Walking, talking, eating

A day in London to meet cousins and have lunch together.  Beautiful weather, plenty of time, so I walked from Paddington to Trafalgar Square through Hyde Park, Green Park and St James’s Park. It’s always wonderful to see them, we met at the cafe at St Martins in the fields, and went through morning coffee,  lunch and afternoon tea:). Then I walked back to Paddington, the same route but also going through Chinatown (above) and Soho. The first extra is Hyde Park, now with a kind of rewilded vibe. Didn’t used to look like this. The second is a herbaceous bed in St James’s park - with some Whitehall buildings peeking out behind. Clearly suffering a bit from heat and lack of rain.
It was a wonderful day.  The moment I stepped out of Paddington Station and into Praed Street I felt so joyous to be ‘home’. I walked 23,000 steps. One toe was sore by the end,