How to Recover from Post-Vacation Blues in a Few Easy Steps

I'm not sure if you might have noticed, but Old Ken has been pumping out these blogs at an even more sluggish pace than usual. The reason, you muse, could be many things—ennui, torpor, somnolence, night sweats, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), the ebola virus and so on. Well, thankfully, I can let you know that the answer was a bit more simple; I was on vacation back in ye olde countree. (Indeed, that is where the picture visible above was snapped. And I don't know about you, but I certainly appreciate fried chicken most when it is ICE cold).

Now, if you have had a vacation as pleasant as yours truly has had, it can sometimes be a bit difficult to get back into the groove again. And as I really that this is now high vacation season (at least on the east side of the pond) and many a sunburnt merrymaker may soon be getting back to the grind, I just thought I'd offer a few of Old Ken's patented ways of beating the post-holiday blues.



First off, go for a stroll around the old neighborhood but walk in unfamiliar ways. Old Ken was recently party to an expedition that revealed, much to our collective shock and delight, that we share the neighborhood with a horse! Who owns this horse and why he lives (night and day) in a vacant lot above the Southeastern train tracks is completely beyond me. But, he likes to eat apples and the berries we fed him through the fence. (And, if I can confess it, I stuck my hand through the fence and allowed him to eat the berries out of my palm. My fear of his massive chompers combined with the feeling of his weird horse lips on my hand made me giggle like a little girl!)



Well, a little further down the road, we encountered St. Nicholas' parish church in Deptford. While the belltower dates to the twelfth century and the church lies on an Anglo-Saxon site, the nave—as you may guess from the window design, Portland-stone quoins and scroll-work—are from the seventeenth century.



As if any more indication of Baroque sentiment was necessary, these skull trophies on the church yard gate certainly did the job.



From Deptford, we followed the Thames walking path east, along the eastern edge of the Isle of Dogs toward the ill-fated Millenium Dome in North Greenwich. Although the gleaming towers of Canary Wharf (visible here in the background) have done much to repress their working heritage—so you may recall from our "Limehouse Ramble" from this past January http://www.nicebirdrox.com/blogarchive/2006_01_01_archive.html—the relics of the dockwork and warehouses that stored far-flung commodities dot the Greenwich peninsula. In many cases, these decrepid piers and so on have been reclaimed by Nature, as these ducks aptly demonstrate.



Strolling further east toward the Thames barrier, which you see depicted above, we came upon another curiosity.



Just within the right-hand border of the photograph above, you'll see a vertical smudge of an object, which almost resembles a large quivering metal pine cone. This, so we learned upon closer examination, is a sculpture by British artist Antomy Gormley.



And one the way home, this stash of blackberries was gather and transported in some monstrous maple leaves. So, alas, I will confess that I have only actually supplied one tip here—that is, go for a walk. But, more will follow. On that, friend, you can hang you hat or my name ain't Old Ken Digby.