Around here..... I decide to have a mooching day around Scarsdale and the apartment! After 5 days here I have fallen into a routine .... Mornings are relaxed, a chance to catch up on the days news on tv with a cup of tea and breakfast - fruit, siggis Swedish yogurt and toast. I may be on holiday but housework still needs to be done - dishes washed, beds made and floors vacuumed.

It's another hot day, so I walk away from the village around the streets of scarsdale. Garth road is lined with huge Tudor apartment complexes, all co-ops like the one I live in. The street is wide and tree lined, and although the trees are very brown and sparse, new shoots are appearing and soon there will be a riot of foliage and blooms. Bulb flowers have already bloomed, there are daffodils everywhere. The train line is an effective barrier, there are not a lot of bridges or crossing points. On the other side of the track, it's all houses, some shingled, mostly wooden and stone. Coming back into the village, the buildings are all brick Tudor.

The shops are upmarket - the clothes stores filled with Italian and French labels, and the jewellery stops are all oddly very formal and old fashioned - good if you are going to lots of balls or wear diamonds with everything. I stop in an old fashioned lolly shop and chat for a while - and buy a small assortment of old fashioned lollies including salt taffie! Another interesting shop sells reproduction antique toys, as well as assorted homewares.

I have made my first local friend, Barbara from the French interior decorator store and have arranged a bar crawl when Jane comes over to visit in a nearby town.

Lunch is at an American grill bar called Chat, which has a nice courtyard overlooking the park. It's very popular with the locals - the thing to drink is unsweetened iced tea served in preserve jars! Perfect for such a hot day! I also have a roasted pear, watercress, pecan and Gorgonzola salad. I discover another cafe next door that has amazing salads and French style cakes - another day.

Time to catch up online with emails, Facebook, the blog, so I stop in at Starbucks at the train station. Sadly I have not found another coffee shop offering Internet, but have found they sell an excellent iced green peppermint tea so I do not have to drink their god awful coffee.

A walk home along the Bronx river pathway is an opportunity to watch squirrels play in the trees.