John's Blog for 2009

Monday 4 May 2009

I started this year with the intention to write something maybe each week, but time slips by so fast and we seem to be busy. It's three months since I last tackled my blog, and now well into spring. The previous entry is mostly about the family happenings last year

We've been busy, as I say. In the first term we accommodated 150 bednights and provided 150 breakfasts! B&B guests seem to keep coming, despite the crunch. But to the point of this entry. Keith asked me to look after his car, which is a nice big blue one, whilst he is away sailing over the Atlantic. That gave me an opportunity to take Phill to Andover to see his SaRBS worker and to then to Petersfield to inspect the flat and deal with the agent. Then on Friday Caroline rang to ask for help in moving from Poplar to Finsbury Park - she calls it Finsbury Park, and I call it Stroud Green. Here are some pictures showing how we spent the three days over the early May bank holiday.


This is us ready for the second and last trip. Caroline was planning to cycle with the very last bit we couldn't squeeze into the car . . .


. . . and here she is, showing off her new home: she will live with her friend, Liz, who owns the first and second floors.


Adam, from Crete I think, for his surname ends in 'akis', lives with his fiancée Claire in the ground floor flat, and this is their terrace on the ground floor at the back of the house.


Here is the back garden, full of shrubs and the newest resident.


. . .and another picture of the garden, taken from first floor.


. . . and yet another picture of garden and resident.


Caroline is sitting in the seat at the back of the house.


Liz is a herbalist; this proves it!


. . . and this is her office on the first floor at the front, used also as a guest bedroom, where I stayed for the weekend.


Now we are on the floor above (the second floor) looking out through the kitchen window.


. . . from where we can see the houses in the next street.


Those pictures were taken from the kitchen window - and here is the kitchen itself.


A view of the street from the front gate; there is Keith's car.


and there is Caroline leaning out of the sitting room window on the second floor.


. . . which has a nice piano, a sofa, bookshelves and well-positioned mirrors reflecting the light from the two front windows: as it is on the top floor there's no space taken up by flights of stairs, so the sitting room can use the whole width of the house.


On the other side of the street several houses have a multitude of garden pots.


so this section of the road has a verdant feel to it.


. . . more verdure in the front garden of another house on the opposite side of the road.


We finished moving on Saturday, and went off in the evening to a barbecue at a friend's house in Highgate. We liked that so much we came back for lunch here on Sunday.


Caroline wonders whether she will make Highgate her next move . . .


. . . maybe to a house like this?


After lunch we caught sight of this chest of drawers in Crouch End . . .


. . . and early on Monday Keith's trusty car carried it home.


By now the bedroom is beginning to look comfortable and stylish, with a low plant shelf behind the bed head . . .


. . . whilst in the far corner the work gets done.


and there's still room to play the mandolin!


Whilst Mr Bangkok guards the medical library.

Here are links to the previous blog entry and the list of contents signposting all 2009 blog entries.