Regents Park, Primrose Hill & Abbey Road

Today’s photography focus was to take a panoramic scene. I’ll comment briefly on the Regents Park flower gardens – they are amazing! You can turn your head in any direction and see some beautiful wild flowers and strategically planted roses, as far as the eye can see. Lovely little stone creatures tucked under the planters make this park a wonderful place to bide some time. After taking a million flower photos, we began our second journey of the day; this one was a steep climb up to Primrose Hill which overlooks the city with its spectacular vantage point. We attempted to fly some kites up there, but sadly the wind was not on our side. The sweeping view of downtown London was definitely fit for panoramic photo taking, but all that beauty was not what inspired this blog. Saving the best for last, we made our trek down the hill and on toward St. John’s Wood, where the feeling of anticipation grew to a crescendo when I reached Abbey Road studios and saw with my own eyes, the iconic zebra crosswalk. (BTW, Diego noted that, in fact, no zebras seemed to be crossing except for him!)There is a sense of awe when you get to achieve a personal goal, and standing near the walls outside the studio was almost like floating down a stream of dreamlike memories, where I can recall so many things from my childhood… Like sitting in my closet wearing a red cape my mother sewed and a Viking crown while making my dolls dance to the Magical Mystery Tour album as it wobbled on my childhood record player. Carrying a microphone around the house (which wasn’t plugged in) and singing The Fool on the Hill. Watching my cousin Scott recoil with disgust when I asked him to teach me the melody to a Wham! song on the guitar and instead I learned how to play Norwegian Wood. Picking strawberries at age 6 with my Aunt Blanche in the fields near Coconut Creek (now a shopping plaza) while singing to myself, “living is easy with eyes closed.” Taking my best guess at the lyrics for “I am the Walrus” when I thought John Lennon was talking about ‘yellow battered coleslaw’ and then finding that huge book my mom had which contained all of the Beatles lyrics and realizing how far off I was! Listening to my cousin Lisa complain about the use of the song Revolution in the 1980s Nike commercials. Watching the movie A Hard Day’s Night and thinking that I kind of liked Paul’s ‘auld granddad, even though he beat up an officer at the police station! Learning how to spell ‘Beatles’ correctly and hearing adults bicker about the ‘real’ meaning of Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds. Seeing Billy Crystal on TV tell a comedy bit about when his daughter asked him “if Paul McCartney had a band before Wings?”! Going through my mother’s complete collection of Beatles LP’s and bootlegs and realizing there were two printings of the Abbey Road album, and the ladies dress was a different color (it did not even occur to me that it was odd that she had both versions!) Watching the Sgt. Pepper movie at age 12 and wondering why the Bee Gee’s were there? Seeing the video for ‘Imagine’ on PBS and loving the mixed imagery of Lennon dressed in black and seated a white piano. Back when I thought ‘meditating’ was simply listening to the sitar-based “Within You Without You” song… All these thoughts commingled in my brain today as I sat and slowly wrote my families names on the graffiti plaster of the walls outside the studio with my own diary’s ink-pen. Framing the real picture for the day in my brain, in a sort of family-style panoramic memory that only three decades and one short crosswalk can truly capture.