THE HEATH

First, RPOTD:


Aaron may have our panini press, but you will never quench my love of hot, melted cheese sandwiches. I've discovered that one of the joys of being home during the day is that I can make a fresh lunch every day if I want. And while a sandwich may not seem that exciting, a hot sandwich of farmer's market produce that has spent a few minutes under the grill is simply delightful. Also, the gas grill/broiler makes for a pretty cool photo:

Not as cool as Danny's photo of shakshuka cooking, but still not bad.

Okay, on to the topic of this evening's post, which is the makeshift backyard of north Londoners, Hampstead Heath. I'm trying not to let this blog become just a list of reasons why London is super awesome (I'm sure the longer we live here the more we'll find faults), but with Hampstead Heath it's hard to say anything less than glowing.

800 acres, miles of running trails, panoramic views of central London, a running track, an outdoor pool, 3 swimming ponds (!) and multiple wildlife ponds, countless rolling hills and small wooded copses, plus everything in the acres we haven't yet explored. It's clean (minus the dog poop) and breezy and attracts everyone from teenagers to elderly dog-walkers. Listing all of this is not enough...simply put, being just a few minutes inside Hampstead Heath makes you feel that you are in the English countryside. It is the perfect place for evening strolls or early morning walks. Our first (of many, I'm sure) evening walk last week afforded these sights:










A much-used, dog-friendly swimming hole; view south to central London; view north to Highgate; a particularly picturesque tree.











And tonight, it was the perfect place for a picnic! Lucky for us, Hampstead Heath is just a half a mile from our flat, making it our makeshift patio. And especially lucky is that there is an excellent wine shop ("Corks"), and it's sister gourmet food shop ("Forks"), right on the way. With the last serving of our food from last Saturday's farmers market, here's what we came up with:




















And around 9pm, we were treated to this beautiful sunset. The photograph doesn't do it justice, but there were pink clouds everywhere. Now on to Danny's birthday weekend!