Summer postcards: London

London in summer has a different energy. My last visits to the city have always been in winter, which is famously grey, so this felt like meeting it for the first time.

I travelled back and forth from Croydon, where my son was attending a summer music camp. I spent more time than I wanted to on trains, but I enjoyed experiencing the city from a different angle. I met my friend Anne and we spent a morning walking through Hampstead and the Heath, where people were bathing in the lake. We stopped at a cute pub for a lemonade before heading back to catch the train to Croydon.

I had too many coffees and great food, and concluded once again that London has amazing shops and that elegant aesthetic that makes it so beloved. We watched Spider-Man and two West End shows, and saw Chloe singing at the Bedford. We met John and Sherry at Battersea. But one of my best memories will probably be the twenty minutes morning walk I took with G. from our hotel to the BRIT School, often in silence, half asleep and a bit cool, before the sun rose in the sky and warmed us for the rest of the day.