Saturday 28 January 2017

Baby GG Loves Murals


Over the last four months, GG and I have been on many an adventure. We've explored neighbourhoods near and far, hopping on and off buses, taking the back streets whenever we can and most importantly searching out our local gems and finding beauty in the streets, doors, walls, gardens and floors we see. I started documenting some of the best bits we found and like all adventures it has evolved over time. So what started out as a simple snap of GG in front of a local wall (above) eventually became a mural hunt all over London Town! 


I've shared a few snaps along the way on Instagram (@knickerelasticfantastic), but I wanted to round up all my favourites into a little post here. This cute little carrycot was an old Oyster Max Vogue collaboration that we were lucky to score secondhand on eBay. But alas, GG has moved up from the carrycot to her new big girl buggy. So, this post is to commemorate the last five months of adventures with her!


I LOVED this carrycot for it's tiny size, cute shape and fun monochrome spots and stripes! Little GG also loved it - she's spent so many hours staring at the little spots inside the hood. She'd even crane her neck to stare at a particularly hard to see spot right behind the back of her head (like it's different from all the others?!). Now that is commitment to spot staring. What's more, it's also rather photogenic...particularly against a mural with the same spots and stripes!! 


Rather than my daily train commute each day (erugh - not at all reluctant to take a break from those), walking is our new modus operandi. We have powered around the parks, up and down the hills, meandered, sauntered, sidled, sashayed, hopped, hovered, shuffled, jogged (for buses!) and all of it has been so refreshing. It's a total shift in pace, to walk for a walk's sake, rather than to get somewhere (in a hurry!). It's opened up our eyes to our surroundings, connected us wth other locals and meant we've experience the weather first hand. 


Some have been old favourite walls and walks we have visited before. Others have been new discoveries just hiding around each corner.



Not strictly a mural, but a lovely brick wall weighed down with magnificent orange berries in Greenwich. This was from our first proper day-out as a family and this wall here just screamed 'Autumn' so we had to stop for a snap (and don't I look happy about it). 


One of my favourite things about this one is the Christmas wrapping paper under the pram. Busted! This little buggy became an epic workhorse, often piled high to the rafters with groceries and shopping while little GG remained tucked up fast asleep inside!


Some of the less salubrious parts of our neighbourhood also make for fun backdrops - like these doors on their side used to create a makeshift fence. Love it.


Dwarfed by the Old London in the Wast End. Doesn't she look teensy tiny here?!


This sunshine yellow wall makes me happy (can you tell?!). Especially in the depths of a London winter. As an antidote to the dreary Britih greyness, all Londoners should make a weekly pilgrimage to this happy wall in East Dulwich to up their daily dose of vitamin D!



Not strictly a mural this one either, but I loved this hedge of red in the autumn that we found in South Norwood. The leaves were already dropping by this point, so past its best really, but still gorgeous! 


So, adieu to the carrycot, but hello to our growing baby girl. There are still sooo many more areas to explore so we shall not stop here but continue our adventures on foot around South East London, racking up the step count as we go! And I can only hope that the two of us will have just as much fun over the next five months as have had over the last five together.