Tag: walk (page 5 of 8)

December 19, 2014 / 0 Comments

Christmas Shopping in London

I spent the day by myself wandering in and out of my favourite London spots. I had a bit of Christmas shopping to do and my path took me from one end to the other. I passed the lego reindeer in Covent Garden:

The “Blush” entitled Paddington Bear designed by Nicole Kidman:

I went shopping at Fortnum & Masons, always a sumptuous feast for the eyes:

I stopped by Lina’s for some Italian Christmas pastries:

And I treated myself to an afternoon showing of “It’s A Wonderful Life” at the Prince Charles Cinema. Which is one of the greatest little movie houses in the world! It was bitterly cold outside, but I was snuggled up with popcorn and a coke watching an old black and white Christmas movie! It was a day of bliss!

The merry-go-round at the Leicester Square Christmas Market, where I waited for Mr. Michie to meet me for a dinner date:

I love when we get to have totally un-interupted time together. We even went past a Christmas Party Bus on our way home, too cute!

December 12, 2014 / 0 Comments

Brewer Street

I use a number of shortcuts streets when I’m traveling around central London. One of my favourite is Brewer Street. I had an errand to run tonight on Carnaby Street, then I slipped through Kingly Court to pick up some wonton soup for us at Cha Cha Moon and finally I headed to Whole Foods to grab a couple of things on my way home. Brewer Street was my cut through.

My favourite Italian Deli, Lina’s, is on Brewer Street as well as a sweet ice cream parlour. It’s one of those great streets, you know? The brick, the colours, the buildings. It’s the kind of street that looks like it could have been on an album cover in the 70s or 80s, with Bob Dylan walking down the middle of the road or something along those lines.

It always looks pretty, but there is a magic to it at Christmas. I snapped a picture of the twinkle lights overhead as I waited to cross the street tonight. It made me smile. Here’s to finding joy in the little things and here’s to the weekend, long may it last.

December 1, 2014 / 2 Comments

A Chilly Morning

It was cold this morning. The wind whipped my hair around my face as I walked to the train station in the dark. This is the first morning that it has remained dark for the majority of my journey into work. Now and then I would see glimpses of a lit window or the light from another train passing us, illuminating the arch of the trees and highlighting the tracks beside us, before the world returned to obscurity. It felt almost like a Dickensian winter morning outside. I could appreciate the feeling that the glow of a candlelit window promised after traveling for so long in the blackness of shadows.

The air was fresh and clean coming off of the river this morning and as chilly as it was I decided to take a longer walk to work. It made my cheeks turn pink and my nose run, but I was so happy. My detour route takes me by some hidden gems. The air smelled of pine needles as I passed by a row of houses. There were piles of branches on the curb that were the shaved off remnants of Christmas trees. Shorn around the base to fit inside their tree stand. There were still plenty of leaves underfoot that crackled and crunched as I walked over them. Unusually, I passed no one for ages, it was bliss, the world was simply mine.

October 10, 2014 / 0 Comments

The End of the Week

It was raining as I left work today, but I stopped to capture this sumptuous hydrangea blossom. It’s hues deepening with the progression of autumn. We have reached the end of the week, the house feels still, the candles are lit, music is playing, dinner is in the oven, the dryer is whirring away and I feel happy, peaceful. The weekend has begun.

September 23, 2014 / 0 Comments

The First Day of Fall

It has felt autumnal all day. This morning was crispy and although the sun came out it never truly felt warm. I went for a walk in the park over lunch and spotted an old bench, spotted with lichen. The sun was streaming through the leaves overhead and undulating back and forth over a small patch, almost as if the sun was beaming through the water on a patch of coral. It made me smile.

September 21, 2014 / 0 Comments

A Walk

We stayed in on Saturday, Mr. Michie was a bit under the weather. Which was just fine. I cleaned the house, he rested, we listened to music, made dinner, the house was calm and quiet. It was a lovely feeling compared to the hustle and bustle of the week.

Today we ran in to Marylebone as I needed to run a few errands and Mr. Michie came with me. The day was cool and sunny, it felt like Autumn. We took a short stroll through Regent’s Park to sit beside the miniature waterfall within the island part of the Japanese garden. Being there restores my soul. I feel as if I have stepped in to another world and it is all my own.

