Celebrating a decade of blogging (5410)

I chose five significant London places to visit to celebrate my ten years of blogging (5410). They were chosen to celebrate various ideas I have been exploring with my writing and creative work.

1. Covent Garden

Covent Garden is a vibrant and inspirational place. It features a handmade craft market, street entertainment and places to refresh yourself. It can be noisy and busy, but provides a rich and free London experience. 


2. Tate Modern



 

Tate Modern has been our favourite art gallery to visit over the past twenty years. It is superbly located by the Thames and the Millennium Bridge. Art and craft is very important to our lives and wellbeing. I particularly enjoy the surrealists.


3. Greenwich Observatory

 
Greenwich is quite a journey for us, so we don't go there very often. Even so we have seen some marvelous star shows in the observatory and also enjoy the time and space museum and the park and the river. It fits in well with our interest in stargazing, the planets and space therapy.


4. Kew Gardens

Me and my dad both worked in Kew Gardens and my dad's ashes are scattered here. It has featured in this blog on a number of occasions for a number of reasons and holds a special place in my heart.

5. Regent's Park





I have visited Regent's Park a number of times over the years, mostly to visit London Zoo. My daughter attended the Friendly Spider programme here in 2018 and we have since explored different areas of the park. There is a Japanese Garden in Regent's Park which is very handy for visualizations in our bed time meditations.

Celebrating 10 years of blogging (5410)

It's been rather a stressful ten years, but maybe that's just life. My blog has helped to keep me going, but maybe it's time for a break. These are the five London places I hope to visit this year to help celebrate my blog turning ten.

1. Covent Garden
2. Tate Modern
3. Greenwich Observatory
4. Kew Gardens
5. Japanese Garden @ Regent's Park

The Ghost Station

I have always found the London Underground fascinating, the deep tunnels, the map that isn't really a map but a diagram, the Labyrinth Art designs which all London Underground stations possess. Above is an underground poem I rediscovered in my great clear out at the end of 2018. Below are a couple of my own London Underground inspired designs.

Garden Therapy

    

In some ways garden therapy can be more accessible than forest therapy. Forests are wild, as nature intended, gardens are more under control, nature with human intervention, a bit more organised. One great thing about living in London has been my association with Kew Gardens. My dad used to work here, his ashes are scattered here, I used to work next door. We mostly visit it in the Spring and Summer. These are some of my favourite photos from our frequent visits.

   

A tale of three cities

From a young age I was brought up on the idea that London, Paris and New York were the most glamourous, happening cities in the world. That's probably not true anymore, if it ever was, but I think they are still, all three, worth at least a brief visit. These are some further thoughts on these three great cities.

London

I've been living in London for over 50 years. There is something liberating about a city. You can quite easily feel lost and anonymous, but people, food and shelter never feel far away. These days I seek solitude and freedom in the middle of a city, amongst strangers. Some of my favourite places and things to do in London can be found by following my London links.

Paris

I have visited Paris about five times in my life, first in 1990 and lastly in 2015. Over those twenty-five years, much has stayed the same. Paris is romantic and edgy and everything in between. I have fond memories of it. To find out more about me and Paris, please follow my Paris links.



New York

Possibly the best week of my life was the week I spent in New York in 2017, just before I turned 50. It was quite a tiring time, I was out sight-seeing from 8.30 in the morning until 8.30 in the evening. I saw everything I wanted to see and feel I don't need to go back. You can find out more about my 5B450 and NYC adventures by using the search bar and the link.

5-4-5b450 (5455)

It occurred to me recently that in 2022, it would be 5 years since I completed my 5b450 project. To celebrate this anniversary I decided to reflect on 5 things I have achieved over the past few years which follow on from my 5b450 goals.

