The best ice cream I have ever tasted in England – You are allowed any and every flavor and they shape it into a rose.

Half a mile from Markfield Park down the River Lee is Springfield Park. The park rises steeply up from the river and has an amazing array of tree species making it beautiful in all seasons. At the brim of the hill there is a line of park benches each one surrounded by box hedge offering a private view across the Lee Valley, Walthamstow and beyond. The park warden was nice enough to give me a chestnut log a couple of years ago from which I carved a bench and two stools.

Excellent gallery. It has big rooms which often feature large pieces and admission is free.

I love how much you are aware of the changing seasons out of the city; there are numerous beautiful forests around Hertfordshire to go for a run, a walk or have a picnic. One of the best destinations for a day out from London might be Northaw Great Wood. The main entrance is located on the Ridgeway, the B157 from Cuffley to Brookman's Park.

You might think the Tate Britain is the less interesting of the two London outposts: full of crusty oil paintings and pensioners on day-trips, but you’d be wrong. Not only is the building a delicious warren of interconnecting rooms, each more beautiful than the last, but it also houses a collection of pre-Raphelite works that has me in tears of awe every time I swing by.