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!