1. Take your dog for a walk…
and if you don’t have one then borrow someone else’s. With the recent advent of borrowmydoggy.com, a growing trend meaning you can register, connect with other members and build a friendship and borrow their dog, exactly as said, while they’re out and about and busy. Hyde park is the perfect place for a dog walk if it’s cold wrap up warm but you’ll be accompanied by many other dog owners in the cold weather letting their dogs off the leash or on summer days bringing their dogs on family days out. This is the most calming way, providing your dog’s not crazy, to spend your time in Hyde Park and clear your mind of those city thoughts.
2. Read a book
Spend a few hours, chilling out on the grass in the spring
time sun escaping from London life with a good read. Top of my wish list right now is The Tobacconist, Robert Seethaler, new on the shelves, highly recommended and really intriguing.
‘As apprentice to the elderly tobacconist Otto Trsnyek, he will soon be supplying the great and good of Vienna with their newspapers and cigarettes. Among the regulars is a Professor Freud, whose predilection for cigars and occasional willingness to dispense romantic advice will forge a bond between him and young Franz’
My current read is Revolutionary Ride, Lois Pryce which is transcendent, captivating and is written for pure escapism. I find myself engulfed in this book and travelling with her on every whim and at every turn, if anything means escaping from city life - this book is it for me. Finally an old favourite of mine and one of the first ‘mature’ books that really bewitched me is Inferno, Dan Brown. Action packed, heart stopping, incredibly written and impossible to put down this book will transport you from the open air of Hyde Park to the gritty adventure of an unassuming professor.
3. Wine & picnic with friends
If anything says London in spring then it’s heading out to the sunniest spot you can find with friends and have a ‘bevvy or two’, however why not do this with a few of your closest friends, a bottle of wine and some picnic-y foods. Splurge on a delicious sandwich, pastry or snack from a surrounding cafe or restaurant and head to soak up the sun and fresh air whilst laughing your afternoon away with friends, even head off in search of some Santander bikes to ride precariously around the perimeter of Hyde Park.
4. Have a nap in the sun
As much as nearly every person tells me not to, when seeing these beautiful open spaces and seemingly soft, green beds of grass in London bathed in golden sun I can’t help but want to nap - wrapped in a blanket, jacket and snuggly socks with my shoes neatly tucked in my bag, underneath my head as a pillow. It is a tiny aspiration of mine, and every time I’m in London on a sunny day there are solo nappers dotted around these spaces. One day that will be me, sorry mum!
5. Do quick sketches of passers-by
Or just watch passers-by, watching people is one of the most absorbing things to do in London, how they walk, imagining their personalities and their lives, watching them watch the world and giggling with them when they do something silly. It makes you appreciate how big the city is, and how many parallel lives pass you by every moment that you have no idea about. For me, capturing these people in quick, personality filled sketches is a fun challenge that can keep me for hours and often produces amusing, laughable and sometimes impressive results. Give it a try!
So next time the sun does shine on London, head to Hyde Park and appreciate it all - the quietness, the ‘fresh’ air, the serenity, the people, the leisure, the lake, the gardens, the memories, the history, the doggy’s, the book you're sucked in to, the warmth on your back or the wine you’re sipping and just take a break for an afternoon.
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