Hello from London, it's been some time.

Well hello there, it's been some time. My old blog 'Gracie's be true to yourself' fell by the way side some 4 years ago when I arrived in San Francisco. I'm not sure why, although I think my original concept for the blog in Amsterdam was food, and on arrival in San Francisco I was surrounded by amazing food and amazing food blogs and felt there was no need. When I became pregnant I used the blog as a place to place my memories  but after Emily was born I really didn't feel the urge to write and then when I arrived here in London I felt that I missed something and that is writing along with reading (I have read one book in the past 2 years that was not child related). I think this blog will be about our life here in London, our next adventure. Hopefully you will stay with us.

I think what has surprised me so far in the how laid back our life has become. I think when you say to people you are heading to London most people think 'hectic, busy, crazy, citylife', but we have found a great neighbourhood about 30 mins from the city centre called Queens Park. It feels like it is a little village and has a nice sense of community. There are a couple of lovely big parks, one with a wee animal farm and even a pitch and put.

Around the corner from us is is yoga on Lonsdale road which has become quite important for me to practice along with the doctors, the dentists, the vet and a couple of cafe/ restaurants which is perfect on cold, rainy days as you don't have to go too far.  I am a coffee fan and we were very lucky having Blue Bottle on our doorstep in SF but here we have a wee studio space with Black Box Coffee.

I feel that UK has changed on the food front in the past 10 years. I was blessed by the abundance of organic food in San Francisco. For me the sight of a Tesco and Sainsbury's express only 5 mins walk makes me queasy and wants me to click my heels and go back to  the States, it is hard to find organic food here and it's much more expensive than in the States. Queens Park does have a wonderful Sunday Famers Market which is our church on Sundays. Great for picking up Sunday dinner supplies ,bumping into mums from the nursery, old friends that I haven't seen in decades, even Jab bumped into someone from SF and from there we usually decide on what open space to venture too, so far Hampstead Heath has been winning out, but last week I ventured to Kew Gardens with my parents and think I want to explore Richmond and the parks there these coming weekends.

The weekdays are pretty full with Emily, work talks, unpacking, arranging, clearing, sorting and buying- mainly artwork, rugs and clever storage solutions. The Victorian mews house we are in is a bit of a contrast to the open plan loft we were living in in SF.

Anyways, for now this is just an intro, please stay with me and hope you enjoy our adventure.

Cat xx