Here Comes the Sun!

After just grousing about what a cloudy, rainy winter it's been, I was surprised when I walked Olga early yesterday morning to find a clear blue sky and sunshine! The sun was lighting up the bell tower of St. Andrew's Church across Finchley Road...

...and hitting the upper floors of the Buckingham Mansions apartment block on West End Lane.

When we got home, I found it streaming in the windows of the dining room.

I could practically hear all the plants sighing with delight. (There are more there than usual because some of the outdoor plants have been moved inside for warmth.)

I spent the morning reading and then set out with Olga for Hampstead Heath. We hadn't been to the main part of the heath in months -- I think since June, when she went wading. She stayed out of the water this time!

I was so bowled over by the blue sky, sun and shadows that I made a video -- even though the sky clouded over again by the time we got to the Heath itself. You'll see the elegant white former home of actress Gracie Fields, which I've blogged before, and you'll see Olga half-heartedly chase her ball and some squirrels. We returned home via Flask Walk, a short pedestrian passage in Hampstead lined with restaurants and shops, where I briefly got distracted when Olga met (and barked at!) a much larger dog. And finally we visited the cemetery at St-John-at-Hampstead church, and the statue of the woman in the back corner, as always holding a single flower.

It was great to take this walk again after so many months, and I was impressed at how well Olga did, given her age. We didn't do the whole Heath, as we used to, but still. She got a paracetamol in her dinner last night, to alleviate any post-walk aches and pains, and she seems fine.

Oh! Good news! The tube strike has been called off. So that's one nightmare we won't have to navigate this week.

And speaking of nightmares, yesterday evening I watched yet another Hitchcock film -- "Vertigo," which I hadn't seen in many years. As with "North by Northwest," my memory was mostly of trying to stay awake while watching it late at night. So I finally saw it through while fully alert, and once again appreciated Hitchcock's unusual camera angles and use of color, though the plot itself was dubious. In the most cringe-worthy parts, Kim Novak's character agrees to subsume her identity at Jimmy Stewart's request, to become the paper-doll glamazon she was pretending to be when he first met her. It was a very 1950s construct of womanhood.

Today -- back to work!