I promised I’d post everyday from London, and as of Thursday I will have been here two weeks. That’s always the way it goes with these visits–never near enough time to get in all the things I need and want to do. I’ve been researching the book-in-progress (more on that later) and taking a few pictures for the illustrator of the maps in the US editions, Laura Maestro (more on that later as well.) But I’ve also been doing the very ordinary things I love most; just enjoying London, and Notting Hill in particular. The weather was absolutely foul the first few days-raining, sleeting, snowing, then raining, sleeting, and snowing some more, and I spent my first Saturday at Portobello Market, something always very much looked forward to, freezing. It was so windy and miserable that stalls were blowing down, and many of the stall-holders gave up after a gallant struggle and packed it in for the day. And no, I didn’t get any pictures of the market in sleet and snow, as I was feeling too protective of my new camera, and besides, my hands were numb.

But with the usual capriciousness of London weather, by the time I had walked from the bottom of Portobello Road back up the hill, the sun had come out, and I was able to snap this shot of a magenta door on Kensington Park Road, with yellow forsythia in bloom in the garden. The photo is deceptive, however, as it looks like a lovely spring day, but it was still ferociously cold.

By the next Saturday, spring had made a bit more progress, as you can see from this shot taken at the intersection of Portobello Road and Chepstow Villas, where Portobello Market really begins.

A false promise once again, however, because by the time I’d got half way down Portobello, it had started to rain and blow, and while not as cold as the previous Saturday, the wind turned my umbrella wrong side out and broke it–a common London hazard, and I ended the afternoon soaked, looking like a drowned rat, and desperately in search of warmth and TEA!

Still, it was Portobello, and not to be missed, weather be damned!