There's always something new

I went out Sunday morning to pick up a few groceries, and if I've been out on a Sunday morning before, I certainly have never gone in the direction of the grocery store before. There were dozens of people going in my direction, most of them speaking what sounded like an Eastern European language. Shortly before I reached the store, they had all turn off in the same direction. I thought perhaps there was a place of worship where they were going. However, when I came out of the store to return home, I saw several people coming back from that direction, most with plastic bags in their hands, seemingly filled with groceries, and one person even had a full wheeled shopping bag, the kind I also use to carry home a lot of groceries on foot. I also started seeing people going in that direction with those same wheeled shopping bags, and I figured there must be a street market in that direction. As my bag was already full, I decided not to go check it out, but I will another day for sure. And the Eastern Europeans? I think they were actually Roma! I saw a couple of older ladies with fringed scarves around their necks and long velvet dresses with frilly hems, and I saw one guy hawking perfume out of a reusable shopping bag on the sidewalk. Another man had set up a table at a bus stop where he was doing the trick where you have to follow a small object underneath 3 tin bowls, and people seemed to be betting on the results. It was quite interesting!

St Pancras train station is pretty inside

The previous day, we went out to Luton. At home, we've enjoyed watching the show "24 Hours in Police Custody," which features the Luton Police. It's a lower income area and one that seems to attract a lot of immigrants, but what was interesting is that, when we were at the Luton Mall, the people there looked a lot like regular people at home. There are a lot more business people and office type workers where we live, so often times, people are a bit dressed up. But in Luton, it seemed a little bit like home. Anyway, we did see the outside of the police station, and the mall was pretty nice. One of the strangest sites, of all things, was seeing 2 flocks of Canada Geese flying overhead in their typical V formation. I know that there are Canada Geese in the UK, but I've never seen a large enough population of them anywhere to expect to see them flying in formation like that.

Canada Geese

The day before, I discovered Battersea Park. It's a really pretty park with a manmade pond stocked with fish, and as a result, there are many types of birds there that eat fish. People can fish there as well, but they have competition from the birds! I saw a grey heron fly overhead, and when I went there again with my husband on Sunday afternoon, there were Great Grebes, which are another type of bird that eats fish. There are also several other kinds of birds as well. The colours had attracted me to the place the most, as trees are starting to turn during the autumn here, and we were treated to a dazzling view of them on the Sunday afternoon when the sun popped out for few minutes to light up the golds and reds.

Panorama of the duck pond at Battersea Park