London Mums Blog

A Foodie Saturday or Sunday: Take the Kids to a London Farmer’s Market

There is no better way to teach children the enjoyment of fresh fruit and vegetables than an inspired trip to a London Farmer’s Market; all of which feature a very high standard of quality.  

All the fruit, vegetables, meet, cheese, jams, juice and are locally grown or hand made by the farmers themselves.  The markets are not solely organic, but the food is fresh and local with some farmers selling organic crops. Though the harvest season is waning, there are still plenty of fresh, root vegetables to make into a comforting feast to keep the seasonal malaise of Daylight Savings Time at bay.

What makes the London Farmer’s Markets particularly well-suited for families, aside from their wholesome appeal, is their close proximity to fun things for our little ones to do.  If you bring a rucksack to carry your bounty from the market, you and the kids can not only enjoy healthy produce, you can go on to enjoy some near-by attractions.

On the Victoria and Albert Museum

The Victoria and Albert Museum doesn’t expect many visits from the Star.

I’m not sure why this is true, given that its sumptuous cafe – there are glittering chandeliers, high ceilings, domes, columns, impressive interior tiles on the walls and the floors and the ceiling, as well as stained glass windows – was full of families with young children yesterday.

But having sculptures of interestingly textured stone at floor height is an invitation to disaster. Of course you are now so very into your toddler game that, as you saw the Star heading delightedly for a particularly inviting looking East Asian dragon, you reasoned that, as they had put these statues out on display within easy touching distance of all and two-year olds, they must expect, nay, perhaps encourage, a bit of tactile investigation.

London cannot wait till 2012

London cannot wait till 2012. The city will be at its best, a summer of sport, the capital’s famous landmarks shown off with the world’s best athletes competing for gold and hopefully Team GB will have the same, if not better success as they had in the Beijing games. I rode my bike past the magnificent Olympic village and was truly blown away with the size of the venue and the prospect of watching the biggest global sports event being held there. 

What’s going to happen when the races are finished? Legacy? I hope so. Without the L word, this whole show will have been a waste of time and money. I trust Lord Coe and Boris and I am sure they fulfil their promise of using the games to raise the level of elite sport in this country, use the venues for future events and most importantly get kids excited about sport. 

Walks in London?

For five years our weekends and most holidays were spent at a tiny coastguard cottage on the Solent. It was in the middle of a row of ten. We shared front gardens with our neighbours on the left and back garden with our neighbours on the right. For some reason the weekenders used the front gardens, which faced the sea, and the full time residents used the back gardens, so we never really had to share at all.  But there were long expanses in the mid winter when we simply didn’t use the cottage and felt guilty when we weren’t there, in fact felt guilty whenever we went anywhere else. When it was cold we couldn’t face the drive, the weather and the wind. We gave it up in January, as it didn’t make sense to be paying for two houses in the middle of a bleak recession.  At first it was exciting to be in London with so much to see and do. I liked tramping the dirty pavements and going to cafes, and seeing random last minute films. There were friends to invite over and museums to visit, but having exhausted trips to the country to stay with out of town friends and with a five year old and an eight year old to keep amused things became tense. Our small garden, (well more of a patio) is not enough to contain them for more than a few minutes. When we had friends over for lunch the other day they spent quite a lot of time playing on the flat roof outside Belle’s room. The adults ate lunch and pretended not to notice or to care about the potentially life threatening situation.