The winter this year was relatively mild. In retrospect we did not see very low temperatures in January and there were days in February when I had to start peeling off outer layers of clothing on the way to work. The usual assortment of spring flowers started to show up in the parks and media was reporting an unusually early spring (all due to the U.S. and president Bush apparently!). I must admit that there were a few mornings when the air had a distinct smell of spring about it.
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The last week of the month came as a total shock. A mass of cold air blew in from Siberia and brought with it much colder temperatures and even a few days of light snow. It was not all that bad, however, temperatures in London never dipped below freezing, the snow generally melted as soon as it fell and after all spring really cannot be that far now.

That said, the potentially unpleasant and always unpredictable weather did not create conditions for long expeditions to the countryside. We live about 7 minute walk from Kensington Palace but we have avoided visiting it until now, precisely because it is the ideal outing when one does not know how the day is going to turn out. The palace was constructed by a king (William of Orange, I think) who suffered from asthma and could not tolerate the bad London air. At that time Kensington was a village far outside of the city of London, and being on a modest hill offered much better air quality. Later kings did not have asthma and did not care too much for Kensington, preferring to move back to the center of action. The palace became a convenient place to house lesser members of the royal family and it was here that future queen Victoria was born and brought up. More recently princess Margaret and Lord Snowdon as well as the notorious Diana lived here. Part of the palace still fulfills the same function and we sometimes see helicopters taking off from the palace lawn. Bulk of the building has, however, been converted to a museum, part of which is dedicated to the history of courtly fashion – boring but illuminating subject.

February was also the month when Chinese celebrate New Year. It was an opportunity to see Trafalgar Square in a rather unusual disguise and witness a spectacular display of Chinese fireworks. The firecrackers managed to scare all the local pigeons and for a while the place looked like a set of Hitchkock’s Birds movie.

A standard diversion is still provided by my weekly Saturday trips to the Portobello market.