The reasons I have always loved London are nonexistant these days. The museums, the theatres, the restaurants and pubs are all closed. Fortunately I've been able to get out. I have tromped through parks and wandered all around within walking distance. Being curious, (read nosey), I am drawn to hidden spaces. Fences, walls and hedges are there to peek over or through. Anything tucked away is meant to be investigated. The Secret Garden is one of my favorite books. A door hidden behind ivy, leading into a completely private, overgrown garden. Oh yes! This city is packed with just these things. There are teeny houses tucked into unimaginably small spaces. There are mews, little side streets where the houses are converted stables and sheds. Gated entrances that lead somewhere I can't see!! Narrow footpaths that meander between houses. And mini gardens everywhere.

Note the TINY gray house between the two larger ones.

I NEED to see what's at the end of this entrance. I love how cozy these places seem. I imagine the interiors to be something out of Beatrice Potter. Someplace to be cuddled up like in the corner of a sofa. Ah well. G won't let me peek in the windows so I'll never know. She's says it's WRONG. Geesh. xxoo me

It's COLD this morning! I woke up to frost on the rooftops and cars and low dark skies. Big flakes have just started coming down. I've been here 5 weeks now. I'll be heading back to Italy sometime the first week of February if nothing changes. A test 48 hours before leaving and within 48 upon arrival. Two weeks of quarantine. Gah! I've had a couple of interesting walks since last I wrote. Last week we took a cab up to Alexandra Palace north of the city. Ally Pally as it's affectionately known, is a huge arts/educational venue used for everything from concerts to circuses. It was built in the late 1800's and sits ontop of a hill surrounded by parkland with an incredible view of London to the south.

The "palace" is Victorian with enormous glass domes and all sorts of wings sticking out all over the place.

The little town center below the palace is called Crouch End. Something right out of Harry Potter.

A few days later I walked up to Highgate cemetery, resting place of George Elliot and many other famous folk. I just read a book set in and around Highgate and it stoked my interest. The cemetery is walled and gated and entrance costs a small fee to keep the place up. I went with the intention of finally going in and seeing the architecture and the famously interred behind those gates I've passed many times before. Alas I didn't bother to check opening times and arrived 40 minutes early and I hadn't bothered to book a time like requested on their sign and website (which I hadn't looked at..), so I went to the adjacent park and waited and walked around a bit and peeked at gardens and returned at 1 sharp. An official looking man was exiting just as I got there so I asked if I could enter without a reservation. He pointed to the BIG sign on the gate with the hours (which I hadn't checked), and the website for booking (which I hadn't looked at), and the days it was closed. Tuesdays. It was Tuesday. Of course it was Tuesday. So I will book a time for next week and go back. Igit. Yesterday we took another long walk around Notting Hill and back. We passed the Russian embassy where there were protests going on and a lot of police presence. We passed a couple cops who had cornered a guy with a bike and a big backpack. I thought bomb and we skedaddled off quickly. I had an obligatory pic taken at Abbey Road, humiliating G with my touristy ways.

Now we're off for a walk in the snow. xxoo me

The other day, having gone to meet G at work and walk home with her, I was standing outside of the shop munching on a decadent cheese and mushroom quiche, when a man approached me and asked for a donation to feed homeless men. I told him I had no cash, true, and he pulled out a portable card machine and said they take plastic. I was in one of the wealthiest areas of London with my mouth full of pastry that probably cost more than a full meal in other parts of the city and didn't have my defences up. I said OK, typed in 5 pounds and off he went. A minute later a very well dressed woman with a tiny drop-kick dog came up to me and said in a snarky voice, "He's Hare Krishna you know." Well I didn't know. But had I had time to look at the pamplet he'd given me I probably would have figured it out considering it said International Society of Krishna Consciousness on the cover. I remember the days of skinny bald guys in white robes asking for money. The first vegan restaurants. The fear of cults brainwashing the youth. They were rampant in my first years in Europe in the early'80s. In Amsterdam I stayed in a hostel on a barge run by Krishna. I remember thinking the food was awful it was so bland, especially after an evening of sitting around chanting and smoking...something. Any who. I guess the Krishna have gone all conventional and have given up the robes and the street chanting. But I looked it up and they do infact donate free meals to the homeless. In London it's 1,200 vegetarian meals a day. My 5 pounds was well spent. Take that snarky, snobby woman! It's warm and very blustery today with dark clouds scuttling overhead. I'm going to the supermarket to count the clueless, maskless people infecting the city. xxoo me

I walked all the way to Hyde Park today. That's about a 7 mile round trip. I had to take advantage of the bright sunshine as it's supposed to rain nonstop from Monday onward. No end in sight. I followed the Regent's Park Canal in order to get a view of the classical villas built within the boundaries of the park. One of them is owned by the Sultanate of Oman. Another is on the market for ONLY fifty million pounds.

Hyde Park, an enormous space, is actually 2 parks in one. Half of it is called Hyde Park and the other is Kensington Gardens. They are separated by Serpentine Pond, a long thin lake for boating and birds. Considering we are in Tier 5, the most severe of lock down levels, there were a s@#*load of people out and about. Unmasked of course.

As I'd already been walking for 2 hours and still had to make it back, I only saw the Hyde Park half. I followed the "pond" and watched the masses feeding the birds, walking and chatting, standing in line to buy a snack at the kiosks. What pandemic? I left thru the Queen Elizabeth Gate. Very snazzy.