1. Visit Belfast 4 visit New York City

Visiting New York was the biggest and best part of 5b450. My travel plans have been much more modest since then. Even so it took one and a half years for me to get to Belfast because of the Covid19 lockdown. Belfast was the last of the UK capital cities I hadn't seen, I thought is was a very good city to visit and I'm glad I finally made it there in June 2021.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2. Paint garage 4 redecorate house

One thing that was easier to do in the lockdown of 2020 was paint the garage. I wasn't going anywhere much and I spent more time in the garden looking at the garage. It was looking quite shabby and I decided to paint it grey. It took me two weeks doing a bit everyday.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3. Do a reading challenge 4 join a book club

My time at the book club was short lived, possibly due to 2018 being a very difficult year. I began to set myself reading challenges in 2019. I have set myself a special 6 book challenge for the first half of 2022, it features books related to my original 5b450 project.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

4. Work on the Calm Book 4 a School of Life event

I very much enjoyed the face-to-face 'How to be serene' event in 2017. In 2020 we purchased the School of Life's 'Small Pleasures' cards to help us through lockdown. For Christmas 2021 I purchased 'The Calm Book' for Amy and I to work through in 2022.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 5. See another play 4 see a play at the Globe

After seeing 'Romeo and Juliet' in May 2017 we managed to see three more plays before the pandemic hit, the last one being The Twilight Zone at the Ambassadors Theatre in April 2019. I hope we will see another play in a theatre someday, but I don't know what or where or when.

Remembering 2012

Twenty-twelve feels like it was quite a successful year for me and Britain. It was dominated by the London Olympics which meant my hometown had a celebratory feeling about it for much of the year. It is nice to look back on a year that was about achievement, large and small, and visiting the London Olympic park in July 2020 bought it all back to me.

  

  

Below are the top 12 reasons why 2012 was such a special year for me and my family.

1.    The 2012 London Olympics

2.    Helped with Golden Wedding Anniversary celebrations for mum and dad

3.    Last holidays with my dad to Cornwall and Edinburgh

4.    Amy’s Saturday morning French class

5.    Amy’s singing class and concert

6.    Church concerts every first Sunday of the month

7.    Played piano at two of my piano teacher’s concerts

8.    Success with piano teaching (3 summer certificates including 2 merits)

9.    Did my piano teaching diploma

10.  Wrote ‘The Good Mothers’ Club’

11.  Produced cards, pictures, dolls for the church Summer Fair

12.  Enjoyed BBC favourites; Outnumbered, Merlin, Dr Who

25 Years in the NHS

I started work in my NHS London library in September 1997, a month after the death of Princess Diana. Celebrating 25 years of working in the NHS feels like a big thing. Recent years have been quite fraught, so I thought I would celebrate by living a more wellbeing-friendly life. These are the five areas I will concentrate on.

1. Enjoy Music, Art and Literature

2. Mindfully Meditate everyday

3. Continue with Ecotherapy

4. Help five people

5. Live a good enough life

Hopefully I will review my celebrations later in the year.

 

 

Water Therapy

When I was going through a very bad time in 2018 I had strong feelings that what I wanted to do most was to be by water; by rivers, the canal, by the sea, lakes and ponds. I just wanted to walk, sit or stand by water, to contemplate it and feel myself moving along with the flow of life. I still feel this way, I especially want to be by the sea, especially to live near it. We and the world are mostly water, so I guess this makes sense.

25 years in our London House

There were a lot of anniversaries in 2020 and I nearly forgot about two important silver anniversaries coming up in 2021 and 2022 to do with my home and my work. In August 2021 it will be twenty-five years since I moved into our London house. To celebrate I hope to visit five London places that I haven't got round to visiting before. These are

1. 2012 Olympic Park

2. Chiswick House and Gardens

3. Mile End Park

4. The Serpentine @ Hyde Park

5. Hayward Gallery, South Bank Centre

I hope to review my visits throughout this year.

The Missing Links 2020

2020 seems to have been a difficult year for everyone, so I was very pleased to visit many places on my 'Missing Links' list over the summer and autumn.

