Ginger Cat Teapot

The flat tops of bus stops also yielded a fascinating array of items (including the Shoreditch meteorites) but rather a lot of single shoes and empty vodka bottles. So while I am very pleased to hear that the Bus.tops project which plans to cover 64 bus stop roofs in LEDs to display digital artworks has got the go-ahead, there’s a little wistful nostalgia mixed in. Regular readers will know I have strong feelings about public art, and I like this idea a lot. It has the potential to brighten the grim journeys made by millions of Londoners every day, while getting art out of the gallery and clawing back some of our shrinking public space before advertisers get hold of it (although I wouldn’t be surprised if they cotton on soon). But I can’t help wondering if any of those bus stops are already decorated with bizarre discarded items, and whether some lonely passenger will miss the mystery. Anyway, here’s their short video introduction on the Bus.tops site. There’s some annoying ‘urban’ jazz, and one of the artists describes bus stops as ‘street furniture’ but don’t let that put you off the whole project.

S for Sajarina! We were in Epping Forest again, enjoying the sunny loveliness. Graffiti on trees seems bizarre to me (spraycans that is, when it’s carved it’s retro, even romantic, like in Robin Hood) Why would you want to tag a tree?

Who’s this amiable fellow? It’s a half-sheep, half-goat from Spitalfields City Farm, which is hosting a Sheep and Wool Fayre on Sunday 8 June. I can be blasé about this kind of rural jiggery-pokery because I’ve seen it tons of times before, while I was growing up. One of my friends at primary school lived on a farm and used to help with the milking before school. Which is a 6am start, folks. Ouch. Still, who better than an 8 year old who will be waking up at that time anyway? Hm.

I like my faux-rural pursuits more on the gentle, consumerist, twee side – jumble sales, coffee mornings, that sort of thing. There was a super Christmas craft fayre at Toynbee Hall year before last which I only found because there was a note in biro stuck on the wall outside.

Anyway. Spitalfields City Farm is joyous, not just because it’s well, a *farm* in the *city* (the world’s gone topsy turvy!!) but because it is just a few steps away from the vintage slouch-boot trodden paths of Brick Lane, land of the trendy. Unlike the city farms in Beckton and Mudchute where you are dropped off by the DLR in places that look a bit like a budget version of the countryside, but which are actually huge parks, Spitalfields and Hackney farms are tucked away down side streets. I love being able to emerge again from such a street into the Sunday lunchtime throng with an air of superiority that doesn’t say ‘I’m so rocking my Lazy Oaf t-shirt today’ as much as ‘I’ve just been hanging out with a tiny pony. oh yeah.’

Also apologies for the lack of posts recently! Have now moved house, which I’m very happy about, but still lacking internet. Plus I’ve been off work so there have been no lunchtime cyberjaunts either. Back in tomorrow though so hopefully things will regularize. Thanks for sticking with me!