Settling in - local sights and new discoveries

Before we moved, I didn't really understand when people described London as a series of villages. I thought it was a quaint way of referring to neighbourhood divisions, where people in NW3 (Hampstead) don't talk to those in SE10 (Greenwich). 

It might refer to that too, but it turns out London is quite village like. Once you move away from the very central areas, there are pockets that feel remarkably like the countryside. We are 15 minutes from central London by train, but if we walk 5 minutes in any direction, we are on tree lined suburban streets that seem a million miles from busy roads and big city bustle. It's very odd. Utterly delightful, but odd. 

Local parks

We have spent quite a bit of time exploring our local neighbourhood, including the nearby parks, pictured above. Centre left is a huge adventure playground of the type I'd have loved as a child. Centre right is a local athletics track. In all of the photos, you will see we have so far been fortunate with the weather.

Highlighting the village feel, on several occasions we've seen local police on horseback. Once they came down our street. Never before have I had police on horseback parade past my window!

Poorly captured police on horses

We have continued to spend quite a bit of time in shops, too. After the whirlwind of our first few days, the shopping settled down, but for a while we made near daily visits to our local hardware shop. We have bought a drill, and we (Mr Bite) have put together a lot of flat packed furniture. Our main living room is still a work in progress, but I thought I'd share some insights into the rest of the flat.

We have a bedroom furnished in white, although the duvet cover is likely to change when we have time to indulge in the luxury of choosing covers in more than 5 minutes. (I think this may be a luxury I pursue by myself. Men and linen decisions don't seem a great match.)

Crucially, the bed has under-bed storage drawers, which will we get good use out of.

We have a new green hall cupboard, which is actually sold as a children's wardrobe, the same one recently purchased by Johanna for her daughter. We are using it to store our vacuum cleaner at the bottom, and to hang winter coats above. As you can see, it also houses suitcases on the top and the side shelves are filling themselves up!

I have a new set of kitchen jars, only some of which are on display.

The others hide in my new kitchen trolley, an essential purchase in order to ensure everything would fit in our kitchen.

Most of the time it lives underneath our bench, and it is proving very useful.

We have also found some time to explore further afield. One of the farewell presents we received was the guidebook Secret London: An Unusual Guide, which holds details of many lesser known attractions. We spent a few hours exploring a selection in the City region, a few of which are captured below.

Far left: Christchurch Greyfriars garden, in the ruins of a bombed-out church.
Clockwise from middle top: Police call box; Bread Box Boy (1688 statue); Samual Johnson's house; wheelbarrow flowers in Postman's Park.

There will come a time where settling in morphs to routine day-to-day living (with jobs and all), but for now, it is pretty delightful making the most of these early discoveries.

Have you explored any new areas near you lately?

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