Queen's Park

Yesterday was fabulous. I spent the morning reading, working my way into Patrick Radden Keefe's book "London Falling," and had a peanut butter-and-apple sandwich for lunch. And then I took a long walk through Queen's Park, Maida Vale and St. John's Wood before meeting my work colleagues for a pub night retirement send-off.

As always, it felt good to get out and walk with the camera. If you're a longtime blog reader you may remember that right after Dave and I moved here in 2011, I became quite infatuated with London's chicken shops. I never actually ate in them, but I was intrigued by all the creative names that so often made reference to the American South ("Carolina Chicken," "Dixie Chicken" and "Tennesseeland," for example), as well as the remarkably consistent red-and-blue signage. I noticed yesterday that one of the shops I'd photographed before is now closed (above) but it made a great photo subject, with that tattered blue tarp breezily trailing its fibers in the wind.

The bandstand in Queen's Park is looking colorful and quite spiffy.

I walked along one street beneath some ornamental cherry trees that are shedding their blossoms. The ground was carpeted with pink and when the wind blew, the petals rained down. I couldn't quite capture the full effect on video because of course when I pulled out the camera, the wind let up. But you get the idea.

I noticed that all the fox stencils that used to ornament that area are now gone. I was infatuated with those almost as much as the chicken shops.

I stopped at a park off Harrow Road, near the Regent's Canal, and had a coffee. An obviously inebriated man came up to me and said, "Good afternoon, Phil Collins. You look like Phil Collins!"

(For the record, I look nothing like Phil Collins, except that we're both bald. And I had a hat on.)

I gave him a rather pinched smile and he went on his way.

This bike shop selling baby seats came up with a novel way to market them.

The pub gathering in St. John's Wood was terrific -- lots of my colleagues came, as well as Dave, and I got a £200 gift card (!) for gardening supplies, which I will probably use to buy a new garden bench, as ours is literally on its last legs. I also got more cute cards and letters from students and school staff members, as well as a prayer plant from my co-librarian Staci. She made a nice speech that, as I told her afterwards, made me sound way more competent than I actually am. And I told everyone that I felt very lucky because, while I studied journalism in college, I had also considered library science as a possible major -- and how many people get to work in both of the fields that they consider their calling?

You're probably thinking, "Good grief, enough already!" Don't worry -- last night was pretty much my final hurrah, at least until the end-of-the-year luncheon at school in June, which I plan to attend.