Family Weekend

Towards the end of our stay in London, Simon's brother Jonas came to visit for the weekend from Copenhagen. It was the first time he'd seen Django in a year.
Here we are in Camden Town.



Django enjoyed a private concert with his uncle in the back garden.



The guys took Django out one day on a fun-filled adventure beginning at the local Fire Station open house.







At the Science Museum, another great (and free) museum in the South Kensington area of London.



This is a really wonderful interactive area for the kids at the Science Museum. It's called the Garden. Django had a fantastic time!





We got out for a picnic at Hampstead Heath with Jonathan, a journalist who Simon had become friends with (Jonathan was the journalist who accompanied Simon to Greenland in June, and subsequently wrote 3 articles on him, including one that was part of a two-page spread in Rolling Stone Germany September issue)

The day was absolutely magical and as perfect as one could hope for.





Nice light.



I was sorely missing the Pacific Northwest berry season while in London. Blackberries grow like weeds in our town. There are also local pick-your-own farms where you can pick organic blueberries, raspberries.. Last year I picked 13 pounds of blueberries in one trip (we didn't weigh the ones that ended up in our tummies, Django included. Add another pound or two...?). I desperately wanted to go berry picking and called about 15 pick-your-own farms within 50 miles of London. Not one was organic. A couple spray minimally, and one doesn't spray their blueberries. Well, a day trip with friends was planned, but someone got sick and we didn't go. Pictured below is about 1/3 of my entire berry yield for the year at Hampstead Heath. Oh, they're just not as good as the berries at home (boohoo). Well, I've since heard that the berry season was not all that great back home, and the blackberries didn't really ripen very well. Perhaps someone was just trying to make me feel better.
Next year I'm planning my summer around being in Washington in August!



Monkey Mama!



Flower child.

Playgrounds and Parks

One reason I love London is the abundance of really nice parks. You're in the midst of a huge very vibrant city, yet can easily find a place for a nice peaceful walk.

There are also some wonderful playgrounds. Here's Django at Highgate Wood where we spent a lot of time during our 3 week visit last year.







Hampstead Heath, an ancient London park covering 790 acres, with one of the highest points in London.





Django being cheeky



Django having fun.



Django being crabby while mama was trying to pose for a nice late afternoon picture.



Regents Park, which contains the London Zoo (never made it there)



Hide and seek!



And from The Ministry of Silly Walks...



Feeding the very bold squirrels





At the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Playground. Probably the coolest playground I've ever seen. Wish I had more pictures of all the cool details.



A Pirate Ship. It doesn't get much better than that.











In Kensington Gardens, just outside Diana Memorial Playground. Django's very first carnival type ride. In the fire engine, no less!



Exhausted after a day at the playground.

Friends

One really wonderful thing about our stay in London was that we happened to live next door to a little boy named Barney. He is 7 months younger than Django but they got on famously and had a really great time together.

Here they are sharing a bowl of raisins.



"Hey, who finished the raisins?!"



Sharing breakfast.



We had the Great Ongoing Toy Swap, this truck for that fire engine, my train for your digger... Yup, it's all about vehicles and machinery for these boys. Barney, being a bit younger had a little more of a challange sharing, but really got better at it during our time there.

Contemplating their garden tools.



Django with his new friend Simrin who unfortunately we didn't manage to get together with very much.



Visiting the petting room at a local farm.



Feeding the goats.



"Hey there"



Feeding the llamas



Good friends.

Around London Town

For much of our two month stay in London, we stuck around the homestead. I had, especially for the first few weeks, a load of computer work helping put together promo material for Simon and LoMax. Luckily we had the amazing back yard, so there were lots of running around opportunities for Django.

There are a whole series of canals running through London. Call me naive, but I had no clue about this before. Of course it makes sense, when you think about how old the city is, and that canals were once the main transport mode for merchants.

Here's Django in Little Venice, a 15 minute walk from where we were staying in Maida Vale.



These days the barges along the canal are homes. There is something terribly romantic about the idea of living on a barge. I wouldn't mind trying it one day.



The astoundingly detailed architecture of the Natural History Museum.





It is one of the free museums in London, so you can always count on a pretty big crowd. At least we got to see the dino exhibit this time.



I love this! I know we have little smart cars in the US, but you'd probably get a ticket for parking face out! The parking rules seem to be a bit more lenient in the UK and Europe. You can park facing either direction, at least in England. In London this makes things very confusing when trying to remember which direction the traffic is going. At least they have plently of 'look right' signs painted on the streets at crosswalks.



This wasn't the first time I'd seen such a sight (check out the footwear), and I'm sure this is not exclusive to Europe. I can't even imagine wearing heels for a nice dinner at a fancy restaurant, much less for a day out with the toddler and the buggy!



Simon, Django and I went on a canal tour from Little Venice to Camden Town. Isn't it charming?





Back in the day when the canals were the main merchant route, the land next to the canals were inhabited by the poor folks. Things have really changed and for a mere 30million British pounds ($47 million) you can call this little canal side mansion your own.



A floating Chinese restaurant



Coming in to Camden Lock



I snagged this next photo from someone elses blog. This is a shot of the Camden Lock where the elevation of the canal goes down and it's a simple but very clever device for boats to go from one level to the next (the lower gates are open in this shot). There are a whole series of locks throughout the canal system and I believe the tour guide said that the elevation difference between this one and where it eventually lets out into open water is about 80 feet.



This is an enormous shop entirely dedicated to the Techno world. You know, those all night parties with neon lights and just about the most monotonously undanceable dance music in existence? (sorry if I'm offending anyone, but it's just not my thing. Give me some good funk or reggae or disco or cuban or swing or hell, even some waltz music over the incessant thump thump of music you apparently need to take feel good drugs to get into). Ok, nuff of that rant. Anyway, just out of curiosity I went in to see how big this place was on Simon's recommendation. It was an absolute assault to my senses and I couldn't spend more than 1 minute inside. I wonder what effect those beats and lights have on the brains of the employees who spend a good part of their day there?
Well, the giant robot sculpures are pretty cool anyway...



Lots of goth in Camden Town (Goth on the right, French Maid 50s Retro Goth on the left..?)



Camden Town used the be the site of hundreds of horse stables that housed horses that pulled the barges, and horses for wagons. Now there's an area that's pretty much a horse shrine with innumerable huge horse sculptures.



Where the stables used to be, underground, are now shops. It's called Horse Tunnel Market.



Some old stables turned shops.



Some local Camden color.



Which of course inspired us to find a new look for Django...