Autumn Heath Walk

As promised, I had to get out and take a walk yesterday to work off my oysters and filet mignon. I decided to go back to Hampstead Heath. I hadn't walked the main part of the Heath in ages -- not since Olga died. So I was long overdue for a visit, even though I knew it would make me miss Olga.

Autumn leaves in London are usually not that colorful, at least in wild places like the Heath, but I passed this tree in Hampstead that was such a pure yellow -- amazing against the blue sky.

There are still some vestiges of Halloween hanging around out there!

I saw loads of squawky parakeets on the Heath. This one was using the leaves of a tree to keep the sun out of its eyes.

From the northern part of the Heath near Kenwood House there's a good view of the city through the trees. I definitely hadn't been up in this part of the Heath in a long, long time.

The blackberries always develop a lot of color in the autumn.

These are the gardens near Athlone House, another area I haven't seen in ages. Remember when I took photos of Olga there, in front of the blooming azaleas? We used to routinely walk through that area but as Olga got older it got to be too far for her.

And of course I finished up atop Parliament Hill, taking in the scenic view of the city. As you can see, the weather cooperated quite nicely. We had a rainy morning but the sun was out all afternoon.

I'm far enough out from Olga's death now that I can take walks like this and not be sad -- at least, not too sad. I did miss her crazy activity -- the mud baths, the Kong-chasing. It's harder to walk so far when I'm not distracted by an amusing dog! I was beat by the time I got back to the house, and I slept like a log last night.

In Which I Turn 59

Yes, today is in fact my birthday. Dave and I celebrated last night because it's always more fun to celebrate on a Saturday, and besides he has to go down to South London today to guest-conduct a musical ensemble for a friend. (Long story!)

We went to Canary Wharf, in East London. A couple of years ago, while there for the Winter Lights festival, I spotted a couple of restaurants that appeared to have been built on floating structures in the boat basin. I blogged a photo at the time. They've lived in my memory ever since, so we made a reservation at the Hawksmoor steak house.

Hawksmoor is a small chain, with ten restaurants in the UK, two in the USA (New York and Chicago) and one in Ireland.  Here was the view from our very good table by the window:

Not too shabby, right?! I like the reflected lights from the restaurant overlaid on the cityscape. I do wonder how long we're going to be able to maintain the kind of energy production that allows us to light up empty office buildings at night. Surely this is not sustainable in the long run of civilization. But in the meantime it looks nice.

I had an excellent dinner -- oysters, filet mignon with a couple of sides and a salad, and a pavlova for dessert with a candle in it. Oh, and two not-very-strong martinis! I gained approximately 20 pounds and will probably be diagnosed with gout.

But that's OK, because I plan to work it off today with a long walk somewhere. We shall see.

When left to my own devices I usually tend toward vegetarian meals, but you can't go to a steak house and not eat steak. And it was darn good, I must say. Dave and I were both very impressed.

Otherwise, yesterday was pretty chill. I spent it mostly on the couch reading. I'm about 140 pages into "The Old Curiosity Shop" and I fear the curiosity shop itself has already exited the plot, having been siezed and its contents sold off by a scoundrel. What will the old man and Little Nell do now?

The photo at the top, by the way, shows illuminated "Lightbenches" by LBO Lichtbank that were part of Winter Lights several years ago, and are now permanent features in Canary Wharf's Jubilee Park.

Cacti

Believe it or not, we had NINE trick-or-treaters yesterday! I was astonished! By the time I got home from work Dave had already had one, and then the rest showed up over the course of the evening until about 7:30 p.m. And then I had to turn out the porch light because we were down to one mini-candy bar and I worried about how I'd handle it if two kids showed up.

I guess the porch light really is the signal, because we had no other Halloween decorations and no jack-o-lantern. Maybe people on the street know we're American and thus likely to be participating in this insanity, but as I said yesterday, no one came around in previous years.

I must admit I enjoyed handing out candy more than I thought. At some point I turned to Dave and said, "This is pretty fun!"

He rolled his eyes.

