Beyond Beulah Road

Have you ever had one of those days when you have lots of things to do but you just don’t want to do them? well that’s the kind of day I’ve had. We should have been cleaning the house, tidying the garden, and tackling the mother of all jobs, sorting out the shed. That’s what we should have been doing, and when I woke up this morning that’s what I had every intention of doing. My will to work didn’t last long, in fact it started to fade as soon as I looked out of the window and saw that it was a nice day. My resolve weakened further when I made the error of going to sit in the garden for five minutes, the feel of the sun on my skin made the thought of hoovering seem worse than a trip to the dentist. I had a chat with the dog about what we should do, he was munching on a stick he had found but seemed to be in complete agreement that cleaning and shed tidying was a very silly idea. Before long I had sent a text to my other half ” Me and the dog think we should clean tomorrow, who’s in?” he replied with “Me Me Me !!!” I threw a plant pot in to the shed, shouldered the door shut before the contents fell out and smothered me, and congratulated the dog for his most excellent decision making skills.

Having decided to avoid any kind of work, the next obvious thing to do was plan a pub visit, and at the top of the list was Wildcard Brewery. I’m a fan of their Jack Of Clubs ale, and the tables outside really catch the sun. We were in search of food so decided to pop in to Beulah Road Market on the way to Wildcard and get some food from Bestowed Kitchen. It takes us a while to walk anywhere these days as the dog feels the need to sniff every blade of grass, leaf and lamp post that we pass along the way, so by the time we made it to Beulah Road I was hungry enough to eat my own arm. We made a bee line straight for the Bestowed Kitchen stall which was set up at the back of the small court yard that hosts the market. I plumped for a cheddar sandwich made with doorstops of sourdough bread, it was a great chunk of a sandwich that really hit the spot.

The courtyard that hosts the market is pretty small but there are a fair few traders packed in to the space. Amongst the things on offer are cakes, greetings cards and a fantastic chocolate stall that we got two giant chocolate covered marsh mallows from. I’ve seen a few people on social media criticize the market, referring to it as a hang out for yummy mummies, or as the market for people that have moved to Walthamstow from Hackney (Yes that old chestnut again YAWN).  But frankly speaking, even if that was the case, who cares? as long as money is being spent locally then it doesn’t really matter who is doing the spending. I was impressed by the little market, seems to me like it’s a good idea to use the otherwise empty courtyard and give people another reason to shop local.

Having had a mooch around the market and gorged our selves on sandwiches and chocolate, we headed beyond Beulah Road and made our way to Wildcard Brewery. As we arrived I could see that the unit next door, which is used as a store by Gods Own Junkyard was open. I like to peer inside as I sit and drink my beer, I once saw sections of a TARDIS in there, and today I could see what looked like a blue alien wearing a high visibility vest, which is perfectly normal I’m sure you’ll agree. We sat and chatted with the people we were sharing a table with, only getting distracted when a statue of what looked like cupid appeared through the doors of the unit next door and and was pushed across the yard on a trolley. I’m glad the dog decided we should go out,  we got to visit Beulah Road market and enjoy a few pints in the sunshine which made for a great afternoon. Sadly the cleaning still needs to be done, but hopefully we will find something else to do in E17 tomorrow that will be much more interesting than hoovering.