Walking through the park

I love crunching through the fallen leaves in my boots

And look what I found randomly under my feet. I thought it was a daisy until I took a closer look

Joining in the fun at Like mother, Like daughter

A blog that I've been following with much joy is

and I've finally attempted to join in the wonderful idea of capturing the contentment of everyday life. So here's my

{pretty}

I love the way the moon lights up the clouds around it, even if I haven't captured very well

{happy}

coming home to a husband, and a lovingly prepared awesome supper

{funny}

My attempt at sock ears

{real}

Work and lots of it

Ship ahoy

For all those who love ships in bottles, here's one big enough to satisfy the most ardent

It's almost December

I should be shocked at how early the shops get their Christmas decorations up, but they are so pretty that I secretly love them.

View from the past

Wow!! Comparing Norwood in 1864 http://london1864.com/stanford71.htm with Norwood today (look it up in the satellite version of Google maps)

It's fascinating how the road and railways are the same, but there are fields instead of houses. St Luke's church, Norwood Cemetery, the Tulse Hill Hotel were there in 1864. And All Saints church on Rosendale Road isn't there because it began ten years later. The little pond up in the top left corner is fascinating because I bike past there now and it definitely isn't there. I think there's a road there instead. And how much more effort it was to create an accurate map in those days!

The unexpected

I've mentioned before that the thing I love most about biking is the unexpected human contact (by this I don't mean that I knock pedestrians down). I was stuck in a traffic jam one morning on my way to work when I suddenly heard a voice in my ear
"Oh hello" said the voice
I nearly jumped and turned (the last I remembered, there had been a van there between me and the kerb). There were two (middle-aged) men in the van grinning at me, expecting to have startled me. So I grinned back and said 'Hiya!' and said that the coffee they were drinking (Gregg's) looked good and then had to pedal off because the traffic had started moving again. But it was just a random fun hello in a busy morning.

The frozen biker

There are good and bad things about biking, which is how I mostly get about nowadays. I love the freedom of it. I hate being stuck behind a gas-belching bus. I love going down hill. I hate struggling up hill. I love the way it's so easy to strike up conversation with a bike (sorry, with people when I have my bike).

In this country, especially, the thing that influences a ride the most is the weather. I don't mind the cold, since I get warm very fast when I'm biking. I do mind the rain though, because the rain here is cold! I came out of a meeting in Waterloo today to bike to the Strand and then to New Cross. As soon as I had unlocked the bike and started off, there was a hail storm. It then poured all the way from Covent Garden to New Cross (about 6 miles) and it was freezing. I was a cold drowned rat at the end of that one. And yet, there were good bits to it too. Like the parking attendant who grinned at me at a traffic light, looked up at the sky and said "It's not nice, is it?" Or the solidarity you can feel from other cyclists who are as wet (and presumably as miserable) as you.

So I love it, in spite of everything