Pictures today from our Thanksgiving cacti, which as I understand it really are slightly different from Christmas cacti. Something about the shape of the leaf -- and when they bloom, obviously. (Here's a rather breathless article on the subject.)

This first one is the white -- or really light pink -- cactus that blog reader Frances sent me as a cutting several years ago. It's having its best year ever. I actually have two of them, because I rooted some sprigs in different pots, and now one of those pots dropped a few segments so I have a third one going.

My salmon-colored cactus has about three flowers on it, which is better than last year's one. I've had this plant since 2019 and it's probably the feeblest (healthwise) of all my Thanksgiving cacti, but it's hanging in there.

And finally, here are the bright pink ones, which have dozens of flowers and are easily the most robust. I have two pink-flowering plants. How did I wind up with all these flipping cacti? Basically every time a piece breaks off I root it, because I can't bear to throw it away. Hence, I have more than I ever intended. This is the time of year that it all pays off!

Boo!

Another year, another Halloween. I went out on a limb this year and bought a box of miniature Cadbury chocolate bars, in case of trick-or-treaters. Mind you, we have never had a trick-or-treater, and as you may remember Dave and I normally turn off the lights and stay in the back of the house so as not to invite any. But the new neighbors upstairs have a couple of kids, and though they're probably well past trick-or-treating age, I wanted to be prepared in case they knock on the door. They'll know whether or not we're home so hiding from them wouldn't be an option.

There's also a house a couple doors down, festooned with fake cobwebs and plastic spiders, where an American couple live with numerous small kids. I figured they might turn up too.

In any case, we're ready.

Found in a returned library book

I had a funny exchange with a little girl yesterday in the Lower School, a first-grader. She asked me how old I am.

"Pretty old," I replied. "How old do you think I am?"

She thought for a moment and said, "Twenty six!"

I told her that was the nicest thing anyone had said to me for at least a month, but I was much older than that.

"Seventy nine!" she said.

Criminy.

Rainy Day Disorientation

That was the view early yesterday morning from our hotel room window. Not exactly optimal beach weather, and in fact it got worse after I took the picture! You can see my Suzanne Vega tour t-shirt on the chair. I thought as an image it summarized our quick trip very well.

We had a late-morning breakfast -- a brunch, really -- at a place called The Breakfast Club that I'd photographed on a previous trip. They even had American-style pancakes!

Not exactly Denny's, but close. Often in England when pancakes are on the menu they're these skinny, crepe-like things, so we were happy to see these. I got caught up in the American atmosphere and ordered coffee, and the waitress asked in a not entirely pleasant way, "What kind of coffee?" And then I realized I had to specify Americano or Espresso or whatever, because we're still in Europe and plain old brewed coffee is not really a thing. What was I thinking?!

Anyway, we lingered at The Breakfast Club for a while before braving the rainy walk to the train station and catching a train straight back to West Hampstead, which is about as convenient as possible. I read "The Old Curiosity Shop" on the way.

Stickers on the back of a street sign in Brighton

We were slightly disoriented (or "disorientated," as people say here) all day, sitting at home on a random Wednesday afternoon; between that and Sunday's time change I never felt quite normal. I was happy to go to bed and wake up this morning back on my daily routine -- although I have to be at work half an hour early today as I'm being "interviewed" by a seventh-grade class for a project.

Speaking of work, on Tuesday I had a funny experience when I saw a fifth-grade girl come into the library and slip a book into the book return. Something about her looked sheepish, so I promptly retrieved the book and it was sopping wet. I don't just mean damp, or partly wet. I mean it looked like it had spent the night in a full bathtub.

I showed my co-worker and we had a good laugh about what would possess a kid to put a wet book in the book return, on top of what could have been (but fortunately wasn't) a bunch of other books. I could have chased her down or contacted her parents about paying for it, but it was just a little paperback that I think was a donation anyway, so I decided to let the whole thing go. I deleted the book and threw it away. Moving on!

The Vega Show

Well, here we are in Brighton. We've seen our concert and now we have half a day to wander around town, have a leisurely brunch and then catch the train back to London. The weather isn't exactly cooperating, as it's pretty damp out there, but I can't have everything and this is England in almost-November.

