One of my favourite places in London in the summer is Queen Mary's Gardens in Regent's Park. It is a place that I have been visiting since the summer of 2000 and a quiet place where I would walk with (now) ex-boyfriends, friends, and alone. It's a place that I envision sitting outside in the grass in the sun, sketching in my sketchbook and day-dreaming.
Queen Mary's Gardens were named after the wife of King George (Queen Elizabeth's father), and the rose gardens were finished in 1934. There are over 85 rose beds here to view and a walk with a lake and waterfalls. A short walk away is the Broad Walk, which has fountains, shrubbery, and an English Garden, which I would guess is Victorian.
My favourite rose in Queen Mary's Gardens is the "Britannia" rose, which is a gradient pink to orange glow. It also smells divine. I have not uploaded a photograph of it, but I have uploaded a photograph of a pink rose.
Regent's Park also has a few concession stands for snacks or ice cream, and on a hot day, it would have been a crime not to have had a soft vanilla ice cream.
This leads me up to an update about my summer so far. I've switched jobs this month (actually, July 31st was my first day in the new job). Although I am not working on Brick Lane anymore, I am working at Aldgate East, which is not far from Brick Lane, so I am still able to check out the street art scene in the area. (However, the street art scene in east London seems to have virtually come to a standstill.)
I had to switch roles because the company that I was working for decided to offshore the IT roles to India, so major culls to roles in London were made. However, the new role is going well, and I've been there for nearly a month now. My last role involved some development but a lot of fire-fighting and training up new starters and junior developers, so I am enjoying that I am able to avoid the challenges and issues in the last role and build a great new framework. I'm also working with some great people, so that is always a bonus. Of course, I miss my ex-colleagues too, but I am sure that I will work with them again at some point.
My only hope for the rest of this year (and hopefully into next year) is that everything continues to go well and that I am able to have a bit of stability. I started some much-delayed lifestyle changes at the weekend, so I am hoping to continue those. I will keep you up-to-date.
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