Saturday, April 29, 2006

Half a walk is better than none

I decided to follow in Dovegreyreader's footsteps and share a walk with my virtual friends.
Rule No. 1: make sure your digital camera is fully charged! I actually did the WHOLE walk but because of not living up to the Girl Guide's motto of "Be Prepared" alas I am only able to share half of that walk with you.

The lovely Dovegreyreader lives in an area that has been designated of "outstanding natural beauty". I live just inside the M25 (London's orbital motorway) and not quite under the flight path of planes from HeathrowAirport. However, I think you will be pleasantly surprised at what I can show you during an hour's roundtrip on foot from my house. Don't forget now, on this occasion I can only show you approximately the first half.
So... let's step out of my house .. and turn right.

This is the road that I live in. The redbrick wall belongs to my next-door neighbour, the Methodist Church and just beyond that you can see the Scout Hut. Further along and across the road is the Junior School that all my children attended, and just beyond that the level-crossing and the railway station. No school run for me and now I can almost fall out of bed and onto the train in the morning, I hardly have to walk at all.


Standing by the side of the track at the level crossing this is the view towards the station and on up to London town

Here's the postman who cycled so fast he was almost off the village green, that used to be water filter beds, and heading for our local branch library before I "snapped" him.

On a little further and glancing back we can see the old redbrick Police Station from where the traffic police now operate so you can't pop in and get them to nab a cat burglar for you. Back in the days when the children were small I did however, drag in No.2 child and tell the Duty Officer that he kept sliding out of his child seat. They weren't exactly helpful, they didn't threaten to lock him up as I had hoped, instead they let him try on a helmet and gave him a sticker. Needless to say he carried on with his Houdini tricks.

Enough of looking backwards, we pass a row of prettily painted houses.

and head towards St Mary's Church on Station Road which runs parallel with the RiverThames.

Just before we get to the T-junction, a quick glance at the houses across the road.

A hop, skip and a jump and here we are right by the River Thames but no chance of catching a pedestrian ferry across, the sign says, "CLOSED".

Well we've managed it as far as St Mary's Church and it's reassuring to know that "God Believes in You".

The leaves are coming in to bud but haven't yet obscured our view of the river.

It's obviously just the weather for "messing about on the river".


Unless you are in a car heading for the airport

Or in a bus off for a little retail therapy


However, we are out for a walk and maybe just a smidgeon of culture. Across the road is the house of the famous actor, David Garrick. You may have seen the portrait of him as Richard III by William Hogarth. When the road wasn't quite so busy there was a tunnel underneath from Garrick's House to the part of his garden that ran down to the river. And here it was that he built his temple to Shakespeare, now known as Garrick's Temple.


It can be seen from both the river and the road and is open to the public at the weekends in the summer season.



Soon we will be able to get away from the infernal combustion engine and go looking for rabbits.


Yes, there's an urban rabbit there, somewhere in Bushy Park, which is a Royal Park.
With an area of 445 hectares (1,099 acres). Bushy is the second largest of the Royal Parks.


Here we are off the road and just inside the park. Just in case we get lost, we have a map. We entered through a gate at the very bottom left, where the blue River Thames almost flows into the green Bushy Park.

Here is that part of the map in more detail and with our route marked out in red. We will barely nibble into that big blob of green.
You can only come with me as far as where the red line goes across the white flower symbol because that's where the camera's battery runs out! I'll have to make my own way home from there.

If you are really interested, you can download a pdf map of Bushy Park.

Off to the right is the direction in which we are going to set off. In the distance is the Diana Fountain, dedicated to the goddess, not the late Princess of Wales.

Back to the left you can see the house that is part of Bushy Park stock yard from where they do whatever they have to do to look after the deer in this Royal Park. If you have really good eyesight, in the distance, to the right of the house, you can see St Mary's Church that we walked past earlier.

Now we are entering a park within a park, the Woodland Gardens, so you will have to leave your bike and your dog behind.


We've just missed the daffodils

and the rhododendrons and azaleas are over


but we can still enjoy looking at all the shapes between the branches

I'm off home now, with my cloak of invisibilty on, you'll have to stay here
till I come back for you with a recharged battery ..........

4 comments:

Flossie in Stitches said...

What a lovely walk. It was a beautiful day here today too. Ellie and I went for a walk in Whitley Bay and Tynemouth. It was nice to see the sea! x

feltedfibers said...

What a lovely way of showing people the area where you live! I enjoyed that.
Jenny.

Anonymous said...

Hi Ruth, I did enjoy the walk. Last year we spent 7.5 months in St Albans so sort of near to you. Here in Oz the leaves are falling and the mornings are frosty. Ce La vie!

Erica said...

Hi Ruth, I found your blog on the FFcrochet list, how lucky you are to be able to go walking in such a beautiful place, I enjoyed seeing it with you