[Wednesday 23rd February 2022]
Surveyed the wild cherry blossom on the heath, then later on we decided it was time to change the Lego bonsai tree into its cherry blossom configuration.
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[Saturday 19th February 2022]
I decided to take another longer walk this morning, up to Kenwood House again, to once more try and find the snowdrops that I had heard were there.
In the evening friends from round the corner came to visit, and brought their dog with them.
I made another video of today's walk with some silly background music which seemed to fit the country house backdrop:
[Friday 18th February 2022]
We had been planning to drive down to Devon today, but alas Storm Eunice put pay to that. Stayed indoors for the worst of it, when the wind was so strong it was lifting up one of the paving slabs in the back garden.
Once it had died down later on I went for a quick walk to Hampstead Heath (and avoided sitting underneath any trees!) to survey the damage.
I also took some video footage of the heath after the storm:
[Thursday 17th February 2022]
It was Erika's half term holiday this week, and although I was unfortunately working throughout the week, I took a little bit of time out this morning so we could go for breakfast together at a local cafe - and it seems like we hadn't been there together for two years. In the evening Chie went out to see a friend, so Erika and I had a lazy night in with junk food burgers for dinner, and watched a movie together.
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[Sunday 13th February 2022]
Most of the day spent at home - Erika did a bit of flower arranging - and I went for a rainy/windy walk on the heath later in the afternoon.
I took a few videos while I was on the heath, and attempted to edit them together with some unnecessarily jaunty background music, and a lot of it sped up because the footage was actually quite dull. I found doing the audio mixing a bit difficult with the app I have, I was trying to lower the volume of the music during the bits where I was speaking, but it seemed to be quite a faff to do that, and ended up introducing a lot of jarring squelchy sort of noises.
Oh well, I won't be giving up the day job just yet.
[Saturday 12th February 2022]
Erika was at a sleepover this evening. Chie and I decided to walk over to Hampstead, and went for dinner at a tapas place we used to go to when I lived there (although it is quite different now).
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[Friday 11th February 2022]
Fish and chips (well, halloumi and chips in my case) with Chie for lunch. In the evening the girls went to a party with local friends, and I decided to cook my dinner on the heath.
Also a few timelapses of the moon / night sky I took with my GoPro while I was sitting on the heath having dinner in the dark:
[Thursday 10th February 2022]
Went along to see Erika perform in a strings concert at her school in the morning. Then towards the end of the day went to the heath for a nice sunset.
Took a bit of video footage with my GoPro this evening as well:
[Wednesday 9th February 2022]
I was up bright and early this morning and went to our local French bakery to buy a baguette for breakfast.
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[Tuesday 8th February 2022]
Too busy working (what a nuisance!) so didn't have the usual walk to the heath today while Erika was at woodwork.
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[Sunday 6th February 2022]
Afternoon / evening out with two other families we're friends with, starting with karaoke and then ramen at the new Japan Centre ramen place.
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[Saturday 5th February 2022]
Took delivery of some more camping / outdoorsy equipment today: some gaiters, a lightweight bivvy bag, a piezo lighter and some titanium tent pegs.
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[Friday 4th February 2022]
Another snowdrop in the garden. Almost went for a walk to the heath but then decided I couldn't actually be bothered.
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[Thursday 3rd February 2022]
Went on a longer than usual wander on the heath today, all the way up to Kenwood House, in search of snowdrops. Alas not quite flowering yet.
I also made a video of it. It's a bit pointless but if you really have nothing better to do:
[Tuesday 1st February 2022]
The usual Tuesday evening stroll to the heath while Erika was at woodwork. Caught the tail end of the sunset, some lovely pink sky this evening, particularly on the way there.
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[Sunday 30th January 2022]
Afternoon out with Chie and Erika. Erika wanted to go to the platform 9 3/4 shop in Kings Cross and we also fancied some ice cream. So we first went to the gelateria in Kentish Town, then got the train down to Kings Cross, and spent some of the afternoon down there.
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[Saturday 29th January 2022]
The girls were otherwise engaged for pretty much the whole day, so I decided to head down to the South Downs, to repeat a walk I had enjoyed before - from Worthing to Washington, via Cissbury Ring and Chanctonbury Ring.
I took my GoPro with me so in addition to the photos there's some video footage of my walk:
[Thursday 27th January 2022]
Lovely blue skies today for the (almost) daily walk to the heath, and made it there in time for a nice sunset.
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[Wednesday 26th January 2022]
The usual stroll to the heath. Later on I tried on a mosquito head net a friend had given me as a Christmas present. Thus the strange photo.
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[Sunday 23rd January 2022]
Finally a glimpse of a snowdrop flowering in the garden. Yet another trip to the heath in the late afternoon / early evening.
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[Saturday 22nd January 2022]
Pizza on the heath for lunch while the girls were at Japanese school. Later on in the early evening the three of us built the Lego bonsai tree which Mum had sent as a Christmas present.
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[Thursday 20th January 2022]
An odd pairing of an old school Gevrey Chambertin (Rene Leclerc - as visited by Keith Floyd) and one of those new fangled fake meat burgers. I doubt very much Keith Floyd would approve of the latter.
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[Saturday 15th January 2022]
Went to the farmer's market on Hampstead Heath in the morning. Later on in the day did some electronics with Erika.
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[Tuesday 11th January 2022]
Chie became oddly obsessed with Gallette des Rois ("King's Cake?") this month, and we had a total of three, today's being the first. Also I went to the heath for a bit later on while Erika was at her woodworking class.
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[Saturday 8th January 2022]
Andrew organised a tasting session of Burgundy vs "Bogandy" (Australian Pinot Noir). You can probably guess which one I preferred.
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[Friday 7th January 2022]
Attempted, unsuccessfully, to get my hair cut towards the end of the morning - I got fed up waiting and went for a pint at the Pineapple instead. Then to the heath for a bit later on in the afternoon / early evening, followed by another visit to the Pineapple later on for dinner, as Erika was out with a friend.
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[Thursday 6th January 2022]
Chie and I went out for lunch at the Lina Stores pasta place in Kings Cross. In the evening Lebanese food for dinner.
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[Wednesday 5th January 2022]
Received a new GoPro camera today, and so took it out for an early afternoon stroll on the heath to test it out. After Erika got back from school I went along with her to her ice skating lesson. Then later on in the evening it was time to wassail the apple tree.
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[Tuesday 4th January 2022]
I should have been back at work today, but decided to take this week off as I needed to spend some more time out in the fresh air etc.
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John's Journal / Blog
