Holly's Collar

It was blowing a gale out there yesterday, with wind gusts up to 40 mph and spattering rain. Fortunately it wasn't very cold -- about 58º F (or 14.4º C). Olga wasn't much interested in walking, so I took a long walk on my own westward along the beach, trudging over the shingle with the wind whipping my scarf furiously.

My legs got a workout, that's for sure. As some of you have mentioned in comments, walking on shingle -- as this sort of pebbly beach is known -- is not easy! By the time I got past Pevensey Bay town I was concerned about the state of my shoes and figured I'd come back via the coast road.

First I popped into town to buy a couple of last-minute items -- Dave wanted a few more potatoes, I wanted some apples, and we needed paper towels. I also went to the local bakery and picked up some shortbread Christmas cookies, which are so thick they're practically Christmas cakes!

They're cute, but they're not my favorite thing.

A couple of days ago, I found this dog collar sitting on a wall near our cottage. It had a phone number on it so I called the owner and told her more or less where it was. Well, yesterday the collar was still sitting there, so either I wasn't specific enough in my directions or she wasn't motivated enough to collect it. Poor Holly, still collarless.

I also found, on my beach odyssey, an almost perfectly spherical white rock about the size of a ping-pong ball. I couldn't resist picking it up as a souvenir. It's like a miniature version of the moon.

I got back to the house around lunchtime and spent the afternoon reading. It's so great being here, with only the sounds of the wind and the waves -- no Russians pounding and sawing upstairs (or playing video games or practicing the piano), no sirens, no distractions.

Last night we made cocktails and Dave even got the fireplace going. Olga looks exasperated by the whole affair -- I'm reminded of the phrase "hangdog expression" -- but it was actually quite easy. We tried to Zoom with his family but his sisters didn't show up, so we're not sure whether they were confused about the day or what. We talked to his parents, though.

I'll text my brother later today. It's strange to think this is the first Christmas without our mom. Because she'd been ill with dementia for several years before she died in July, I guess she felt absent even if she physically wasn't. As I've said before, that slow departure seemed to spare me a lot of grief, or at least spread it out over time.

Dave has plans for beef bourguignon for our Christmas dinner, and maybe we'll watch "Maestro," Bradley Cooper's movie about Leonard Bernstein. Otherwise there will be more reading and more windy walks!

Merry Christmas, blog readers!

O Tannenbaum

Have I mentioned that our little beach abode comes with a Christmas tree? A festive touch for the holiday season! There are also random sprigs of plastic holly and pine dangling from various lampshades and shelves. (No elves on the shelves, though.) I could do without the latter adornments but they don't bother me enough to take them down.

Olga and I took an adventurous walk on the beach yesterday. I don't think she's crazy about the pebbles -- I remember thinking that the last time we were here, too. Dave's theory is that they hurt her toes. But I see other dogs romping around on the pebbles like they're nothing, so I'm not sure actual pain is involved. I think they're just different from what she's used to. Our girl is a creature of habit.

"STOP TAKING MY PICTURE!"

Anyway, we had a long-ish walk up toward town, and then in the afternoon we took another walk along the road in the other direction, through a nearby council estate (public housing complex). I found a little free library in an old phone booth, positively packed to the rafters with paperback books. I picked up a Michael Connelly "Bosch" novel that ought to be good reading on our trip to L.A. in February.

The weather yesterday wasn't too bad -- partly cloudy, with some spectacular crepuscular rays over the water. (I learned that term from former blogger Robin, who I miss in blogland but I still see on Facebook. Hi Robin, if you're reading!)

Last night the weather got rougher and windier and this morning the deck is wet, so we've also been getting some rain. The wind creates a sort of low rumble in the house, a fluctuating background hum that along with the susurration of the waves isn't unpleasant. We haven't tried to use the fireplace yet -- it's not very cold and we don't have much wood, and I'm leaving it up to Dave whether he wants to launch that project. So far it seems more trouble than it's worth!

How are we entertaining ourselves? Well, I spent almost all day reading, polishing off two more New Yorkers (my goal is to go home with NO magazines) and getting 100 pages into a novel, "Little Deaths" by Emma Flint, which I'm finding quite good.

We also saw two hilarious shows on the BBC last night -- last year's "Motherland" Christmas special, which included poignant moments, and "Mandy." And we're one episode away from concluding "The Crown."

The dog tried once again to wake me up at 4:45 a.m., but this time I was smart enough to check the clock and keep her in bed until 6 a.m. So hopefully I won't be a zombie all day.

We're Here

Dave, Olga and I made it to Pevensey Bay yesterday. The trip was not without adventure -- we managed to board the wrong train, which we did because the ticket agent at London Bridge told us to go to Platform 7 NOW as our train would be leaving in a matter of minutes. We were a little too efficient and speedy and caught the train BEFORE our train, which turned out to be headed to Gravesend, east of the city, rather than southward.

We realized our mistake almost immediately and I was dismayed because I thought we'd have to backtrack, and we had an anxious dog and a HUGE suitcase, but it turned out when we got off at the next station we could simply catch another train from there headed in the right direction. So it all worked out fine.

