It’s definitely fall here in London — chilly, dark, rainy. So let’s think back to just a couple of short months ago, when we were enjoying summer’s last gasp with a fun-filled day outside. We’ve got lots and lots of pictures and videos. Read on…

Daddy works for a big media company that is well-known for throwing big parties over the summer and at Christmas for its employees. Usually the London summer party is in June, but because of other events this year — the Queen’s Jubilee and the Olympics, I guess — they delayed it this year until early September. That worked out just fine for us, since Daddy started working for this company at the end of August.

Truth be told, it wasn’t much of a summer in London – it was unusually cool and rainy for weeks on end. But the day of the summer party was bright, sunny and about 85 degrees. Tough to beat, really. The party was held at a place called Wrotham Park, which is a big ol house and grounds about 15 miles outside of Central London. (Pretty fascinating history, which you can read about here, if you’re into that sort of thing.) The grounds were gorgeous, from the grand old mansion to the lakes and forests everywhere.

Daddy’s company spared no expense – there were food and drink booths set up everywhere, plus games, activities, several stages with live or DJed music, and plenty of seats for lounging in the sun or the shade. And did I mention the food? Check out these strawberries:

And that was just a small, small sampling of the bounty. There were also stands offering burgers, hot dogs, sausages, Mexican, Indian, Thai, endless desserts, beer, wine, fruit juice, water, and a whole lot more. All of it at no charge.

There were plenty of activities for the young’uns too, including a large tent filled with toys, games, napping cots and changing tables. And there were plenty of of diapers, baby food, bottles of water and milk, etc. – all of it free – for the irresponsible parents who might have forgotten such things. We did not forget such things, but we certainly took advantage of the changing tables and the play areas.

Nyan had a blast, of course. At one point we camped out in some chairs and just relaxed, doing nothing at all besides enjoying the warm air and sunshine Nyan can’t sit still of course, so he was making friends with everyone. Like this lady, whom he charmed into giving him some water:

And he mostly was just his usual happy self, as you can see in this video (note, too, one family that he had tried to charm before this video was shot; they ignored him and seemed slightly put off, so we kept him away from them. Their loss, we say.)

He loved crawling around in the grass:

And sort of dancing in his stroller to the live karaoke band:

And hanging out with Daddy:

All in all, a pretty awesome day…