Spring blossom

As I popped out for my lunchtime wander today, I couldn't help noticing how full some of the trees were bursting with the most perfect fluffy blossom!

I then came across a road lined with trees of the pinkest blossom.

As I was gazing up at the pinkness, a man in a green hat stopped and turned to ask me if we spoke last year. I told him it couldn't have been me since I wasn't here last year - the man then explained that around this time last year he'd spoken to someone on this road about trees, and they looked like me. How odd! (And lovely.)

Minutes later, a young woman passing then stopped to show me some photos she'd taken that morning of two parakeets eating in the very tree I'd been looking up at.

I'm clearly not the only Londoner with a love for trees! And at a time when a global epidemic is pushing people apart, it's lovely to see people coming together because of something as simple and perfect as spring blossom.

A wet Sunday adventure

Passed this charming wall along the way...

Set off with my trusty umbrella soon after 10 (at this point it was delightfully sunny) and started marching off towards Brockwell Park.

First stop was Ashby's Mill (the Brixton windmill). Apparently it's London's last working windmill - I had no idea we had one so nearby! A friendly woman called Jean told me they'd be opening for tours and things in April. There were millers working inside whilst I was there - I could hear the humming of the electric motor grinding the stones together.

Brockwell Park was really quite beautiful...

It offered lakes, large green open spaces, and I saw quite a few children flying kites!

On one lake there was this little moorhen desperately trying to swim a large twig over to its nest, and once it finally got there (after dropping it from its beak and having to dip to retrieve it again) it decided to spend a bit of time trying to bother the turtle who was resting in the sun.

Possibly one of my favourite pictures of the day. I love the ripples around the piece of bread that's just been thrown to the swan, as well as the gulls and pigeon in flight, a moorhen sneaking in from the left, and a plane in the background, reminding me I'm in London!

There was also a lovely walled garden. Though there were many plants only just beginning to sprout from the earth, so it'll definitely be worth returning at some later time when they're all in bloom!

Beautiful magnolia trees always make me think of mum and dad!

The park was on a hill meaning looking north you can see the London skyline, including the Shard and London Eye.

Exiting the park on the north east side I strolled through Herne Hill where they were having a weekly Sunday market! The smell of all the foods was just too tempting...

So I walked on towards Dulwich, passing some beautiful blooms along the way.

Passed an old school house, and then just as I was entering the village centre it began to lightly shower with rain.

Wandered through The College of God's Gift, including Christ's Chapel and the Dulwich Picture Gallery (which I may have to visit one day - I think they do £5 tickets for under 30s).

Then I headed into Dulwich Park, which I imagine would have been beautiful to explore for a while, except it very quickly clouded over and began to hail heavily!

It was a little too heavy even for my trusty umbrella!

It continuously chucked it down for over an hour, so after sheltering under a large tree I walked round bits of the park before leaving and making my way towards the woods (though I knew, of course, that they'd likely be very muddy...)

And so I arrived at the entrance to Sydenham Hill Wood. The paths were caked in slippery wet mud, and since one arm was still occupied holding my umbrella in defence against the still-constant rain, trying to keep balance was tricky! Luckily the boots were the only part of me that got very muddy...

Walking along the muddy paths seeing nothing but tall trees and the odd smaller winding paths darting off between narrow gaps and beneath low-hanging branches, I could easily have believed I was on Stanmer Hill, or the woods by Honeysuckle Lane in High Salvington.

This folly was made in the Victorian area as a 'talking point' for visitors apparently. I imagine it'd be a lovely spot for a picnic when it's warm and dry.

I considered catching the bus home, but the rain finally decided to ease off and I noticed a park on the other side of the road, so I headed over to Horniman Gardens.

There was a lovely Dye garden where a family with young children were playing hide and seek.

Looking east

And there was an area called the South Downs meadow - the highest point of the gardens which looked out to hills in the distance (and how wonderful it was to see hills lining the horizon, even if they were so very far away!)

Can't wait until your "walk with Alpacas", mum!

I finished off my Sunday adventure by visiting West Norwood Cemetery. Perhaps not the happiest ending to the day, but it was rather beautiful, particularly the Greek Orthodox necropolis.

Six hours after I set off I arrived home, but with aching feet and muddy boots (and a wet umbrella).

It's amazing what baking can do

Not my own baking!

But I went to see Waitress the musical today at the Adelphi Theatre with a couple of friends. It was a wonderful musical - the set was amazing, the singing was incredible and the plot was brilliant... and seeing the band on stage for most of the show brought an extra dimension of greatness to it.

I finally understand why everyone's been raving about it so much.

Marching into March

What a beautiful day! And just look at this stunning Magnolia tree in gorgeous bloom down my road. (I stroked another one which was just budding and hasn't bloomed yet and it was so soft.) The walk to the bus stop alone was wonderful.

Three buses later I arrived in Kew, where I walked further west along the Thames Path, having a nose at all of the house boats along the way. Some of them were giant, all with their post boxes nailed to the trees lining the river. One was marked as the address of 'Admiral Tromp' (whoever he may be).

Another boat was called Heron's Rest but I think it would much more suitably be named Pigeon's Rest after the number of pigeons lining the ropes on the little jetty and the boat itself.

I soon made it to Watermans Arts Centre for their exhibition called Data Dating - a collection of artworks exploring love and dating in the internet age.

In all honesty it was a little... dark. It only really seemed to explore the negative sides of modern online dating, where I think there was potential to adopt a more balanced view, or at least look a little wider.

Whilst there I got talking to a man who also believed there was a much more positive side to modern dating which wasn't being explored - we both know of people who'd met through dating sites and apps who are lovely and genuine and just don't fit into the depressing image portrayed here.

Anyway, I gladly exited the dark (in both senses) exhibition and emerged into the jolly Sunday sunshine to walk back the way I came.

Along the way I met a heron!

Looking back west along the river from Kew Bridge

The grounds of The National Archives are really quite idyllic - there are many benches surrounding a couple of lakes/ large water features... And I was delighted to see a family of geese with lots of little fluffy goslings pecking about. They have such kind faces, and are just perfect round balls of soft fluff, sometimes sticking out their tiny wings for balance.

This one came close but then decided he was a little camera shy.

I'd never been to The National Archives before, but came for their 'First Sunday' of the month opening, for the exhibition With Love. It was a beautiful exhibition, displaying a range of love letters in so many different forms, from secret notes to wills, telling stories of sacrifice and separation and abdication, with feelings of happiness and regret and anger and heartache, between married partners and forbidden lovers...

It was incredible to be looking at a very letter that was held and read by Queen Elizabeth I, another that was written by Katheryn Howard's own hand, a notebook scribbled in by Admiral Nelson, and so many other monumental people of history. They explored/illustrated times of war, of race riots, of forbidden homosexuality...

And at the end of the exhibition was a table full of stationery (coloured writing paper, envelopes, pens, even ribbons and stickers!) for visitors to write their own letters to loved ones. There were then boxes on the wall into which you could 'post' these letters - one which would send your letters in the post, and another which would shred them (which you could watch there and then through a little glass window). I kept mine.

Crossing the river Thames I saw two rowing boats turning round to make their way back the way they came.

I'd planned to also pop into Chiswick Gardens, but when I got there I found they were shut. (I'm still not entirely sure why - I passed several locked gates before finding someone to ask, and he wasn't hugely helpful.) I'll have to save that for another day's adventure!