Oh my gosh, I am so happy to back in my little paradise in London. After lunch with my dear friend Eleanor at my favorite neighborhood cafe (Elder Press if you ever go looking for it), I took a long walk  along the Thames to one of my local places of pilgrimage—Chiswick Park. Honestly, just put me in a garden or in the midst of some huge and ancient trees and I am in heaven and nothing less. Then put me in a walled kitchen garden (Chiswick has a fabulous one) and I am in something more heavenly than heaven! I don’t know why I love walled gardens so much, especially kitchen gardens, but I definitely do. The garden at Chiswick, uses no-dig methods and is a marvelous combination of thick beds of flowers and some of the happiest vegetables I have ever seen. They sell some of their produce but also give quite a bit away to local food banks. Hooray for them! And did I mention—a brilliantly sunny day.

The walk home along Chiswick Mall, which borders the Thames, has lovely refurbished houses on one side  and many small, private gardens bordering the river, where people can sit among their roses and watch the river flow. I love these!