Nostalgia

This week I can't stop thinking about this place, in Kensington, London.

I'm not sure why? Perhaps it is because so many blogs I'm reading, are telling of the beginning of Spring in the Northern Hemisphere. Or perhaps it's because Mum has just been in London, that I am thinking again of my time there.

I was in London (many moons ago) for nearly three years. I lived in a hostel in Bayswater for five months (not as bad as it sounds) I also lived in Kew and Leytonstone for 6 week periods. But for most of my time in London, I was in the very fortunate position to be house sitting an amazing flat in Palace Gardens Terrace.

It was pretty hard to take I can tell you.

I have lived in many houses since my childhood home, fifteen in fact. Three of them have been my own homes. So it seems strange to say it, but this house felt more like home than any other house I have lived in, before or since. It just seemed more me.

Maybe I have on my rose coloured glasses? Maybe it was just the stress free and simple life that I loved. The life that goes along with travelling in your twenties. No mortgages, no bills, no cars, no commitment, no responsibilities.



Or was it the walk home along our street, after a busy day in Spring. Breathing in the new Spring scents and enjoying the new blooms of the cherry trees, the camellia trees and the magnolia trees?



Or waking up to a soft sprinkling of snow on the tiny terrace in the middle of winter?



It might have been the marble fireplace and the huge gilded mirror that hung above it, that made me fall in love. Maybe it was the 2o foot ceilings, huge windows and the french doors that led off the small kitchen? Or the eclectic mix of antiques and memories that filled the house? Perhaps it was the giant, walnut, glass fronted bookcase filled with books and treasures? Was it the evenings I spent there, cooking in the tiny kitchen, candles lit and lights dim, jazz in the background and people expected for dinner? Was it the real Christmas tree brought home at Christmas time or the fresh tulips brightening up the mantle in Spring?

If I won the lotto, I could have it all again. Enriched by my children's laughter filling the rooms. Now wouldn't that be nice.

And if I don't, I know that I am very lucky to had that life, even for just a little while.

It nice to take a trip down memory lane occasionally.