Olga insisted on sitting on my foot as we waited for the right train. I don't know if that's because the pavement was cold or maybe she just wanted reassurance that I wouldn't sneak away without her.

She was happy when we were on board, headed to St. Leonards Warrior Square (which is a great name for a train station) and then Pevensey. Here the train was running right alongside the English Channel, which was just beyond those trees, as the sun was setting. Quite picturesque except for the dirty window.

Stone's Throw cottage is the same as it was when we were here in July, which isn't a surprise, I suppose. Poseidon still presides over the garden (top photo, at sunset) and all the furniture is the same. We haven't even had a chance to take a walk yet, because it got dark almost as soon as we got here. Instead we ordered groceries and take-away food, settled in and watched "Oppenheimer"...

...which was a good movie, but rather jumpily edited and perhaps a bit overlong. I fell asleep in the middle for about 15 minutes and woke up and felt no need to see what I'd missed.

This morning Olga was raring to go at 4:45 a.m. I got up only because I didn't immediately realize how early it still was. There's a timelessness during these dark winter days, being in a strange house with a glass wall looking out on only blackness. It's like being in a room with no windows. We'll see what daylight brings!

Cow and Lizard

The colorfully painted bovine outside the Cricklewood train station is decorated in holiday finery. This fiberglass beast has been there since 2018, apparently because the station stands on land that was once known as "Cow Green." It was donated by a local business and painted by kids at a nearby school.

I would have thought it was a bull, given the horns, but apparently cows have horns too.

I saw it yesterday when I took a walk through Cricklewood, for no particular reason other than to get out of the house and get some exercise.

The doorway next to the minimalist antique store on Mill Lane, which doesn't appear to be an antique store anymore, is decorated with a gigantic, eye-catching bow.

And here's how our high street looks in the early mornings, when I walk Olga and no one is out and about.

Today we're going to pack up and head on down to Pevensey Bay, where we'll be spending the next week on the pebbly, wintry beach. The weather calls for rain, which sounds fabulous to me. Lots of reading time by the fire! Olga will go with us on the train as she did in June.

I got happy news yesterday from Linda Sue, who bought the stuffed lizard that we saw in a Dulwich charity shop a few days ago, and that I regretted leaving behind:

"He is yours," she wrote. "Hand woven, hand dyed, hand stitched!"

Christmas has come early for me! Thanks, Linda Sue! As you can see, Mr. Lizard is temporarily resident at the Spider Hole until she and I meet up again.

Dave and I also exchanged our gifts last night, so we don't have to schlep them to Pevensey Bay. I got him a couple of kitchen gadgets that he wanted/needed, and he got me a shirt and a very bizarre book related to some YouTube channel he follows. I think he's the one who wanted the book, but anyway...the shirt has lemons all over it, which he said was a tribute to my recent citrus tree crimes. (The tree is outside now, by the way, where it will remain for the time being given that we're having relatively warm temperatures, only reaching the mid-40s at night.)

And now, off to the beach!

Prepare to be Awed

I am getting a late start this morning, given that I didn't wake up until almost 8 a.m.! We were out a bit later than usual last night in order to allow the cleaners to do their thing in our flat. More about that in a moment.

First, yesterday began dramatically when I was walking Olga in the morning. Down the street there were about eight magpies all squawking and chattering from rooftops and aerials surrounding one front garden. (Magpies are VERY LOUD when they want to be.) I thought, "There must be a cat down there." But I looked and instead saw a hawk, sitting on the garden wall and eating a bird. I don't know whether that bird was a magpie, or the magpies were simply offended by the hawk's presence, but they sure were making a racket.

I tried to take a picture but they were across the street from me and I only had my phone, and I didn't want to get closer with Olga for fear of scaring the hawk away. I couldn't get a shot that looked like anything.

Nature, red in tooth and claw.

I wrapped Dave's Christmas presents. Don't they look good? I found that wrapping paper discarded in a trash pile around the corner after last Christmas -- an unused roll -- and salvaged it. So, yeah, that's free wrapping paper. I can't complain.

Finally, last night -- the cleaners. I say "night" but they really showed up at 5 p.m., so evening is a better word. They were a man and woman, and they didn't speak English -- I think they were Russian, as Dave said he heard Mrs Russia from upstairs chatting with them on the front porch. Dave and I had already worked out that we weren't going to ask them to move the houseplants, which are huge and numerous, because I didn't want the plants damaged and I'd already cleaned around them.

So we asked them to do all the baseboards, the molding, the tops of pictures, the kitchen cabinets, the doors -- places that I often don't think to clean myself. They were also going to vacuum and mop and do the bathrooms and all the normal stuff one would do when cleaning.

Then we went out to dinner at a modern French restaurant called Riviera down by St. James' Palace. I had two martinis to blast from my mind the fact that two perfect strangers were rooting around in our house. The martinis were very effective.

When we got home, I was prepared to be awed. Professional cleaners, right? I thought we'd walk in and go, "Wow! I never realized how much I'd been missing when I cleaned! This place looks AMAZING!"

Instead, we walked in and said, "Oh."

