notes

We went to Canterbury recently, you can get there in 1 hour, by a fast train. We went also to Dover to see the white cliffs. And we went for a walk in the country (Chartham). They like to walk here, in UK. There is a lot of guides on the internet, and the walking trails are well maintained.
Canterbury is a very quiet and very old. Bit boring after a while. But it has nice places, like La Trappiste Bar, where we spent a lot of time. They have a vegetarian breakfast there (we weren’t able to get up for 7.30 breakfast in our B&B).
The long (4-days long) weekend was really nice, it was raining only on the last day, so we came back home in the afternoon (after a nice breakfast in La Trappiste).

So, when my life’s boring and I have a lot of time I have nothing to write about, and when there are a lot of things happening – I have no time to write about them.

We were looking for a new flat from the mid February. It took a lot of phone-calls, emails and not-so-many viewings and finally we found what we wanted: 2-bedroom flat in Stoke Newington in North London. We moved the house on April 1st. The flat is nice and big, has a lot of storage room and a big kitchen. And we have a terrace (shared with the up-stairs neighbours). I already planted a lot of herbs in pots there, they have just started to germinate. And, additionally… I have a garden! Almost. It’s more something like a big flower bed in the back yard. It was neglected and abandoned and our landlord let me restore it. I’m so happy about it!

Johan’s parents visited us recently and we spent last week visiting London. We had a good time sightseeing with them. It would probably take some time for us to get organized and see it all by ourselves. We also had two nights out – we saw Mousetrap by Agatha Christie (which is the longest playing European show – 58 years now) and we went to St. Martin in the Fields Church to Mozart’s Requiem concert.

We went to Hampton Court – the court of Henry VIII. I liked gardens best. We took 2-hour walk – it’s still early spring, so they weren’t in full bloom yet. But there were no crowds yet too.

We visited St. Paul’s Cathedral. Johan and I climbed to dome’s galleries – 528 steps! Unfortunately the weather was foggy, but we enjoyed being up high anyway.

We also went to Garden Museum in which I volunteer. here was a beautiful weather that day, we had a lunch in the garden. I spotted a robin in the bushes and a ladybug on the Tradescant’s grave (famous XVII century gardeners).

I like Winter here very much. Yes, it rains more often then in Poland, but it so much warmer! It’s 10-12 C usually. I can ride a bike all year long, and there’s no need for heavy, thick layers of clothes. And sometimes it’s even sunny – like a few days ago. I had a long walk in a park trying to find hints of Spring. It’s almost there! Funny thing though – there is no smell of Spring. I mean the smell of defrosting soil – the ground doesn’t get frosted here.