Slowly, the leaves are beginning to change, there were the hints of gold and red and orange around us. As we headed back out we walked by a ginormous sunflower that was starting to lean over as the starburst of a flower head was just to heavy.

We stopped by the Farmer’s Market before heading home. The air was filled with the scents of sausages being freshly cooked, sizzling away in a large cast iron skillet with onions slowly browning next to them and the heady scent of apples mixing with that to perfume the air in an intoxicating way.

We stopped by one stall selling a variety of vegetables and fresh eggs. He had the most beautiful duck egg blue fleshed heirloom pumpkins. One of them just jumped right in to my hands and came home with me. It was lovely to be out for a few hours, that is not something we normally do on a Sunday as work seems to take it over, but I was happy to reclaim back some time just for us.

September 19, 2014 / 0 Comments

A Ray of Sunshine

This was my brief glimpse of the sun this morning. It tried so hard to peak out from behind the clouds, but alas, the clouds won and the sky has turned to ash grey again.

It rained last night and the morning air felt clean. The air was crisp, but by the time I made it into the city, it had started to become muggy. Everyone was moving slower this morning. Not the usual exciting pace a Friday morning normally has. Maybe it is the weather, it can’t decide whether it should be hot or be cold. Everyone seems tired, worn out already, waiting for a pause to catch their breath.

This has been such a busy week, I will confess, that I have been living for today. Waiting for a break. I got back in the pool for the first time since our summer vacation this week to put in more hours towards my scuba certification. I was a little rusty, but I remembered the majority of it! It was wonderful to feel the weight of the tank on my back and the rush of water washing over me as I jumped in. I love being under the water, it is a certain kind of freedom.

I have tried very hard to come in to my space this week. But, it has proved difficult. I must work harder to find my balance as this little space is also a freedom for me. A freedom to write, to think, to share.

There are papers to grade this weekend, a cottage to clean and hopefully a long meandering walk through the park. I can feel the Japanese Garden in Regent’s Park calling my name. I want to walk from one end to the other and cut down our “secret” path that is behind the London Zoo, so we can look down at the animals from the hill. The camels are normally outside munching away and if we are lucky the warthogs will be out lying in the mud when we cross the bridge.

Here’s to the weekend, long may it last.

March 29, 2014 / 0 Comments

Radiohead, Film Editing & The Weekend

I am a Radiohead fan. I have an old concert t-shirt of theirs I stole from Mr. Michie many many moons ago, it is perfectly soft. He is an even bigger Radiohead fan and so he smiled sweetly and closed his eyes when I played this for him this chilly Saturday morning, found via The Fox is Black.

I have a film to finish editing this weekend that will go on display along with 14 other films in St. John Smith’s Square Music Hall this week. It is an abstract film that will accompany the symphony. It has been an interesting process for me as I have never made a piece of abstract film before. I will post the film and share more on that soon.

Oh, the weekend! Those two words: THE WEEKEND, hark so gloriously to my ears. This week has been insanely busy, with more than a few late nights. It is funny to think that the place you call home, the place you spend time creating as an oasis is sometimes the place you spend your least amount of time in. I have spent more time outside of my house than in it this week. Hmm, I think this work/life balance thing needs some reconsideration.

We plan to do a lot of walking this weekend, a little coffee drinking, a bit of shopping as I am working on putting together some surprise packages and a lot of delicious eating and being in each other’s company. Being with Mr. Michie makes me happy.

March 19, 2014 / 0 Comments

Magnolia liliiflora

Magnolia liliiflora, or as I have always called them Japanese or sometimes tulip magnolias practically line a particular street that I stroll down on my walk to school in the morning.

They are all in full bloom and every single one, is this blushing creamy, pinky, purpley hue. They are dazzling to see. The ground is strewn with their petals. I feel guilty walking across the delicate fallen who mark my path. They look almost sacred as if they line the pathway to a mountain temple where a little Buddha sits in waiting.

March 15, 2014 / 0 Comments

Pink Blossoms

We took a stroll through Regent’s Park today and the trees were full of blossoms. When the wind blew, the blossoms fluttered away in a swarm all around us, like delicate pink snowflakes. We were in a snowstorm of Spring.