Notting Hill Carnival marks the end of summer for me. I had been going for more than 30 years. Going there  the weather would always be quite cloudy, I can’t remember a day going to carnival and it being sunny. And then...and then summer seems to come back again for a couple of weeks. British weather sure is a funny minx!

I haven’t been to carnival for a few years now and I miss going so much, but I will be back again with a vengeance, after parties and all.

Hubby has had August Fridays off last month, and the last of his Fridays off last week we did the "Londoners go touristing in London." day on our last weekend of summer. I love doing that, being tourists in our home town, it reconnects me to London, I see all these eyes of wonder that I have when I go touristing abroad. It is a nice feeling that all these people want to see my home town.

So we hit the South Bank walk as I call it. Starting at Tower Hill, working our way through to Borough Market, Tate Modern and then finishing at Royal Festival Hall. Well actually we had to run over the bridge and buy part of a birthday present for one of my nieces in Covent Garden. 

Now there is another place I haven’t been in a while!

Here we go then, autumn weather will soon come. Where we will wrap up all cosy, Paloma will start nursery for a few mornings a week, and then Christmas will come round and P will have so much more to enjoy rather than last year when she was only 9 months old. I hasten to add though. I hate winter. No, I really do. I hate the cold and I hate the snow. I feel like I have a lump in my throat because summer goes too, too quickly and winter feels like it goes on forever.  I feel more alive with summer, the heat, the sun, the foods and fruits that summer bring.  Clothes, I have more summer clothes than winter clothes. I feel more free, more devil may care attitude with what I wear in the summer, the colours, the sandals or the lack of! London comes alive when Spring and Summer come along. People on the streets out and about or cotchin outside cafes, parks, eateries, bars. Everything, I will miss Summer more than I should.

When the autumnal weather really kicks I will go to a cosy café with P and Hubby and drown my sorrows with a creamy thick hot chocolate!