Heat, feet and my happy place

Don’t worry, there aren’t any pictures of feet - but mine, or rather one of my toes has been giving me some gyp this past week or so. Instead, you’ll be relieved to know I’m including photos from the flower garden in Greenwich Park, aka my happy place. My toe is improving with the antibiotics, but I suspect it has a little more in store before it’s totally fixed. That along with the high temperatures, and life generally have conspired to keep me away from my laptop for longer than I intended.

But let’s start at the beginning.

Since the middle of June - in fact the day we had all our tree work done - the temperatures here have been warm, and warming up with a red weather warning and temperatures of 40 C forecast a month after this. I’m not sure it made it to 40 C where we are in London, but it was pretty close - and extremely warm!

Our garden has suffered since the tree work was completed. The grass has turned straw like without the canopy the trees provided. We expected it to bounce back pretty quickly with some rain (and still do), but so far the rain hasn’t shown up. Instead it’s got warmer, much warmer. But as you know a garden waits for no one and so I’ve been pottering about in the garden aiming to keep it tidy. I’ve also been picking up many, many branches which appear where I’m sure I’ve already cleared, while timing this pottering outside of the hottest parts of the day.

TREES IN THE FLOWER GARDEN, GREENWICH PARK

On those two hottest days, it was like nothing I can remember experiencing in the UK. I know 1976 was warm, but at 9 years old my experiences and memories were understandably entirely different, and the temperatures were four degrees cooler. The first day I ventured out, briefly, fully sun-screened up and with a rather glamorous large brimmed straw sun hat. Both destinations - the local supermarket, and the dentist - were air conditioned and appointment booking me was very impressed with managing to coincide an air conditioned appointment with a very hot day. Glossing over the fact that it was still the dentist!

Our house got warm - the warmest we’d ever known it, and so a change of tack was required the following day. As well as keeping the curtains shut, being awake early meant we could open the bifold doors into our north facing garden, until it started to warm up around 7am. Then they were closed for the rest of the day. MOH ventured out onto our patio briefly at lunchtime quickly coming back in declaring that it was “like Barbados out there” - and he wasn’t wrong.

A STUNNING BLUE MOPHEAD, GREENWICH PARK

Even late into the evening it had that warm air feel you get when you’re on holiday, and so we spent the evening in the garden under the umbrella. Some very welcome but only a few drops of rain appeared, but they had almost dried before they reached the ground, and no way enough to make any difference to our grass!

ECHINACEAS, GREENWICH PARK

It’s clear that our houses and infrastructure in the UK just aren’t designed for these temperatures, and will need a rethink if the temperatures continue as is predicted, as will government policy. I expect we’ll see more houses adopt shutters like those in the Mediterranean do, whether they’re internal or external. I think it’s something we’ll seriously think about when we move (no news yet!), as while retro-fitting isn’t easy, retro-fitting in a decorated and ‘finished’ space is even harder.

I did feel a bit cooped up those two days though, and that’s where my happy place comes in. With the temperatures a whole ten degrees cooler I was keen to get out, and so I did. I realised that it had been far too long since I’d been to Greenwich Park, and so headed out to the flower garden, a place that from these photos is easy to see why it makes me smile.

COSMOS, GREENWICH PARK

So much colour too, and while the grass there is a similar shade of parched as ours, the flowerbeds were being kept watered. The grass around those noticeably greener. And it was good to get out, strangely these two days felt much worse than lockdown when we were each allowed out for an hour a day. I’m not sure why, perhaps because then, while it was warm, the garden was still a relatively cool spot - that tree canopy worked obviously playing its part.

With a walk to Greenwich Park and then various errands and a trip into town for dinner and the excessive temperatures behind us (for now) all was good, mostly. That’s when my toe started to swell. It had swollen slightly the week before, and was brought down by ibuprofen - that wasn’t working quite so well this time round, even after a weekend of doing very little and sitting with my foot up and iced it was still twice as toe-sized as it should be.

CROCOSMIAS, GREENWICH PARK

Cue an emergency doctor’s appointment, some bright red antibiotics - thankfully not the same ones I had recently for my tooth infection which I had a reaction to (yes, I’ve been in the wars a bit lately - I’m putting that down to stopping work, seriously). The swelling is reduced, but not gone and similarly for the pain. It’s remains red and has been likened to a cocktail sausage rather than a toe, and there is definitely some likeness.

