Spring!

Spring arrived yesterday in London, catching many of us off-guard. After spending some of my Saturday walking around the neighbourhood bundled up and wearing a scarf, you can imagine my surprise when I walked outside yesterday and was confronted with the beer garden at the White Horse being backed by coat-less revellers, the barbecue seemingly going at full blast. While I'm not sure of the temperature, it was indeed a beautiful sunny day, and it has been followed up with another temperate, although hazy, day today. So perhaps this is in fact evidence of a seasonal change and not just a blip on the radar of what has seemingly been an endless winter. It's mid-March, so I guess it had to happen sooner or later.

I must admit this sudden seasonal-change has caught me somewhat unprepared. For example, I've been meaning to get a bike (I work in sustainable travel, I might get ridiculed if folks find out I don't have one!) and most certainly don't have one yet. I had spotted one I liked at a nearby cycle shop the weekend before, so we popped in again yesterday to discover they were now all of out that bike and I didn't particularly care for the alternatives. It seemed I had been beaten to the bunch by those forward seeing folks who knew that spring was about to pop around the corner!

On the other hand, we have totally been on the outdoor ball for a good week now! We hauled ourselves down to the garden center the weekend before and picked up some soil and some seeds for Mark to plant in his 'earth box' on the balcony, which he finally got around to planting yesterday. We shall be expecting some leafy arrivals, well, hopefully at some point. We are also considering additional balcony plant options, but admittedly the allure of many plants are sort limited when confronted with the prospect of having to walk home with them. To be honest, it was miracle enough we were able to get the potting soil home without any major back injuries.

So at some point we will get some more plants for the balcony, perhaps a couple chairs to sit on to watch the sunset (and of course the District line!), and we now have a mini-barbecue on the way. I've found another bike online that I like (it comes with a wicker basket!), but it's currently out of stock until Easter, so perhaps I'll make that leap sometime soon as well. And given the change in weather, I also feel like now I can start returning to Bishop's Park for general outdoor activity and river-viewing!