Our Front Yard

Big Brother once declared Hyde Park the "biggest front yard ever." If a downside to flat living is the lack of outdoor space, we made a great trade by being so close to the park. It will be tops on our list of things we miss when we go from London.

Have you heard the sun came out here recently? And stayed out. The forecast is amazing. Seriously, this made news. Only in London would there be an entire morning news story about how the sun is shining in July!

So we've been soaking up Hyde Park in the sunshine all week (when not slogging away at schoolwork that is...!). We spent lazy weekend days picnicking and playing at the Lido. The boys enjoyed watching royals disembark from the helicopter that landed at Kensington Palace. I speculated they were coming home from a day at Wimbledon.

The girls are often found on the carousel. And the Barbie cars.

I think I could live here a million years and never tire of walking over the bridge and seeing the London Eye and the Tower of London pop up across the Long Water.

I will miss summer nights eating on picnic tables outside the Serpentine Restaurant. The Lido. Paddle boating. The Diana playground. Kicking a ball. Reading the paper while conducting benign neglect parenting. And the summer concert series.  I'll miss that, too.

We sometimes go into the park for the concerts and on a few occasions, even buy tickets. The best purchase was Bruce Springsteen with Paul McCartney in an encore!  With fireworks!  All the above made all the better by enjoying it with my own Biggest Brother, his wife and the Mister. But some of our very favorites of the summer concerts have been enjoyed from our living room. Watching the crowds spill out of the park is the second part of the show to be sure.

Hyde Park has been our front row seat to the Olympics, a favorite spot for the Mister to take the kids while I do whatever it is I do solo, the boys' "football pitch" of choice and where we run and play. We are determined to bring back the impressive European ability to completely relax in a park based solely on our years of witnessing it steps from home.

And it isn't just sunshine that makes the park a delight. Happy times have been spent at Winter Wonderland. 

All year long, Hyde Park has been the best front yard ever. We'll miss it. I'm very sure that I won't be able to hear the Rolling Stones from my couch this time next year, so tonight I plan to enjoy every minute!