It Was The First Day Of Diana's Holiday,

so we were out for an early start,

glad rags on,

and we were on our way,

the day started out and stayed fine,

not a cloud in the sky as we passed the magnolia,

which was really coming into bloom now,

a walk to Beckenham Junction,

we took the long way round, the footbridge still not repaired,

we did not have long to wait,

the train soon pulled in,

arriving at Victoria we took 2 tubes to arrive at Richmond, in west London,

I had not seen one of these before, it was a Zebra crossing, but it looked a bit queer, rainbow coloured! so many hundreds of thousands of school kids told cross at a Zebra crossing will now have to be retaught, all very strange,

we started walk towards the park,

along George Street, but looking at a map it was a good half an hours walk, so we took a 371 bus,

several stops later here was our stop, opposite The American University,

there is Diana, by the Lass O' Richmond Hill, our bus disappearing into the distance,

as we walked I could not help but notice this white magnolia in flower,

before going to Richmond Park, I wanted to go to a viewpoint where Joseph Mallord William Turner painted The Thames from Richmond Hill, c.1815,

the viewpoint is above Petersham Common,

I took this photograph of the view with a wide angle lens,

the same view with a standard lens,

Diana was snapping away,

she must have heard me,

we moved a little bit further along,

the Roebuck behind us,

this from the top of the steps,

looking down on Diana,

I think she is making a video to show her family,

I walked down,

to join Diana reading some of the signs,

showing where we were on the river,

big smile!

one of the boards,

and we just had to have,

a couple of poses,

before we started walking back towards the park,

it was now my turn,

well these things just have to be done!

plenty of hotels in the area,

and here we were, at the entrance to Richmond Park,

and now inside,

the park is in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, and was created by Charles I in the 17th century as a deer park, it is the largest of London's Royal Parks encompassing some 955 hectares (2360 acres),

some of the wildlife you can expect to see here,

we started our walk,

past what could be the UKs smallest house with a chimney,

a panorama of the part of the park we were in, hardly a soul in sight,

still no leaves on the trees yet,

we both fancied a coffee and a bite to eat,

so we made our way to Pembroke Lodge,

past some daffodils,

and here we are,

the lodge is a restaurant/café,

we choose a table outside, this was our view, Diana went inside for some cutlery, I went to take a closer look at the view,

when this cheeky chappie took off and was all set to land on our table for his lunch!

as it happens there were several crows in attendance, note to self do not leave the table unattended!

we both had a sandwich each, 

a cake for Diana and a coke, a latté coffee for myself, the bill came to just over £15.00 which we thought was reasonable given where we were, and the fact that is was less than we would normally pay for a snack with popcorn and a coke in our local cinema,

after eating we made a move,

down the hill the lodge was on,

stopping a few times on the way,

looking back up the hill,

we made our back to the table area,

and started our walk,

looking down to where we had just been,

all around the lodge, flower beds, 

this one with primroses and early pansy's,

a quick pose,

as we looked past the dogwood to the tables inside, as it happens it was so nice outside I really did not want to put my jacket back on, it was so warm in the full sun,

this looked so nice, a small dinning area surrounded by Christmas trees,

some of the trees here as you can imagine are huge, like this one,

in the distance blue flowers, could they be early bluebells?

no, but they did look pretty,

looking back to the lodge,

I took a seat,

by myself,

but I knew I would not be alone for long,

in no time at all,

the crows had started to gather,

lots of them,

Diana was taking so many photographs,

some one had left a small garland of flowers,

we started our walk again,

Diana in the distance,

it almost seems impossible that there were so few people here, but there it is,

I should have asked Diana to stand next to this tree, to give some idea of scale, it was huge,

we continued walking,

and posing!

under this mighty fellow,

a silver birch being chopped up,

there were a few enclosures that had deer proof doors, keeping the deer out,

in the distance a lake,

we thought about walking to it, but decided against it,

the only cloud in the sky, it was a glorious day,

after more than an hour of walking we made our way back,

the entrance that we came into the park in the far distance,

but before that,

huge stands of chestnut trees, and how without leaves did we know they were chestnut trees?

because of these signs,

easy when you know how!, but also there were so many husks from last years chestnuts on the ground,

a quick pose,

and we were heading back to the park gates,

and past this flower bed,

dedicated to stop cruelty to animals,

we were soon back into Richmond town,

and over the rainbow crossing, I can not help but think how much spare cash the local council must have to paint crossings like this, I hope all of the residents are happy to have their hard earned cash spent this way, 

it seemed that in no time we were back in the park,

looking at the snail mail box, what a fabulous day, the weather could not have been kinder, and here is a bit of fun, when we left this morning Diana's telephone has a app that counts how any steps you take, set at zero as we left, today from door to door, just over 11,000 steps, I hope it did us some good, I know my feet are not so happy as when we left home this morning, the same for Diana's but there it is,

it was soon time for our evening meal, spaghetti with meat balls for Diana,

mince with celery, carrots and baby potatoes for myself,

it was of course well into the early evening by now,

'Cheers!' after our meal it was feet up for a double helping of New Tricks before we were off to bed.