A walk in the park

 

The south of England has been experiencing unfeasibly warm spring temperatures for the last few days; today it was 22 degC (72 F) in London by lunchtime. I looked up at the clear blue sky from my basement office window and thought what the hell am I doing here? So I bunked-off work early, caught the tube back to Richmond and went over the park for the afternoon. Richmond park, for those who don't know it, is quite a big (3.69 sq miles) walled deer park. There's usually lots to see, so I took my camera and managed to take these photos. Not the greatest quality, but what a relaxing way to spend an afternoon!



Gatehouse

 There's two types of deer - big and little, from which statement you can guess I'm not much of a naturalist.



Big Deer



Little Deer

 There's also a flock of parrots, which really is quite unexpected. At one time the story being told was that Jimi Hendrix had two parrots when he lived nearby, and they were released into the park when he died and bred there - unfortunately it turned out to be bull###t. Seems they just escaped from an aviary; they nest in the ancient oak trees which the park is famous for and make loads of noise flying around and squawking.



Nesting Parrots

There's also some cute-looking ornamental ducks brought over from China by the Victorians, plus of course those pesky grey squirrels from America. In fact, when you think about it, a typical multi-cultural mix, just like the rest of London.





We do also have some native species....I'm going out on a bit of a limb here 'cos I don't really know if they are...but I took there photos anyway.














So if you got this far, I'll end with a disclaimer that I know nothing about flora or fauna, but I had a great afternoon in the Spring sunshine - and I promise the next post will be motorbike related.