Exiled

My flat is in a house which is about 150 years old. It’s in a conservation area which means there are quite a few restrictions on what you can do to the house including changing the windows. Each room in the flat has a large sash window and I am currently having them restored. For years I’ve put up with draughts fierce enough to make the blinds shiver. The bathroom is by far the coldest room in the flat as there is a gap at the top of the window of about two inches so it is freezing in there most of the time. I have been thinking about getting the windows fixed for several years and it is now finally happening.

Rather naively I thought it wouldn’t be too intrusive when the work started; how wrong I was. Every room is upside down. I found it really disconcerting when I saw a big hole in the wall rather than a window. When you are having building work done it reminds you of how quickly your home could become a cold, empty shell. It also doesn’t help that this has been the coldest week of winter so far.

What this means is that every day I have to leave the house at around ten a.m and I can’t come home until after five. This is one of the rare weeks in which I miss going to work. To be fair TB said I could hang out in his flat but I have not taken up his offer yet.

On Monday I went for a walk in the West End and then I went to the National Gallery. I thought that would be a safe bet as it was the first day of children going back to school so I guessed it wouldn’t be too busy hordes of bored kids on day trips. I was right about the kids but wrong about how busy it would be. I don’t understand why there are so many tourists around - perhaps because they are avoiding the US?

The Botanic Gardens in Cambridge December 2022

On Tuesday I went to Kew Gardens. A couple of years ago I met my niece Katkins and her little girl in the Botanic Gardens in Cambridge on a day when there was severe frost. Almost everything in the garden was shimmering, the plants covered in frost and ice and the icicles hanging from the gables of the building. It was one of the most memorable visits I’ve ever made to a garden. It was frosty in London on Tuesday so I thought it might be just the day to visit Kew. When I left the house, minus an umbrella, the sky was blue and the sun was shining but while I was on the train the sky clouded over and there were some little flurries of snow.

As soon as I arrived in the gardens I went straight to the Orangery for coffee and then I wandered round for about two hours. It was fairly empty but as the Christmas lights were being dismantled there were workmen around and a handful of other intrepid people like me who were sight-seeing. It wasn’t as magical as my trip to the frozen wonderland in Cambridge but it was still an interesting visit. For ten minutes or so it snowed quite heavily and I was glad to escape into the warmth of the Palm House. When I came out I watched a fox slink down a pathway leaving a little trail of paw prints behind him. The snow disappeared really quickly but all the ponds were frozen and the coots and ducks skittering across the ice were quite bemused. I had never been to Kew Gardens in the winter so I was glad I made the effort to go there.

On Wednesday I went to Tate Modern and met Dot who is someone I knew when I was really young and we have just recently re-connected. We spent almost three hours in the cafe talking.

Yesterday I spent the morning in the British Library which is only marginally warmer than sitting in a deep freeze. Regular users come prepared with woolly hats and gloves; you are not allowed to bring in coats or use pens. I had to buy a pencil in the shop. I always like going there though as I assume that all the young students must think I am a renowned author or a world-famous academic. I’m sure they didn’t notice me scrolling through my old blog and checking my Etsy shop. After a couple of hours I had to leave the reading room as my fingers were becoming numb. I decided to go to Hampstead which wasn’t a brilliant idea as there was torrential rain so I quickly abandoned the idea of going for a walk.

Today I don’t know what I’m going to do in the morning. My class has been cancelled which is very disappointing and I’m meeting another friend late in the afternoon so I have quite a few hours to kill. We are experiencing the tail end of a storm so it very cold, wet and windy. Not a day for idly wandering round the streets of London.

I will be so glad when my flat is back to normal.