A walk around Richmond Park 5 - # 70

Pen Ponds are in the centre of the Park, and naturally fed by spring water. I could not resist showing two photos, both taken on the same day. I wanted to show how the sun and sky play on the pond and give magnificent natural effects. Brookville DP http://brookvilledailyphoto.blogspot.com/ and St. Margarets at Cliffe DP http://stmargaretsphotodiary.blogspot.com/ will appeciate the birds, but I cannot rise to their level of skill capturing them for you.

A walk around Richmond Park 4 - # 69

We have now moved into the very centre of the Park. There are no set paths. You can roam freely, but now and then come across a request to be more careful. This particular area of acid grassland is important for the larks. Come up here in high Summer and here them singing as they climb up and up into the sky. Here's a link to help find out more about skylarks in Britain: http://google.rspb.org.uk/search?q=skylark&entqr=0&sort=date%3AD%3AL%3Ad1&output=xml_no_dtd&ie=UTF-8&client=rspb&ud=1&spell=1&oe=UTF-8&proxystylesheet=rspb2&proxyreload=0&site=default_collection

A walk around Richmond Park 3 - # 68

We have climbed to the top of the ridge a moved north, half way along it towards Richmond. Whatever the weather, the view is spectacular and dramatic. You can see west and southwest "to the ends of the earth". Here we can see the chalk hills of the South Downs looking southwest towards the "Dorking Gap" - a strategic gap in the hills that is the site of the town of Dorking. I chose this dark, cloudy scene, taken on a cold, windy day to give you something less sweet and mild!. I was glad to get home afterwards!

A walk in Richmond Park 2 - # 67

Moving away from the quiet pool we can either go north along the bottom of this ridge, or up it onto the plateau of the park. Walk north (straight ahead in this picture) and you will come eventually to the Dysart Arms (Post # 48), contimue along the foot path across Petersham Meadow (Post # 1) and then continue along the river bank into the town seeing Post # 17 as you go......that's about 2 miles of park, meadow and river.

A walk around Richmond Park 1 - # 66

Look at London on Google Earth. When still very high in the sky you will see a huge green area in the southwestern corner. That is the Royal Park of Richmond. It is 8 miles (13 km in circumference) and full of wild life and different habitats. This is the pond at the entrance known as Ham Gate. The photo was taken at about 07.00 hrs two weeks ago. You can see another shot of the Park in Post # 4 - that was taken around Christmas about two or three years ago.

Spring breaks out - # 65

The "Snake's Head" frtillarii (fritillaria meleagris) are looking especially good in the Wilderness Garden at Ham House this week. Be quick, or they will be gone.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/gardening/plants/plant_finder/plant_pages/329.shtml

Twickenham riverside scene - # 64

One week ago I crossed via the "500 year long queue" (see earlier post - # 5) to go to the Farmers' Market in Twickenham (post - # 57). The temperature was dropping, the cold wind getting stronger and I rushed back along the riverbank to the ferry. But this scene forced me to stop and admire it. The lack of sunshine makes it a bit dull in colour, but otherwise I find it delightful - an 18th Century house, a late Victorian gas street lamp, the high garden wall and the climber in full, but too early, bloom (a clear sign of climate change!). There are many scenes like this around "London's Arcadia", and as you can see from the official web-site http://www.londons-arcadia.org.uk/ the restoration plan, which will take many, many years, is in full swing.