easiest to take pictures of.

Tomorrow I'll tell you about my dolls house which I'm really excited to be starting to build.

Lyndsey