Monday was my birthday and the weather forecast predicted sunshine and a few clouds. I was still hyped up on the Kew Gardens so I convinced Sean to come see them with me. I needed to see if more daffodils had bloomed! On our way to the gardens we walked past a house where a couple was busy working in their gardens. Balancing on the brick wall in front of their house they had placed two concrete statues with cute little tags announcing that they were free, but heavy! Sean and I took a couple of steps but then turned back to at least check them out. If they weren't too heavy we would carry them back with us. I lifted the unicorn. It was heavy but I could manage. I would make myself manage. I wanted these FREE statues. Sean asked which one I wanted to bring back. I said both. We can't just take just one. How would we decide which one deserved a home? We couldn't separate the two. The lion would hate us if we left him there alone and the unicorn would cry if we took away his friend. He already had a broken horn so I'm sure he was a bit depressed. I grabbed the unicorn with the broken horn. Sean hefted the lion. We wobbled home. I think I dislocated my shoulder. Of course we don't have a garden of our own and we didn't think far enough ahead to figure out where exactly we'd put them but hey they were free and it was my birthday. These would be the perfect gift.
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| The lion and the unicorn and Sean. We got them home. I love how the lion already has moss snuggled in. |
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| Guarding our door. The ground kind of slants down and you can see how the unicorn is all crooked. Sean jacked it up with an empty nip of Jack Daniels that was left in our alleyway. Thanks drunks! |
We brought our new babies home and then headed back out to the gardens. I was dripping sweat from carrying the unicorn. It was only a five minute walk but it felt like five miles. It obviously was not a magical unicorn. If it were it would have carried us home on a rainbow. At that point the sun had started to hide behind some clouds and by the time we hit the gardens grey storm clouds filled the sky. Oy. The rain came. Sean and I only stayed in the gardens for about an hour before we headed home in the rain. We made a pitstop at the nearby B&Q. B&Q is pretty much Home Depot and we wanted to buy supplies for window boxes. My mom bought me a little alpine strawberry plant and a primrose when we were at the Kew Gardens with her and that totally inspired us to set up little planters outside our flat. Of course the garden center of B&Q was outside, in the rain. We left empty handed and caught the next bus that went by. It was pouring out now. We were soaked. We also realized we had no food in the house and although an easy solution would be to just go shopping neither one of us wanted to haul bags in the rain. It was my birthday anyways so we stopped at a restaurant by our house and had a quick but hot meal.
No wait. No. Whoa no, I lied. All this happened on the 27th but that is practically my birthday so I was counting it as my birthday weekend. Birthday week. Yes, we went to the gardens on Sunday. It rained on Sunday. We found statues on Sunday. Monday was my birthday and I woke up, opened some cards that had came in the mail or were left from my Mom and Dad and then Sean and I went to sweaty yoga. I got a free Birthday pass and then during the floor poses the teacher stepped on the bottoms of my feet and gave me a surprisingly glorious foot massage. I love this Bikram yoga a lot but I have been noticing that my flat feet were really starting to hurt. The lateral edges of my feet BURN and ACHE every time we go into a long standing balancing posture and I have to come out of the pose early to stretch my feet even if my leg muscles are up for the challenge. The foot massage was wonderful. I have been doing some reading on Yoga and what it can do for flat feet. Apparently it can be very beneficial! Of course! I watched a video on youtube of a yoga teacher explaining how to "create" an arch in your foot by contracting the muscles in a certain way. What you do basically is put weight on your entire foot (resisting the urge to roll out to the edge....which I couldn't stop doing!) but also focus on really pushing into the ground with the ball of your foot. Then arch your foot. Yup just focus on making those muscles there contract forming a very strained and forced arch. Does that make sense? The internet explained it better and I'm doing it as I type. But it makes sense because you're working muscles that usually don't work and it's like you're giving them a wake up call. I tried doing this at the next yoga class and although my muscles in my foot felt weak and tired I was able to hold the whole pose! I no longer felt like I was crushing and breaking the bones in my feet. I will keep practicing this. I would love to have arches someday. I even do this when I'm standing in the kitchen cooking and cutting veggies. Maybe I will say that I want arches by the time I'm 70 years old. That's a good life goal. I want arches. After walking around London for five days with my parents in crappy shoes I felt like my feet were broken and that my plantar fasciitis had returned and my heel spurs were still poking through my skin. I also need to figure out a way to do a contrast bath here but our freezer is so small and can barely make ice cubes...but I'll put new ice cube trays on the list. With new arch exercises and contrast baths I bet I'll have arches in no time. I should start a whole blog about it...
Ok so now that that is straightened out and I cleared up the confusion on what I did which day and explained to you all about my feet I think it's time to end this post. I had a wonderfully relaxed and quiet birthday with my Sean and we have two new additions to our family that sit out in the alley, vulnerable to the drunk hooligans, guarding our door.
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| I love stone unicorns. If only this were the unicorn outside our door. No drunks would mess with THAT beast! |
These are just great pictures!! I would love to paint some of them. what a wonderful garden and within walking distance too!
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