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Gallery: a June selection (2023)
For me this past June has been one of more than usually changeable weather. I started the month inside the Arctic Circle where in the first few days of meteorological summer the temperature didn’t rise above six or seven degrees Celsius and was often colder than that. I then returned to a London going into its first heatwave of the summer, hitting thirty degrees on a couple of days. Towards the end of the month the temperature dropped to the more usual, and comfortable, low to mid-twenties.
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Gallery: a May selection (2023)
May is an especially lovely month in England. At the start of the month spring is at its height, while by the end there are hints of the summer to come. With spring being late this year, the early part of May felt more like April, with chilly winds and frequent showers. But the trees were green at last after the winter bareness, and there were flowers everywhere!
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Gallery: finding peace in the park
Like many Londoners (and indeed town dwellers worldwide) I discovered the pleasures of our local park during the pandemic lockdowns. Whether on our permitted visits to the shops or on the also permitted daily walks close to home, Walpole Park was our refuge and our delight.
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Gallery: tulips from London, not Amsterdam
While many people head to Holland to see the tulips, we have London’s Holland Park. There the Dutch Gardens are planted with formal beds edged with low hedges and overflowing with tulips every spring.
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A postcard from Colombia: a three-toed sloth in a city park
Last February we travelled to Costa Rica, hoping (among other things) to see sloths. And we did. But it never occurred to me to hope to see them in one of Colombia's biggest cities.
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Gallery: some favourite English flowers
In the last few years, with the batterings the world has taken – Covid, war in Ukraine, prices spiralling – flowers have been among the constants that have kept many people’s spirits up. The pandemic in particular reminded many of us to value the little pleasures of life, and what gives more pleasure for its size than a flower?
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A sunny Sunday walk in Belleville
What do Parisians do on a sunny Sunday? They do much as people do in any city. They meet friends in a favourite café or restaurant. They exercise in the local park or take the children there to play and for a picnic. They walk the dog, do a bit of food shopping perhaps, or browse a lively market. Certainly the people of Belleville do all those things.
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Gallery: the birds of St James’s Park
London is blessed with many parks and green spaces and every Londoner has a favourite. Mine is St James’s Park. I love it for its views, its sense of history, its beautiful lake, and for its birdlife. The park was originally created by King James I who had the marshland here drained to create a park for his palace at Whitehall, where he kept a collection of exotic animals including camels, crocodiles and even an elephant
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Gallery: encountering elephants in London parks
‘If you go down to the woods today …’ We all know that the ‘big surprise’ in the woods of that childhood ditty is a teddy-bears picnic. But what about a surprise in a park – what could that be? On a recent visit to London’s Green Park, the ‘big surprise’ for me was a herd of seventy elephants!
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Gallery: a Grey Heron at Osterley Park (and friends)
The elegant Georgian house at Osterley Park was once home to the wealthy banking family, the Childs. Queen Elizabeth I visited the manor house that once stood on this site, and the present house, designed by Robert Adam, has seen many other wealthy and important visitors over the years. The view of the house from the far side of the large lake is particularly pretty, even on the November day when we last visited.