Because it looked pretty much the same. In fact Dave was quite annoyed because he felt they missed some spots. He wanted to leave a negative review but I urged him to just let it go. This has all been a learning experience and what we've learned is that we are (I am) quite capable of cleaning our own flat.

The baseboards DO look a lot better, I'll give them that.

As requested, here's a shot of my new shirt from the Bahamas via an East Dulwich thrift store. Sushi, anyone?

(Top photo: Camberwell, on the way home from Linda Sue's on Tuesday.)

The Spider Hole

Adventures in South London yesterday as I went to visit Blogland's beloved Linda Sue on her sojourn in the Big Smoke! Linda Sue has been here since September and we'd communicated about meeting up, but between my work schedule and her settling in we didn't get around to it until yesterday. She is literally across the city from me -- I took the tube, overground train and bus to get to her in Dulwich, but the journey only took slightly more than an hour, so that's not too bad.

I met up with her at the Spider Hole, the flat she's renting until she goes home to Washington state next month. For those who don't follow Linda Sue's blog, where she has documented the strange drama surrounding this flat, she has nicknamed it the Spider Hole given its owner's enthusiasm for super heroes -- including Spider-Man, who figures prominently in the decor -- and its position, a top-floor walk-up.

To be honest, I was almost as excited to see the mythical Spider Hole as I was Linda Sue herself, given the celebrity status it has lately achieved on her blog. It was like visiting the Taj Mahal, but smaller.

We sat in her lounge (as living rooms are known here in the UK) and chatted a while before venturing out into the street to check out the local charity shops. It was raining pretty steadily -- not pouring, but not drizzling either -- so getting out and about was a bit of a challenge. But as I always say, if you wait for good weather to do things in England, you'll never get anything done. That's why umbrellas exist.

As befits Linda Sue, her neighborhood is a collection of quirky, artsy shops and murals and architecture.

Some artsy elements are large, while others are very small. This looks very John-in-Sgt.-Pepper to me, which I assume was the intention.

A sad, sodden book in a very wet gutter. I'm trying not to take this as a metaphor for the value of blogging.

I thought this shirt was pretty funny, but I didn't buy it. It casts WAY too wide a net, you know?

I did, however, get a cute Christmas ornament and a book about wandering in East London, and I was sorely tempted by a stuffed, handmade-looking toy lizard that I may still send Linda Sue back to retrieve.

We ended our wanders in the East Dulwich Tavern, where we sat by this cozy fireplace beneath coat hangers (?) and antlers decorated with holiday baubles -- that's my bag on the green stool, in fact. We talked and had lunch and a pint before Linda Sue dropped me at the Goose Green bus stop for the journey home.

The bus was taking its sweet time, though, and after Linda Sue headed back to the Spider Hole I decided to walk on toward East Dulwich station. It was a good thing I did, because I popped in to another charity shop where I found a fabulous shirt from the Bahamas featuring colorful reef fish swimming all over it. This poor shirt looked so out of place in rainy gray London that I had to buy it. I figure I can wear it when I go to Florida, and maybe in California in February.

I took a few more pictures before catching another bus at East Dulwich and heading home via a slightly different route. A fun day out, but somehow Linda Sue and I neglected to take a selfie together, so we'll have to get together again before she leaves next month. A plan for the New Year!

Getting Things Done

Yesterday was a day for getting things done -- ticking items off my mental list, you might say.

First, I communicated with the travel agency handling our trip to South America next summer. I had to give them passport information, and Dave (who is 6'3") wanted to know whether we could get the equivalent of premium economy seats on our flights, so we're not squeezed into the smallest space available all the way across the planet. I'm still awaiting an answer on that second question.

Then I walked to the bank to deposit my £2 worth of pennies. I felt I had to walk, even though the closest branch of our bank is in St. John's Wood, because if I took the tube I'd spend more than I was depositing to get there. Plus I figured the walk would do me some good. I walked half an hour each way, waited in line about 20 minutes and all in all, it was the least efficient use of my time I could possibly have imagined, financially speaking. But at least those pennies are out of my life.

While in St. John's Wood I noticed that a huge area of land off Queen's Terrace has been cleared of buildings. Past the shopfronts where they filmed the TV show "Pistols" a few years ago, there was a long brick building that used to be military barracks. (You can see it in some of the photos in that linked post, as well as here on Google Street View.) All of that is gone, and this massive development is going to be rising in its place.

I was glad to see the Knights of St. John's Tavern has been preserved. You can see it behind that yellow crane (or whatever it is). I think this little row of shops, along with the pub, is historically protected.

I had to buy some light bulbs, and a card for our dog-walker. Then, when I got home, I had to install said light bulbs, and now there's enough light in the hallway for the cleaners to see whatever mythical dust they need to clean when they arrive tomorrow night.

Finally, I sat down and made our annual charitable donations to the ACLU, the Southern Poverty Law Center and Planned Parenthood.

I think that was almost everything on my list. I'm more or less caught up on life!

(Top photo: In Hampstead Cemetery on Sunday. Bottom photos: Leaves found on my walk along Finchley Road yesterday.)