The Great Outdoorswoman

It's raining.

Not just a sprinkling, either. It's coming down in a lovely English shower. Hurrah!!! First good rain we've had in daylight since I moved into this flat (not that I'm complaining about the recent spate of Spring weather). This evening, after a solid few hours of work, I set out into the downpour, armed with not-quite-waterproof jacket and umbrella, in search of my free evening newspaper (I like to do the crossword). Unfortunately I only realised once I reached the shops that this newspaper doesn't come on weekends. Made a cursory purchase (largely, I suspect, to stop from feeling foolish for coming all that way for nothing in the rain) and splashed off home through the puddles. Tonight I am having leftover thai chicken curry and watching Tootsie. Fail to see how it gets any better than THAT.

Thought I'd make this blog about Highgate Wood. This enclosed wood is a short bus ride (or a medium walk) away from where I live in Muswell Hill, and it's marvellous. When you get to the middle you might as well not be in London, surrounded as you are by mossy tree stumps and tall trunks, and sprinklings of little white flowers. These photos are from a little earlier in the Spring, so while it's gotten leafier since then, I still like the woodsiness of it all.

I think plans are afoot to try to stop the spread of ivy. They've got a job ahead of them.

Also, I managed to get this photo of a robin before the little bugger flew away.

Gotcha!

The funny thing is that getting into the wood is a bit of work - they've constructed these weird panelled fences which, possibly, at one stage, were supposed to keep bikes out (? - either that or keep deer in), the upshot being that there's a very narrow space through which people have to squeeze before they can enter the wood. And yet I see prams and buggies aplenty. God knows how they got in - I suspect sheer force of will on the part of the mother. "We're going to have a nice walk in this wood if it's the LAST THING I DO!"

Then there are the dogs that run through this place - let off their leashes and bolting about as if they can't believe their luck. One little spaniel kept getting caught in the underbrush - every now and then you'd here semi-panicked yelps coming from the clumps of branches and leaves, until his owner would whistle and he'd be tearing out of there again, loving it.

In house news, my noisy upstairs neighbours have (noisily) departed for the long weekend, it seems, which means I have a few nights where I don't have to listen to medicine balls being rolled about the place (or whatever they're doing) or - much less frequently but infinitely worse - noisy "relations". God bless the iPod and its headphones, is all I can say.

Meanwhile things continue to potter along. This week I ventured towards the Southbank for a place I know that sells used books. Unfortunately the wind and on-and-off rain meant they had to batten down the hatches, but there's something nice, even in the middle of the jubilee bridges, where the wind is blowing a gale - there's something very Londonish about the river Thames on a cloudy day. Also there's something random, and therefore quite wonderful happening in London - all over, these Asian Elephant statues have been placed, each painted in a unique way, to protest and raise money to save the endangered species. Raise money how? Apparently they're for sale. I SO want one. This one is - for some reason - decorated with the titles of a very English film series. Photo courtesy of my fancy new phone:

Off to bed now. Toodles!