Things I like

A lido in a heatwave and long live petunias. Plus - do you ever get the feeling you're going through a mid-life growth spurt?

Parliament Hill Lido after an early-ish morning swim back in August 2018.

Hello! And thank you for reading The Honesty Box. I hope you’re well and keeping cool if you’re in a place where there’s a heatwave, as I am.

I’m back in the groove with writing this now, after a little summer break and a ponder on my ‘situation,’ and it’s time for a few thoughts on things I like.

This week, I like lido life and petunias in my garden, both of which help me to get out of my own head and into the present.

Freelance lido life

I was lucky enough to have a day off to enjoy the early autumn sunshine and I went for a swim at Parliament Hill Lido on London’s Hampstead Heath on Thursday.

The lido was built in the 1930s and from the look of photos from when it opened, it hasn’t changed much: low-rise buildings surround the unheated 60 metre pool and there’s a terrace at one end for sunbathing plus a café on the side.

It’s basic, but the pool is beautiful and the people-watching unparalleled on a hot day (and you know I love a bit of that – you can read about how I spent a few days on a beach pondering other people’s lives here).

On Thursday, a man and woman wearing all-white swimwear sat in the shade at one end of the pool, and occasionally posed for photographs: the woman pouting as the man snapped away before he turned around and revealed a tattoo of her face on his back.

Groups of younger women hung out in what I call bum-bum bikinis, while parents with little children bought ice cream for their offspring.

I sat with two newish friends, lovely people I met at my coworking place, and we chatted about freelance life and dating life and life in general and it was pretty glorious.

The pool was busy, but as I eased into the medium-speed lane, all I could focus on was the initial chill. And as I swam my slow breast-stroke, head above water, sunglasses on, I caught snippets of conversation and noticed brightly-coloured costumes.

As I did my six (!) lengths, I started to feel a sense of energy and freedom, a feeling I had a more extreme version of when I travelled to Vietnam by myself earlier this year.

Hot weather, an outdoor swim, unfamiliar people and lots to look at somehow gave me a sense of possibility.

I’ve been trying to work out how to get back the mid-life growth spurt feeling I had when I was away, and I had a little chink of it in the pool. Do you know what I mean? I hope for more of it - any tips, let me know!

Pretty petunias

Petunias in my garden on Friday night.

The heatwave brings this fair-weather outdoor swimmer to the pool, but the baking temperatures are less favourable for plants.

It's weird that the evenings have been so hot during a time of year when the sun sets earlier, so I often find myself watering my garden in the dark.

I started gardening in the pandemic one Sunday when I’d moved back to my flat after staying with my mother during various lockdowns.

After pulling up a solitary weed in an empty patch of woodchip-covered soil in April 2021, gardening became a kind of sanctuary for me that spring and summer, an evening habit I now love to return to.

I’m fortunate to have two decent-sized flowerbeds and a square patch of soil at the back under a tree.

(I also have fake grass - this I inherited from the previous owner and I haven’t got around to changing it/don’t want to spend the money doing so.)

My garden is very un-designed and has grown from the cuttings people have given me, half-dead plants I’ve bought reduced at B&M Stores and from my own experimental seed sowing.

Anyway, on Friday I watered my pots, which three months ago I filled with white and pink petunias. These I bought as little plants in multipacks, and I love them because if you take the dead heads off and keep them watered, they keep going for ages.

Petunias are great for amateurs like me and their colourful longevity is why you often see them stuffed into pub hanging baskets.

I try not to use too much water, and at this time of year they’re more established so need less.

I love dead-heading: it’s fun to hunt for the hidden stalks and you end up with tidier plants that want to keep growing. Nurturing petunias is such a simple pleasure for me and I hope I can keep them going until it gets colder.

So there you go: my hot week of pool pondering and petunia pottering!

Have a good day and I’ll see you next time.

PS: As I started to write today, I thought I might do a ‘things I don’t like’ newsletter once in a while, because everyone fancies a bit of a moan now and again, don’t they?