Now I have achy calves. Again chocolate covered digestives will help. xxoo me

2021 is starting out really well, don't you think? I woke this morning to hear G returning from work hours early. Being 22 and a rule-follower, she signed up for the NHS contact tracing app. They sent her a message this morning saying she needs to quarantine for 10 days as she has been exposed in the last 48 hours. Considering that Wednesday she didn't leave the house and yesterday she left only to work, one assumes someone who tested positive went into the shop. If that were the case her colleagues who also worked yesterday would also have been notified. But no! So obviously there has been a glitch. Not reassuring. As she has 3 projects due for school she's fine with it but I find the whole thing just another signal that we are a doomed species. Speaking of species and on a lighter note, late last night or actually very early this morning, as I was trying to fall asleep after yet another look at the news to acertain whether or not I'd dreamt the whole thing, there was high pitched screaming coming from the alley behind the apartment. I looked out and there were 3 very large foxes running around. G has mentioned seeing them on her early walks to work. These guys were massive! Much bigger than the sleek little cat-sized ones I've seen in Maine. They were also very loud! I don't know what they were doing but they seemed to be fascinated by a certain street lamp. As I had nothing else to do I watched them for about 10 minutes till they ran off. Ah city life! Off to wash the floors. xxoo me

Well what the HELL was that?! I am not a proud American at this moment. It is a sad day when Turkey, TURKEY, tells us to calm the F@#* down!

Before I continue with the whirlwind schedule which is my lockdown stay in London, let me just rant a moment. Does anyone else feel like they are living in an alternative reality? I do every morning when I read the news. Between the pandemic and Trump it's like we're in a distopic B movie. Have ya'll LISTENED to Don's taped phonecall to Georgia? HOW DID THIS MAN BECOME PRESIDENT!!!! OK. Good now. So Sunday G and I met a friend of hers in Greenwich, south of the Thames and famously at 0 Longitude. (On 0 Longitude? At...on??) Anywho, there it be! It's the location of the famous Cutty Sark, one of the last and fastest Tea Clippers, wooden sailing vessels that transported tea to the UK. There is a tiny touristic center on the riverfront with shops and eating establishments but apart from takeout all was shut. Greenwich is also the site of the Royal Naval Academy, a university, some museums and the Queen's House which is a former royal residence. All of which ia shut. Then there is Greenwich park that used to be the grounds of a now extinct palace and the current site of the Royal Observatory through which the Prime Meridian passes. Guess what? Shut. BUT we did climb up to the Observatory perched atop a high hill in the middle of the park. From there is a fantastic view of all the above mentioned sites and of the London skyline. Pretty spectacular. Of course it started to rain as we were heading down the hill so we scurried into town and caught a Lyft back here. Lyft is the UK version of Uber. I refuse to take public transportation this time around because these damned Brits won't mask up, so if I can't walk I take a Lyft or a cab. We are now in the highest level of lockdown, tier 5. Boris announced it last night in an hour long speech on TV. Not once did he mention masks. I am really dumbfounded.

Some shots from Greenwich. xxoo me

   Saturday I hiked up to West Hampstead and over into Hampstead proper to meet G when she got out of work.  I walked through some pretty damned exclusive places.  What I like about London is the "social" mix of almost every neighborhood.  There are public housing buildings next door to multi-million dollar homes across the street from middle class "attached" houses.  On G's street alone there are privately owned, rather shabby townhouses, (one in which my daughter and 2 roommates live), across from a long row of very nice Victorian homes that grow progressively bigger and more expensive the farther west you go.  Across from those are two high-rise apartment blocks for low income folks.  These public housing buildings are recognizable by their green signage with the name of the complex, which might be "something" house or mansion, terrace or court.  Some fancy name of that sort.  I discovered St. John-at-Hampstead, one of the oldest churches in London, they think first establish around the year 1000, rebuilt in the early 1700s.  The churchyard and cemetery are overgrown with trees and ferns, the paths all perilous with roots.  All sorts of famous people are buried there.  None of whom I have ever heard...

A path thru the churchyard

St. John's

xxoo me

 It's the New Year!  One of the crappiest years in history is over!  As bad as 2021 may still be, it can't be worse....  Can it?            

We went for an evening walk on the 23rd to see the Christmas lights and London was eerily quiet with it's empty streets.  These shots were taken around Oxford Street which would normally be wall to wall people.

I've taken long walks on our few rain-less days.  One day I walked all around Hampstead Heath, the huge park (790 acres) in the northwest of London.  I've been to the park many times but have never done the whole circuit.  Apart from the bathing ponds and Kenwood House, both of which I've written about previously, the park is mostly woods and vast fields and lots of boggy areas.  This time of year it's mostly mud.  All of the paths are packed dirt and the evening before I ventured forth it had, of course, rained.  I almost fell on my a## a good number of times and had to wash my sneaks in the bathtub when I got back.  Next park outing I'll wear me rubber boots!

Above is a false bridge originally built in the 1700's over a pond in front of the Kenwood House.  It was built when the house and lands were a private estate and it made for a picturesque view towards London proper.  Though it looks like a real bridge, it's actually just a false front and in fact the photo is from behind to show how it's propped up.  Kenwood house, now a museum, is reflected in the pond.

Two days ago we had a rare thing, sunshine!  I took the opportunity to walk to 221b Baker Street to see, sadly only from the outside, the Sherlock Holmes Museum.  Baker Street is just a road away from Regents Park, my favorite.  The park was packed with runners and strollers, nary a one with a mask.  Nuts these brits.

As London almost never gets a deep freeze, there are flowers all year long.  By the time I got back I had fast walked for about 3 hours.  It gave me a great excuse to eat 1/2 a package of chocolate covered digestives.  Tomorrow another adventure!  xxoo me