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The past two weeks
Jul. 30th, 2024 05:41 pmThere's been a lot going on — lots of travelling, lots of fun things, lots of tiring hot summer sun. This time of year, which is normally a lull at work, has stayed as busy as ever, which has been draining in its own way, and next week the stampede of new NHS staff will begin, so there's no chance of a quieter period this year, it seems.
Two weeks ago, Matthias and I met Mum in London for a long weekend. Matthias's job is actually in London, and normally he commutes three days a week, but for two days he was able to walk to work from our rental place in Waterloo — a lovely journey over the river. Mum and I did two legs of the Thames Path: Staines to Hampton Court, and Teddington to Putney (which involved a lovely stop over in Kew Gardens). These were long walks in quite hot weather, but we took it slowly and appreciated the varied scenery. Here is the photoset from those walks.
As well as the two day hikes, we managed to see three exhibitions: 'In the Eye of the Storm: Modernism in Ukraine, 1900–1930s', 'Tropical Modernism: Architexture and Independence', and 'Yinka Shonibare CBE: Suspended States' (the annual exhibition at the Serpentine Gallery; plus the Serpentine pavillion and Yayoi Kusama sculpture in Kensington Gardens).
As always in London, we ate incredibly well — Polish food, southeast Asian food, a couple of nice pub meals, and a new-to-me bakery just downstairs from our apartment.
Then it was back to Ely for the next working week.
This most recent weekend, there was a bit more walking, but closer to home and on a much smaller scale. On Saturday, Matthias and I took Mum out for lunch at one of our favourite village pub/restaurants, in Hemingford Grey. This involves a train to Cambridge, a bus along the guided busway to St Ives (where the statue of Cromwell was sporting a traffic cone hat — which sparked an unintentionally hilarious BBC news article), and then a walk across the fields, and through suburban woodlands to Hemingford Grey. We ate a relaxed meal out in the courtyard garden, and then headed home. I have a photoset here — you can see that it was a beautiful day.
On Sunday, we joined our hiking group for their monthly hike, although due to the weather and the fact that we'd all eaten a largeish lunch at the farm shop at the start of the walk, this ended up being more like an amble — strolling through the grounds of Wandlebury Country Park, where we saw highland cows, belted cattle, wildflower meadows, a magnificent orchard, and Ely like a little speck in the distance, the cathedral looking like tiny pieces of Lego.
And that's what I've been up to for the past two weeks. I'm granting myself comment amnesty, since I've been both busy and tired, but I have been keeping up to date with my reading page, and look forward to having a bit more time for Dreamwidth soon.
Now I'm going to collapse in front of the TV and watch the gymnastics, and try not to get too irritated with the BBC's somewhat annoying coverage and extremely annoying commentary. All discussion has been about Simone Biles's comeback (and the significant challenges that she's had to overcome), but Suni Lee's comeback has been equally difficult, and also deserves admiration.
Two weeks ago, Matthias and I met Mum in London for a long weekend. Matthias's job is actually in London, and normally he commutes three days a week, but for two days he was able to walk to work from our rental place in Waterloo — a lovely journey over the river. Mum and I did two legs of the Thames Path: Staines to Hampton Court, and Teddington to Putney (which involved a lovely stop over in Kew Gardens). These were long walks in quite hot weather, but we took it slowly and appreciated the varied scenery. Here is the photoset from those walks.
As well as the two day hikes, we managed to see three exhibitions: 'In the Eye of the Storm: Modernism in Ukraine, 1900–1930s', 'Tropical Modernism: Architexture and Independence', and 'Yinka Shonibare CBE: Suspended States' (the annual exhibition at the Serpentine Gallery; plus the Serpentine pavillion and Yayoi Kusama sculpture in Kensington Gardens).
As always in London, we ate incredibly well — Polish food, southeast Asian food, a couple of nice pub meals, and a new-to-me bakery just downstairs from our apartment.
Then it was back to Ely for the next working week.
This most recent weekend, there was a bit more walking, but closer to home and on a much smaller scale. On Saturday, Matthias and I took Mum out for lunch at one of our favourite village pub/restaurants, in Hemingford Grey. This involves a train to Cambridge, a bus along the guided busway to St Ives (where the statue of Cromwell was sporting a traffic cone hat — which sparked an unintentionally hilarious BBC news article), and then a walk across the fields, and through suburban woodlands to Hemingford Grey. We ate a relaxed meal out in the courtyard garden, and then headed home. I have a photoset here — you can see that it was a beautiful day.
On Sunday, we joined our hiking group for their monthly hike, although due to the weather and the fact that we'd all eaten a largeish lunch at the farm shop at the start of the walk, this ended up being more like an amble — strolling through the grounds of Wandlebury Country Park, where we saw highland cows, belted cattle, wildflower meadows, a magnificent orchard, and Ely like a little speck in the distance, the cathedral looking like tiny pieces of Lego.
And that's what I've been up to for the past two weeks. I'm granting myself comment amnesty, since I've been both busy and tired, but I have been keeping up to date with my reading page, and look forward to having a bit more time for Dreamwidth soon.
Now I'm going to collapse in front of the TV and watch the gymnastics, and try not to get too irritated with the BBC's somewhat annoying coverage and extremely annoying commentary. All discussion has been about Simone Biles's comeback (and the significant challenges that she's had to overcome), but Suni Lee's comeback has been equally difficult, and also deserves admiration.