celebrations – My London+

The world feels a little flat after all the celebrations over the last four days. I didn’t attend any of the London celebrations myself, but I did go into London on Wednesday last week, the day before everything kicked off. I went to see the decorations in Oxford Street, Regent Street, and around Covent Garden., before walking on to the Tower of London and London Bridge. On Saturday there were celebrations in the town square where I live with stalls and live events, which I went to. We decorated our house, and it was my birthday on Sunday! So, I was celebrating with the best.

Here are some of my personal reflections of this time.

This week there has been a birthday celebration. One of sons shares his birthday with Sir David Attenborough, and it happened to fall on the day of VE Day celebrations this year – that odd Friday Bank Holiday that put me in a tiss about where in the week I was!

I decided to do something different. Normally, we would go out for a meal as a celebration perhaps, but with lockdown that was off the agenda. Instead I arranged a garden games party. I baked a lemon cake and followed a recipe for homemade lemonade and made notes. I even put together an invite with a list of refreshments and games to email to the rest of the family stuck inside this house.

The weather was perfect and the afternoon was great fun. It’s amazing what you can devise with a clutch of sponge balls, flowerpots, buckets, sticks and chalk. It got everyone together, and despite smirks and no responses when I first mentioned it, they all pitched in, found their inner child and competitiveness and went with it.

The garden is bursting into life as new plants flower, and we had our delivery of plants ordered online from a company keen not to lose their stock while in lockdown. We purchased a random box of around nine plants and a bag of compost.

My peas have flowers, but my other veg is sadly silent, in that they haven’t even surfaced. I think they have perished. I am not a natural gardener, I think I may have said before, but I’ve worked on the garden more this year than any other year. This week I cleared another bed of plants that are taking over the whole space. My youngest son began weeding the lawn of plants that have rooted themselves into it. The task is endless and I swear there will be no grass left if everything that shouldn’t be there is removed. However, my son has become addicted to weeding, so let’s not say too much! He says it is therapeutic and who am I to argue? I find cleaning out the filter of the hoover therapeutic (when I’m in the mood), so each to their own, I say.

From the archive I have something a little different. In 2016 my son told me about a cars and bike meet within walking distance of us. I’m not sure if this is a regular thing, but we went over for a look. Although I’ve never been on a motorbike I do have a bit of a thing for them, and maybe one day I’ll get to travel on the back of one (though as I get older I get more nervous about it). Anyway here is a selection of cars and bikes I took photos of that day. If it’s not your thing there will be something different next week. Take care.