moving and growing up

We have officially moved house, I will leave here in a few minutes to return to the old flat to pick up the last few remainders. We are in love with the new flat, let alone the area, quite possibly, the best place in London (at least in my semi-biased opinion). We now live in an area called Crouch end... it is all things lovely, small boutiques, quaint shops, antiques, modern, great locally owned everything. It is all together void of most chains baring of course, Starbucks, and Costa, the major banks, and the grocery line up of Tesco, Budgens, and our beloved Waitrose. To be fair we did base much of our moving location choice to proximity with waitrose. Being that I am unable to afford to and don't live close enough to purchase all my grocery needs from Fortnum and Mason (Though I would probably be striking from the at the moment anyway, at least until they decide to join their competitors and stop selling fois gras... If you don't know what it is... check out this link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foie_gras_controversy. Wow, I was so discussed when I found out about this!) Anyway... the area here is absolutely lovely, there is a trail that begins moments from our doorstep that leads around the entire city, it is called the capital ring and is just that, I don't know how far it is all around, though I do know that not far from where I join it, to Richmond (a very nice borough south of the river) is 26.2 miles! We have taken the path to high gate, another area, and Baxter and I ventured a while on it again today. He is making improvements on his walking, but still is unsure how to meet other dogs. He kind of stands there, then begins to jump up on them. Once they sniff his bum to realize he is not a girl... ready to meet a boy, they move on and he seems devastated that they don't want to be his friend. You see... Baxter believes that everyone wants to be his friend! And why shouldn't they, he has licks to go around to the world! My little boy is also going through the puppy teething process, it is the most bizarre thing, the old ones are falling out (I stepped on one today) and new ones, sharper in my opinion if that is possible, are growing in. He has been a bit more snugly, docile and not having as much of an appetite, but the Vet warned it would come. We have now settled down into the new flat for the most part, a bit of paperwork tabs to pick up on but we are at home here, both in and out of the flat in this area. We finally feel settled... this is our London!