Sunny Day Face Shield

Here's a much better "busy park" photo than the one in my last post. This is Golders Hill Park, where Olga and I walked yesterday on our outing to Hampstead Heath. Everyone seems to be hungry for sunshine, and the Bank Holiday weather did not disappoint -- we had a warm day with wide blue sky and barely any clouds.

I didn't mind the crowds, because it's a big park and I felt like there was adequate space -- although the sidewalks were pretty packed. At least we weren't as bad off as Botany Bay in Kent, where you may remember I went metal detecting a few months ago -- apparently it was crammed with holiday visitors. (I suspect other beaches were too.)

Before Olga and I walked, I worked in the garden. I finally pulled the plug on our forget-me-nots. It's always hard to know when to clear them out, but they were looking seedy and ragged so they went. I also did a general weeding of our central flower bed, which was long overdue. I discovered plants we'd forgotten we had, including two tiny hollyhocks that had been buried among all the forget-me-nots.

I mowed the lawn, washed our bedsheets and another load of laundry, and went to the grocery store. Whew!

The highlight of the day was definitely the Heath walk, where Olga got so hot she opened her panting mouth as wide as possible. When she does this, Dave always jokes that we can see straight through her, right down her gullet and out the back door, so to speak. Kind of like a shotgun house.

Anyway, she got a bit draggy until we got to the pond on Sandy Heath...

...where she had a revitalizing swim. After that, she was fine.

On the walk home, we paused in front of Rumah Malaysia, the Malaysian high commissioner's house in Hampstead, where the sign cast a reflection like a swirl of golden smoke.

I took this photo in front of the grocery store. I was amused by the guy in front of me, in his full-face plastic shield and yarn mittens. But no mask, curiously! I'm not sure how valuable that shield is by itself, but if it makes him feel better, no harm done.

Once again I picked up a couple of plants at the store -- a nicotiana and a reddish foxglove, a color I've never seen. I usually get annoyed with Dave for buying so many plants, given that we struggle to find places to put them -- and now that he's isolating and I'm the grocery shopper, I'm doing it!