Flowers by the Pound
Bus 55, a sleek red contemporary double-decker, took me off the London tourist path to the more residential East End. The digital display ticked off road names and stops: Theobald’s Rd., Gray’s Inn Field, Clerkenwall Rd., Old St. Shoreditch and finally Hackney Rd. My husband and I had been in Scotland and England for nearly four weeks, in late August 2014. Week by week, the gardens were fading. With that as background, the colors of the Columbia Road flower market were all the more brilliant. A classic fall morning, cool air kept blossoms fresh. Sunlight was at a slant most of the day, showing off colors. The Sunday-morning market has been around for decades and is one of the few solely devoted to flowers. Among the sellers, personalities were also on display. The extroverts tossed out a few political opinions, no charge. Hardy vendors hawked flowers with the robustness of the kitchen knife vendors at the Minnesota State Fair. By noon, the crowds were thick and movement slowed to a shuffle. Coincidentally, this road was used to herd sheep in the 1860s.
