Hyding in the park

So we come, inevitably, to the Hyde Park section of this blog. Inevitably, because it is one of my very favourite parts of London, in just about any weather.

This particular day (when I took the photos) was a little overcast, covering everything in a silvery sort of light. Spring had officially, if not visibly, begun, and the daffodils were making themselves known. I made sure of this by getting really, really close.

I made my way almost by autopilot to the Longwater, which is the start of the Serpentine river that bisects the park and is very pretty. A favourite of waterbirds in general, today there was a rather haughty-looking swan who was, despite his (or her) obvious disdain for humans was nevertheless looking for food, allowing me to get quite close.

Predictably, he swam away as soon as he realised I didn't have any for him.


Back to the water itself, the longwater is headed with a number of fountains, the most interesting of which is this one, with the little bowl-bearer peering out from under the water drops and drinking pigeons to keep an eye on things.
Or perhaps just having a look at these huggy bears.

This photo I like because my camera has, of its own accord, captured the drops as they pour from this vessel.


I have not, I'm sorry to say, taken a photo of Peter Pan, yet. He was a bit swarming with children last time, but I'll get him...

My absolute favourite part of the park, however, the part that brings me back again and again, gazing wistfully and wishing that somehow I could contrive to live there, is the caretaker's cottage at the Lancaster Gate entrance to the park. Nestled perfectly on a small rise, it honestly seems to be the perfect building for its surroundings. I imagine the squirrels like it just as much as I do, which I maintain is a good thing (I have been here for a month now and have failed to see more than one squirrel. What's going on? Whither squrls?). Anyway, here it is.

Running out of photos, now, although I still have a few up my sleeve. I may have to buy a new charger...

Hugs to all.

Flarz.

So right now my camera battery has thrown up its little lithium hands and said "no more!", making the taking of further photos impossible. I got a lot done before this happened, though, so we'll have something to occupy ourselves.

On Easter Sunday I went to Kew Gardens, where I had heard tell there was to be an easter egg hunt. The "hunt" part was sadly underwhelming, and rather than searching for little foil wrappers in the flower beds I was walking sheepishly up to people dressed as giant venus fly traps, bumble bees and SOMETHING black and white, asking for my little token which, when I gathered three, were presented amongst the little persons to the Easter Bunny, and there I claimed my chocolate egg. These are the photos I took on my search for tokens:

An extraordinarily pretty gazebo.

Here's a girl playing in a puddle. I have called it: "Girl in puddle":

In fact, it's difficult to photograph kids without their parents getting antsy, but they're the only size of people doing interesting things. At any rate, I'm pretty proud of this shot:

A rare moment of sun on some lovely pink blossoms:

And in case you are tiring of flowers, here's a peacock doing what it does best. Showing off to the rest of the animal kingdom:

(I should admit at this point that after I took its photo I chased the bird around for a bit, trying to get a feather. Turns out they're pretty attached to them. And not very nice.)

The rest of the garden was really nice, and I especially liked the bluebells, or at least the blue-coloured flowers. Of which here is a picture:

I think they're star flowers, actually...aha, here are some bluebells:

I got quite obsessed with these flowers, the hunt for which took me to the far end of the park to the alleged "badger sett" which, I am sorry to report, contained no badgers, only small children running around a giant dirt burrow. Sigh. Still, I bought a teeny souvenir badger at the gift shop to console myself.

At the back of Kew is Queen Charlotte's cottage, which was used purely and entirely as a picnic house. There are two rooms: one to display art, another for the "picnic" (is it still a picnic if it's inside?). And here I've been all my life using a rug like a sucker. The house itself was nice enough, but the bluebells I was promised were noticably absent. Displeased. Observe on the right: no bluebells! But in its stead a really gorgeous little wood. A "prettyish little wilderness" if you will.

On through the park, and encountering a number of strange objects, including the worlds most enormous banksia pod (you should've seen the tree):

A slumbering statue:

And, for some unknown reason, a Chinese pagoda:

Around this point I went a little crazy with my macro settings.

There's more, of course (oho! there's MORE) but I'll leave you with this last shot, taken at one of the gardens I passed on my way back to the train station.

Christina Zissis, esq.

Hello everyone!

Once upon a time there was a girl who made the (slightly terrifying) decision to leave Australia, in March 2010, for the United Kingdom and, locally, London. Once she found a place to live and acquired home internet, she bent to the clamouring of voices who cried: "What the heck/gosh darn/insert expletive are you doing over there?"

This is basically going to be a portal for pictures, I suppose, and if I get around to it, some (hopefully) vaguely interesting anecdotes.

Let's begin with this:

The smallest bedroom in the smallest hotel in all of London, or so I assume. That door on the right is to the bathroom, which while very convenient could not, due to the aforementioned smallness, open all the way, and many's the time I was brought to grief on the door handle. Still, it was warm and, apart from the odd (false) fire alarm, safe, and it had a tv. That massive lump in the corner is part of my suitcase, 32kg of which I had to drag up 5 flights of stairs. UNpleasant.

That first week I looked at various places for possible living and did my best to see the city in the infrequent spots of non-rain between the very frequent spots of rain. I'll go into that later, but first I did find a flat: a lovely, teeny tiny flat in a lovely street, on the lovely, gorgeous ground floor. Here it is:

The living room, although I have a real bin now:

The bedroom, down three steps and with Simplet (it's French for Dopey) by the bed:

My pretty appliances and makeshift utensil holder:

Well...you know...

Some more home furnishings:

Oh, and here are some cookies I made!

They were delicious :) And gone about five minutes after this photo was taken.