So long, London!

I came to London grudgingly and I leave grudgingly.

Not just because I dislike change in most forms and hate the idea of shifting and starting all over again, but also because somewhere during these last 18 months, I fell in love with bits and pieces of this city and country. Not fully, not wholeheartedly; the perpetually grey, wet and cold English weather and the First World (complete lack of ) efficiency made sure I didn't fall head over heels in love with this country, but somewhere along the way, I stopped cribbing and started enjoying myself. And enjoy it I did much more than I expected myself to.

So as I say goodbye to London for now (have a feeling we will be back in a few years and I will again get to use that pair of Uggs and my Michael Kors jacket I so love), just wanted to share a few pictures and memories of what I will miss about the city! 

I fell head over heels in love with the beautiful 100 yr old house we lived in.
Built in 1914, it is every bit the quintessential Brit abode from it's huge freezing interiors that made us have the boiler on even in summer; radiators that needed a plumber to come in every alternate day in the beginning, the bedroom on the roof with sloping ceiling and a huge garden full of apple trees and rose and camellia bushes & a hedge of holly and laurel to the foxes that came visiting looking for food.
This beautiful house is what I will miss the most when I think of London....

The 100 yr old house we lived in with it's vast, rambling garden that once housed a tennis court..

I will terribly miss it's huge garden with its beautiful roses, damson and apple trees and its strawberry patch and flowers in every season... magnolias and crocus that bloomed wild in spring to tulips, lilac and azaleas in summer to chrysanthemums and marigolds and roses that bloomed till late autumn...

Roses from our garden

I will miss getting excited about snow...

And going berserk shooting pictures in Spring... here, here and here lie the proof of that obsession :)

I will miss the summer days where we lay on the grass in tents and had dinner under the blue sky....

Dinner outdoor on a hot summer evening

And the beautiful flowers that bloomed every season and grew wild everywhere -in the parks and meadows, along the roads and in hedges and pavements...

Spring in all it's glory..

Daisies blooming wild

And the fox that came to visit our home

Our trips to the park every evening till it got too cold to leave the house

V1 looking for foxholes

V2 as always looks for an audience even when there is none!

The stunning blue skies and the breath taking sunsets

The skies one evening as seen from our front gate..

The breath taking scenery we came across when we drove around or took short weekend breaks

The haggis, the wine, the sausages and the fresh cherries and berries...

Picking blackberries at Garsons

And to the village fairs that we went to in summer that felt straight out of a P.G. Wodehouse or Agatha Christie book.

The impromptu trips to the museums on my own and the ones with the boys to "Dinosaur land" (The Natural History Museum) to see their favourite Dippy and T-Rex

I will miss the way everyone, from taxi-drivers to handymen to packers to plumber addressed you as "my love" and "sweetheart". I am not being classist here, but at times I do amuse myself by wondering what one's reaction would be if a plumber in Bombay were to call them "janeman" instead of "madam" :)

I will miss my large spacious kitchen where I would sit and read a book or just stare at the beautiful flowers on the window sill

My kitchen table with Easter cactus and hyacinths in bloom in the background
and daffodils from the garden in a jam vase.

I will miss the long walks alone, in the cold, that I had just started falling in love with and the shorter half mile daily ones to the school I did with the boys each morning which felt longer because we were invariably late each morning.

And more than anything, I will miss all the running around we did with the brats-

• The visits to Deen City farm to feed the cows, goats and sheep and to the pick your own fields where we picked fresh fruits and vegetables straight off the plants and trees...
• The little walks we took in Richmond Park where we never saw any deer but came across many a horse and rider and little ponds and mysterious, giant hollow trees;  
• The stunning gardens and forests maintained by the National Trust that gave so much fodder to my blog - from tulip filled gardens to flame coloured forests in autumn 
• And the trips to feed the geese and swan in the little pond in the meadow when we could think of nothing better to do..

I will miss everything about the city that gave so much inspiration to me in terms of material and pictures to keep blogging...
And I cannot believe I am saying this, but five minutes after I came out of Changi airport, I was sweating like a pig and crying out for the cold, grey weather I constantly cribbed about, too! :)

So long London, till we meet again...