 

 

Cromer, Norfolk

 

It was very good that we managed to go on our summer holiday at the end of August. Cromer was small and pretty. Because of Covid19 restrictions we ended up having takeaway pizza every evening. It was very pleasant taking the bus to Wells-next-the-sea and visiting the Amazona Zoo.

Chiswick House Gardens

 

 

We visited Chiswick House Gardens in July. The house itself was closed but the gardens were well worth visiting and the cafe was open.

 

Mile End Park

 

 

 

I was not initially impressed with Mile End Park until I realised that the best bits lay over the other side of the road with the eco park, the arts park and a lovely walk by Regent's Canal.

The Serpentine @ Hyde Park

 

 

 

Hyde Park is the biggest park in London and the Serpentine is a substantial body of water. The main gallery was closed in October so we visited the Sackler Gallery instead, which was showing an eco-exhibition about the importance of trees, we had a relaxing coffee in the lido café before coming home.

2012 Olympic Park

 

 

 

I was very pleased to finally visit the 2012 Olympic Park, after meaning to visit it since 2013. We visited it on a rather grey summer's day, but still had a lovely time despite the Covid 19 restrictions and a bit of wind and rain. We had coffee and enjoyed seeing the stadium, the rings and the River Lea.

 

 

Alderglade, Uxbridge

 

 

 

We visited the first part of the Colne River Nature Reserve in Harefield at the beginning of March just before Lockdown kicked in. I found that another part of the nature reserve which could easily be reached by public transport was Alderglade. In July 2020 we set out in search of Alderglade, which was a walk from Uxbridge and along the River Fray. It was a very pleasant day and we ended our time there by drinking Guiness in the Swan and Bottle.

25 years of yoga

I worked out that it was probably September 1995 when I took part in my first yoga class in Uxbridge. My daughter and I did quite a bit of yoga in 2018, most memorably Mindful Yoga at the West London Bhuddist Centre near Hyde Park. I started doing yoga again in August 2020, which is why I started reflecting on those Uxbridge classes. My yoga practise centres around the following 7 yoga poses which I find easy enough to do regularly.

1. Easy pose

2. Cat and Cow

3. Cobra

4. Crocodile

5. Forward Bend

6. Bridge

7. Corpse

London parks of the central line

I have been exploring different places in London throughout my life. In the Lockdown we have mainly been exploring parks, which has led me to this reflective post on London parks of the Central Line.

1. Holland Park

The nearest big London park to us is Holland Park. I was very keen to visit this park in Autumn 2019. We were looking for a waterfall to help with a bedtime visualisation meditation. We found one in the beautiful, Japanese, Kyoto Garden in the heart of Holland Park. The waterfall flows into a pretty pond full of goldfish. Elsewhere in the garden are wonderful trees, architectural planting, rocks and lawns. It was well worth visiting.


2. Hyde Park

Hyde Park is so vast it is served by three Central Line Stations (Queensway, Lancaster Gate, Marble Arch). We have visited it on numerous occasions over the years. One memorable occasion was January 2011 when we visited Winter Wonderland, we also spent some time around the Princess Diana memorial fountain by the Serpentine. I think it is good to visit parks at different times of the year.

3. Mile End Park

Mile End Park is a surprising park in Tower Hamlets. My favourite parts were the Arts Park and the Eco Park. It also includes a lovely walk by the Regent's Canal. I wasn't sure what this park would be like in real life so I ended up being pleasantly surprised.

4. 2012 Olympic Park

It took 8 years for us to visit the Olympic Park at Stratford. When we first wanted to visit it, in 2013, it was all locked up. It was wonderful to finally visit it in July 2020. There were still bits that remained unfinished and bits that were closed due to the Covid19 Lockdown. I really liked seeing the Olympic rings, the West Ham football stadium and the orbital spiral podium up-close and personal. It was also good to stand on a bridge and take in a breathtaking view of the River Lea.