May flowers and June gloom

I've been meaning for ages now to post my photos from the Chelsea flower show. I took about 150 that day, so I finally had a sec to cull the list down to the ones I liked best. A lot of ones from the indoor show didn't turn out as good as I'd intended (macro zoom + flash = very challenging), but I'm overall really pleased with how lovely some of them turned out. I could have been using crayola crayons and butcher paper and any images from the show would have turned out equally amazing, though! The place was just packed with some of the most insanely gorgeous gardens and flower exhibitions I could ever imagine. (It was also wall-to-wall people.) I have all sorts of grand ideas of what I want to do to my backyard once we get home - too bad I don't have those gardeners' budgets, too!

The most amusing part of the day was the sale at the end of the show. Most of the indoor exhibitors sell off their displays - they're not allowed to disassemble anything until 4pm, but once the bell rang at 4pm, it was chaos! A lot of plants were already tagged as sold, and people came to collect huge Japanese maples or fuscia trees or bamboo or ... My mom, who went with me that day, bought some exotic flowers from one place, and I went to the daffodil display (one of my favorites of the entire show... they're just such happy flowers!) and bought a giant bouquet for £2 that had maybe 2 dozen blooms in it.

The trees and flowers around London are all still quite happy, mostly because I don't think we've gone 5 days since the start of May without at least one day of rain. Mostly it's been very overcast. Winter here wasn't all that bad, and I thought to myself, "Hey, self... this whole England thing isn't that bad." Well, actually, it really does earn its reputation for a reason.

Summer faires that aren't so fair

Walking down to Portobello Rd this past Saturday for a haircut, I passed by a school that was holding a Summer Faire. There was a jumpy castle, bbq, games for the kids, etc. Nobody really seemed to be having that great a time, however, as it was POURING down rain.

Summer in England doesn't necessarily mean summer weather. There was however, a bit of sun on Sunday between 1pm and 2:15pm, which has thus far counted as "summer".

I have, however, discovered at least redeeming quality about summers here - Pimms with lemonade (which is fizzy here, like Sprite but more lemon-y). It's best served in pitchers with orange, lemon, mint, strawberries and cucumber slices. Alcoholic AND refeshing. Yum.

In other news, our next trip is booked for early July. This time, it's beach-flavored.

Blogging the blogger (and airing her addictions)

I've been blogged! A friend (and co-worker) and I did a presentation about the new feature we've recently launched. I was so excited Astraware was there, since, as they mentioned, I AM a total Bejeweled addict. (Those who don't know what it is really have no idea what they're missing... it really shortens those long tube journeys!)

Didn't find Heathcliff on the Heath

The weather finally changed for the better this weekend (horray!!) I attended a friend's piratey birthday party at a bar next to the Golden Hinde ship on the Thames. We all dressed up to varying degrees, had a good assortment of noise-making plastic cutlasses, and said "Arrrrrgh" quite a lot. It was quite a photographed event (and not just by those of us attending the party), and garnered a fair bit of attention from the 5-9 year-old crowd passing by.

Sunday Hank and I decided that spending the day outside in the sun would be good, so we took off for the posh neighborhood of Hampstead, specifically the Hampstead Heath. It's a massive open space with lots of ponds (some for swimming, some for ducks), hills, great views over London, and cool shady paths through the trees. I forget how little I get to hear birds singing in London. Our flat is quiet enough from traffic noise, but it's definitely lacking in nature.

While we were walking, I thought we took a path that was essentially circular, that would take us back to where we'd started. However, I really just managed to take us in a straight line to the opposite side of the 2-mile wide park, meaning we had to walk the 2 miles back to our starting place as the bus we needed doesn't run on Sundays. So, I've learned two things: 1) I will not survive long in the wilderness if I'm actually expected to get somewhere to be rescued, and 2) London transportation on Sundays and holidays is a pain in the arse.