Actress Neve Campbell loves cool dips on Hampstead Heath and walking her shih-tzu dogs

I love spending the weekend in London. The energy of the city changes when people have time off. Last year I married John [Light, the actor] and I’m enjoying the culture here. It’s something I missed when I was living in Los Angeles. Now we live in Islington and enjoy getting involved in each other’s interests.

One of my pet interests is my shih-tzu dogs. I have three and John loves them, too. They crave attention and can be jealous. As they are banned from the bedroom, there is not much chance of a lie-in on Saturdays. But it’s fun walking them, especially when people stop to admire them and say how sweet they are.

Another interest of mine is yoga, which my mother taught and I’ve practised since I was young. John and I will usually fit in a few exercises before we go out.

Afterwards, I might join girlfriends for a swim in the women’s pool on Hampstead Heath. It’s such an idyllic place, enclosed in greenery. On a hot sunny day, a cool dip refreshes you, and even on chilly days I love the feeling of exhilaration. It reminds me of my childhood in Canada, where I swam in the lakes. If it’s warm, we spread out the rugs in the shade of the willow trees and gossip over a picnic, or we might meet John and his friend from the men’s pool and troop together to The Spaniards Inn for lunch.

Like most actors, we love to go to the theatre on Friday or Saturday evening, especially to see productions that friends are involved in. We’ve just seen our pal Rebecca Lenkiewicz’s new play, Her Naked Skin, at The National - a wonderful experience.

If we are at home, we often have friends around. I’m not a great cook. It’s not that I dislike cooking, it’s just that I’m not that interested. With a father from Glasgow and a mother from Amsterdam, I was never exposed to great meals. But I can do a pasta dish with pine nuts and a sauce, and John does a George Foreman grill.

There’s room for improvement, I know. I prefer something easy like a barbecue in the back yard - sorry, garden. I’ll throw on some corn-on-the-cob to roast and leave the men to poke the meat around while I make a big salad. Often the girls come into the kitchen to help and sip a glass of wine.

It’s not a huge garden, just city-sized, and fortunately John really loves gardening, so on Sunday mornings it’s a treat to visit Columbia Road flower market to buy plants. The first time I went, I was bowled over by the colour and perfume and sounds. I felt like I’d walked into Oliver Twist. There were people yelling the names of flowers with accents straight out of a movie.

We might take a stroll down Brick Lane and peep into the little antique shops, though I haven’t actually bought anything yet as I’ve shipped a lot of stuff over from LA. Gardening is not one of my passions. Plants just die on me, but thankfully I can leave it to John. I love watching him at work.

But there is something in the garden that I was thrilled to find and actually know something about. It’s a prehistoric tree, the ginkgo biloba. It’s very rare. An interest in natural medication is something else that I’ve inherited from my mother and it was very useful when I trained in ballet. I know that the tree has healing powers, but I’ll have to do some research before I start making the leaves into tea.

We both cycle whenever we can and Sunday afternoon is a perfect time to ride along the canal path to Little Venice and wonder what it’s like to live on one of those fabulous houseboats. For the rest of the day, I am happy to stay at home and read a book, drink a nice glass of red wine and discuss future plans with John.

After our recent holiday in Italy, we have decided to improve our language skills and we want to learn salsa dancing and swing - but not yet. For the moment it’s nice just to chill out.