I’ve still some of the course of antibiotics left to take, but I think there’ll be another doctor’s appointment before it’s well and truly fixed. But I know this for sure, enforced rest isn’t all it’s made out to be, but hopefully there’ll be good toe news soon!

A wander into Greenwich and a makers market

This weekend MOH was off on one of his long bike rides, so when I saw that the London Makers Market was taking place just down the road I thought it worth a trip. And I wasn’t disappointed. I even managed to dodge the rain.

I was prepared for all weathers though, but still managed to catch the sun a bit - I wasn’t quite expecting that. As I walked through Greenwich Park, it felt odd to be on what was my usual route to work, and so feeling the novelty I purposefully took more of the route. And it was good to see the familiar views.

I couldn’t help but stop and admire this lily which was almost as tall as me - isn’t it gorgeous?

I was hoping that the ‘special’ gate in the flowerbeds would be open, it isn’t always - but today it was. It’s my most favourite way to get in and out of Greenwich Park, and the view of the Queen’s House is one of the reasons why.

But it’s also a great view looking back towards the Observatory. As you can see by now the sun was out and Greenwich looks even more glorious in the sun.

The London Makers Market

The market is taking place on the first weekend of the month in the colonnades of one of the iconic buildings which is part of the Old Royal Naval College, and just one building away from where my office is - not that I’ve seen that for a while. It was great to see a good selection of artisan products from small businesses and social enterprises.

Unsurprisingly I left with a few purchases.

These moon and half moon earrings by Pivot appealed to me because they’re asymmetrical, and I immediately thought they’d be a good match for my asymmetrical bob. I wasn’t expecting to be blown away by their back story. Pivot are a social enterprise who make jewellery with people experiencing homelessness, helping them to pivot their lives. The products can be made in hostels and every piece of jewellery bought takes their makers one step closer to leaving the hostel.

Great designs and a really great initiative.

I also left with a selection of greetings cards. I am the type of person that has a stash of cards, which comes in useful when birthdays creep up on me - and because I often see the perfect card for someone at the opposite time of year to when their birthday is. The first set below is by Maria Zvaric who specialises in watercolour, loving bold colours and botanical illustrations; the second set are by Mari Burkinshaw who specialises in hand-drawn and painted elements which often include animals, nature and vintage finds.

My card supply is well and truly stocked up - and beautifully so too. I’ll be looking out for future markets to check out even more of these small artisan businesses, certain that I’ll discover some more fabulous finds.

Remembering nature on our doorstep

It’s all too easy to forget what’s on our doorsteps isn’t it? Even though in lockdown and since we’ve stayed relatively close to home. For us it’s easy to remember Greenwich Park, and of course Blackheath. But even so there’s bits of those we rarely visit. A few weekends ago now, we took an overly long walk to the shops around the corner. Partly to get out, and partly to see something a little bit different as cabin fever started to take hold, and of course ultimately to pick up supplies.

It threatened rain, but didn’t quite manage it. It had been raining and there was a distinct whiff of autumn in the air. The wet leaves were golden, and glistening started to confirm this.

We headed into Blackheath, stopped for a long overdue look at ‘my tree’ and then headed on into the private estate for some serious house spotting - something we did often when we first moved to the area - then through Blackheath Village and our plan was to go onto the shops. However once we were out, and as the rain was holding off a new plan was formed.

We were very tempted to stop for a pint in the pub edging the Heath (which you may know as Blackheath Common - something we never call it), but we didn’t. Instead we headed straight for Greenwich Park, entering through the gates you see runners streaming out of on Marathon days, of course, sadly not this year though. Turning right we were in the Flower Garden and it wasn’t long before the fungi on the bark had me curious.

It really was a peculiar pale pink colour. It’s not just a reflection of the brightness from the flowers below, which despite their raindrops were ever so vibrant.

As it was a day of unplanned plans, we made another unplanned move. Instead of taking our usual route to the shops, we headed into a part of the Heath we rarely visit, and which we refer to as Vanbrugh Pits. It’s a wilder space, with a huge dip in the middle. It’s not open, and not somewhere I’d walk through on my own.

But it was worth the detour. I’d forgotten its wild side, and forgotten the gorse it was home too.

It’s just as well we’d forgotten about this though, or else you’d be experiencing many, many more gorse shots here. I’ll try to resist, well at least a little.