Yesterday,

and first thing this morning,

the local council had been busy, we now have No Parking double yellow lines on a part of the path we walk out of the park, not before time, before the park became popular a few years ago the grass verges had a lovely show of spring flowers, but alas motorist did not care as they parked their cars and trampled the flowers and verges into mud, 

but now hopefully with the muppets not parking here and not trampling the flowers, they will grow back and delight park goers as they used to do,

glad rags on,

and we were out, like yesterday blue skies and not a cloud in sight,

and good news from this recently planted tree, it is in flower already,

first stop Beckenham Junction,

where it was a coffee for Diana,

I decided against one,

any minute now,

and here it is,

we soon arrived at Victoria,

the Underground had hardly any customers at all, normally this place is packed, even when it is not the rush hour, 

and this is one place that we were going, Chiswick Park,

 

but firstly a look around the Gunnersbury Triangle,

it is a wet woodland nature reserve was saved from development in the early 1980s and then enhanced by the creation of ponds and grassland areas,

birds and small mammals take advantage of the sheltered birch and willows, while walkways and footpaths help guide visitors around this wild oasis in Chiswick,

one of the reasons for its success is a strict No Dogs policy, (except for guide dog),

the woodland walks open up into a small meadow,

Diana looked back at me following her,

there are a number of shallow pools along the way,

the walkways going over them,

great for aquatic life,

the pools just a few inches deep,

looking down I noticed these, 2 dead bumble bees,

and a third, then I stopped and counted them, in just a small area say 10 foot by 10 foot I counted 14 dead bumblebees,

as it happens bumble bees are social insects that live in colonies, bumble bees live in colonies of between 50 and 500 individuals, the vast majority of our native bees are solitary and don't form hives or have queens unlike our native honey bees,

we continued walking,

with the exception of the pathways it was really like a natural woodland with no pedestrian trails into the woods, a paradise for local wildlife,

and then it happened again, firstly one,

then two then several dead honeybees, there are a number of reasons for this happening, have a look here for a full explanation,

a little more about the triangle,

abandoned allotments on railway land which had grown into woodland were at risk of development in 1981, but a campaign led by local people, supported by London Wildlife Trust and the (former) Greater London Council, ensured the area between the railway tracks was protected at a landmark planning inquiry in 1983,

and it is with great thanks the the forward looking Greater London Council did so, that we can apricate this park so near London now,

as we were nearing the entrance/exit, another small natural pool,

nearly there!

a little about what you can see here,

what is not mentioned is that local bluebells are now in flower,

we decided to walk to Cheswick Park,

which took us past the church,

and green,

note to self, do not take photographs into the sun!

on the opposite side of the road,

a market,

selling fruit, vegetables and plants,

one of the local pubs in the area,

we passed a few more shops,

as we walked along the High Street,

for some reason The Barley Mow seems familiar, (it is a drinking song),

and here it is, the entrance to Chiswick House and gardens, we had to go under a pedestrian underpass to arrive here, the road too big and busy to cross,

as it happens the house is closed until April,

 but it was the gardens that we had come to walk around,

and on the good news front,

there is no charge to look around the gardens,

we soon found the lake,

and this mass of blossom,

the photograph just does not do justice to how many blossoms there really were,

we had passed the end of the lake,

 

and were making our way to the bridge in the far distance,

and here it is,

with Diana,

and without her,

the bridge is attributed to James Wyatt,

past the bridge a couple of Canadian geese,

and what appeared to be a cormorant preening itself,

looking along the pathway we seemed to have the lake pretty much to ourselves,

in the center of the photograph,

a coot getting its nest ready,

by the lakeside what looks like a folly,

and no lake would be complete without a graceful willow,

this one looking especially nice with a display of daffodils in front of it,

whilst taking that phototgraph Diana was taking one of me,

we walked past the back of the folly, 

in the distance Chiswick House,

at the end of the lake a water feature,

passing the house,

two bridges to walk over,

one small archway,

next to a bigger one,

and behind them three more,

which made the water feature,

a little about William Kent,

who designed the feature,

the waterfall behind me looking to the end of the lake where we started,

Diana taking a few photographs as well,

we approached the front of the house,

with its gravelled entrance for horses and coaches to turn in,

what a magnificent front to the house,

on both sides of the courtyard,

stylised statues lined the sides,

at the entrance a stylized figure atop two pedestals at each side of the driveway,

at the back of the building the garden,

the rear if the building not quite as impressive as the front,

but still in grand style,

with statues placed in alcoves,

looking out,

to the rear garden,

at the side an archway,

which we went through,

and entered what could have been the smallest maze in the UK,

no sooner in,

than out by the lily pool,

and conservatory,

on the left of the building,

some rather nice camellias,

in front of the glass house a well maintained lawn and garden,

I made my way to the roundhouse, alas empty,

walking to the end of the glass house,

all of the doors were locked, open in the summer I guess, looking inside all I could see were more camellias, so not too great a lose not to be able to go inside,

I made my way back to the lily pool,

where Diana was waiting,

we made our way back to the front of the house,

where I just had to have a pose!

on to the main road at the front of the park,

and past these two pedestals,

but what were they? Egyptian? Siamese? I really do not know,

I followed Diana to the road, where we crossed and looked for the walk along the side of the river,

but it was not to be, passing this huge cherry blossom we tried to go to the river walk,

but new estates had been built blocking access to the river,

plenty of nice trees,

but no river, we walked for what seemed an age,

until we saw this,

but our joy was short lived, the pathway went up river, not downriver were we wanted to go to catch the Underground, 

so back inland until we found the river, if it looks a bit narrow it is because there is an island between us and the main channel,

we had to go back inland, passing you guessed it, 

a brewery!

the sign behind the van says it all,

London Pride!

I was tempted, but Monday is a alcohol free day for me,

back under the road,

emerging by this scooter dealership,

we were still looking for this,

Stamford Brook Station,

4 or 5 stops away and we were here,

at Earls Court, why? I hear you ask,

because it is the first home of Jollibee,

Diana's favorite food to go,

food ordered,

and collected,

then back across the road,

to Earls Court Underground and on to the train from Victoria and back to Beckenham,

the weather had been really good to us, arriving home it was feet up as I started on the blog, tomorrow I will be out early as Steve is picking me up and we are off to Sevenoaks to visit Duncan, back to today, we had a look at Diana's pedometer, from house and back to house, 13,200 steps, no wonder our feet were sore! after our evening meal it was feet up for a Midsomer Murder, followed by our film for the evening, 

titled The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc, in 1412, a young girl called Jeanne is born in Domrémy, France, the times are hard, the Hundred Years war with England has been going on since 1337, English knights and soldiers roam the country, she is called to go to war, after the successful liberation of Orléans and Reims, the Dauphin can be crowned traditionally in the cathedral of Reims - and does not need her anymore, since his wishes are satisfied, Jeanne d'Arc gets set up in his trap and is imprisoned by the Burgundians who then sold her to the English, we had watched it before a couple of years ago, here was what I said then, "I guess some of the court records survived from that period so there was a basis for the court part of the film, also a reenactment of the vicious hand to hand conflict and hatred between the English and French at that point in time, great cast and performances from all" and with the end of that we were off to bed.