Dave and I worked full days yesterday and then promptly headed for Victoria station, where we caught a train that brought us to Brighton in just over an hour. We had sandwiches on the train, so all we had to do here was check into our hotel and then head to the theater.

We passed the ghost projection above, swirling on the sidewalk in front of the Theatre Royal. That's not where our concert was, though -- it was across the street at the Brighton Dome, part of the fanciful Royal Pavilion complex. The inside of the theater featured Indian (from India) style arches and architectural elements; it was a cool place to see a show.

The music began at 7:30 p.m. with opening act Katherine Priddy, a singer and acoustic guitarist, and we caught most of that. Suzanne Vega took the stage with her two accompanists, a guitarist and a cellist, soon afterwards.

As I said in yesterday's post, I've been a fan of Vega since the 1980s. I think my college friend Lorenzo first introduced me to her music, back when she only had one album. Now she has ten albums and a long career behind her, including radio hits like "Luka" and "Tom's Diner." She's 66, so she's several years older than me, but I still feel like we've grown up together. I first saw her in concert 35 years ago, and most recently (before last night) 18 years ago, which blows my mind!

For those of you who may know her songs, here's the set list from last night's show:

Marlene on the Wall
99.9 Fº
Caramel

Small Blue Thing
Gypsy
In Liverpool
The Queen and the Soldier
Flying With Angels
Speaker's Corner

Chambermaid
Left of Center
I Never Wear White
Some Journey
Luka
Tom's Diner

Encores:
Walk on the Wild Side
Alley
Galway

Some of those are from her newest album, which I haven't yet heard, and I hope I got all the titles right! I was happily surprised to hear her play "Walk on the Wild Side," because she usually sings her own songs rather than covering someone else's, but apparently she regularly performs that one as a tribute to her late friend Lou Reed.

Here's a very brief 40-second snippet of her performing "Tom's Diner," the hit DNA version with a beat (as opposed to her original song, which was a capella.)

After the show we walked back to the hotel, past the decorative doorways of the building known as the Corn Exchange (above). Now, I'm off to find some morning coffee!

Deo

Here are the neighborhood pigeons, roosting once again in the walnut tree in our garden. You can see how the autumn colors have deepened since I took a similar photo in September. The Japanese maple is blazing more and more red and the walnut is gradually yellowing.

I made a discovery which, although touching on an unsavory subject, might be useful for you all to know. Remember how I mentioned that I found myself wearing a slightly odiferous sweater the other day? Well, the truth is, both I and the sweater were odiferous, and here's why. Some time ago, I bought two new sticks of deodorant -- Sure, my usual brand, in identical green plastic containers. I used one of the sticks and it was fine. When it ran out, I moved to the other, and I thought, "Hey, this one seems slightly different." I didn't give it much thought until one or two days later -- the day of the sweater.

I discovered that I'd inadvertently bought something called "Sure Whole Body Deo," which is not the same as regular anti-perspirant. In Sure's own words, "Traditional deodorants, especially antiperspirant deodorants, are designed to tackle body odor at its root by blocking sweat glands and reducing skin bacteria. Body sprays, on the other hand, are akin to perfumes, offering a fragrant cover-up for odors with a blend of herbs, oils, and spices."

(This was not a spray, but I assume the product is similar however it's delivered.)

So basically I'd bought something that was not my regular deodorant -- that "covers up" odors rather than blocking them. BEWARE the "Whole Body Deo"! That's my useful consumer information for the day.

Dave and I are off to Brighton this evening to see Suzanne Vega in concert. I've seen her live a couple of times, once back in 1990 during her tour for her album "Days of Open Hand," and again in 2007, a show I blogged about. (She also showed up as a surprise guest at a Christmas benefit concert I attended that same year.)

I've been a longtime fan so I'm looking forward to this. I bought the tickets way back in May so thank goodness I didn't forget. We'll stay overnight in Brighton and we've taken tomorrow off work, so we don't need to rush home. I hope we can have a leisurely morning by the sea!