Thames at Richmond - # 140/2011

No "big deals" here, but it's time to re-visit the usual scenes and show them as they are right now on certain days in November.


This is the time of very low tides and the river is almost totally "switched off" by the closure of Teddington Weir to allow inspection and maintenance.  So the low water is both natural and also managed by modern man.


Here's the view of the Thames opposite Petersham Meadows.  The Sun is brilliant but there is that noticeable and delightful mistiness in the atmosphere that adds something to a photograph.  It's just a snap, but it sums up why the area has been loved and appreciated by poets and painters for hundreds of years. 

Cow heaven - # 08/88

The cows have returned to Petersham Meadows after their winter in covered quarters.

Yesterday the cows returned!!! They rushed out of the wagon into the meadow and did a circuit at the gallop around the whole field. They have been in wintering sheds for 6 months and have returned for their 6 months on open grass.

The calves were born in January and have not seen grass or the open meadow until today. See here how they kick their heels and frolic around the meadow alongside their mothers.

Cows on the meadow are an integral part of "the View from Richmond Hill". See: http://www.petershammeadows.org/

Four canoes passing Petersham Meadows; early November - # 286

(First.....I'm sorry to have switched on the "word verification". There's a spambot sniffing around. Please bear with me for a short time).

I hope you enjoy this nice shot which just "came to me" as I walked along the Twickenham bank of the Thames, looking across towards the Petersham Meadows on the Richmond side.

Canoes setting off.- # 268

...brilliant sunshine reflected by the cold river water as canoeists of the Richmond club set out (the view is looking towards Petersham Meadows, looking almost due south).

Wild flowers in Petersham - # 154

The meadows around Petersham are abundant with wild flowers. Can anyone identify this for me?

A walk down into Petersham - # 149

I'm imagining that Karl Moritz probably spent his morning in Richmond exploring the villages of Petersham and Ham. So you'll get the benefit of seeing what he probably saw but did not write about. (Although Daniel Defoe did write about it in his "A tour through the whole of the island of Great Britain").

If Karl Moritz had walked directly down the slope of the meadow towards the white house (Petersham Lodge) he would have come first to St. Peter's church. Here you can see the church with it's early 18th century "new building": a christian church had already been here for about 1,000 years before even Karl Moritz arrived.

A horse box, a Jaguar and a buttercup meadow - # 99

I have in mind those "nostalgia images" that show an old split-windscreen-1940s-style
Dodge pick-up, rusty but serviceable, beside a decaying barn out in the flatlands of Kansas. Why do those 1940s American pick-ups say so much to our imaginations? (Or is it just my imagination? I don't think so.)

So, I'm asking: What does a 1970 Jaguar standing in tatty elegance beside a private horse trailer in a yard with a cute little buttercup meadow behind do to the American imagination?

I suspect it says that we all harbour dreams about an idealised Past that probably never existed. But whatever you think, you cannot deny that the styling of the Jaguar has a timeless elegance.

Cows in a meadow - # 95

The view from the terrace on Richmond Hill down onto these water meadows and the river beyond is protected by act of Parliament. The cows are on the meadow from the end of April until the end of September. The small dairy closed down some years ago (a victim of modern economics), but the cows were considered so important that money was raised into a Trust to make sure that the cows will always be seen grazing on Petersham Meadows. Click on the Arcadia link on the right to see the banner photo featuring "the View".