Lat weekend I went to the Bloomsbury Jamboree . How lovely to see people I hadn’t seen for ages, including artist and ceramicist Bex Shaw, who was an Instagram Covid ‘buddy’ last year when we both had the dreaded Covid at the same time. It was great to see her again, looking so well. I bought one of her tiny ceramic items, filled with sweets which rapidly disappeared, then repurposed it to make a home. As you do.
The penguin reminded me of one of the several mini interviews I included in my Draw It! London book. I decided to interview people who had specialist jobs in London: a firefighter, a river police officer (I went on patrol on the Thames), an archaeologist, Hugine, a raven at the Tower of London (who didn’t say much), and a zoo keeper. The latter took me behind the scenes at London Zoo, showed me how to make a special smoothie for baby penguins – lots of cod liver oil for glossy plumage. She also told me about swimming with the penguins one summer, after all the visitors had gone home…
One of two fabulous Tessa Hunkin mosaics at the entrance to London Zoo