Day 32 - Park and Market

The weather forecast for today wasn’t that promising and indeed it did start to sprinkle lightly as Janelle and I finished our pre-breakfast walk with Bob. However by the time breakfast had been done and dusted the day was looking a bit brighter so we (Janelle, Chris, Bob and I) opted to bring forward our plan to go for a walk in Richmond Park.

Venison on the hoof!

Richmond Park is south-west of the city and about a 20 minute drive from Balham, so it didn’t take too long to get there. Richmond Park is not as hilly as Hampstead Heath and mostly less wooded. However at 1,000 hectares it is the largest park in London and also home to about 650 free roaming deer. And quite popular with cyclists it would appear. The walk we did today was very pleasant and not as long as the one I did yesterday. We were even able to get fairly close to some of the resident deer near the end of the walk.



A crafty wolf

 After the drive back Chris dropped me at Clapham South station where I caught the tube to Old Street to go and explore the Flower Markets. The markets were a bit of a walk from the Old Street tube station, but they were not too hard to find – just keep walking in the direction from which the people carrying flowers and pot plants are coming. The markets were not as big as I expected, taking up about 100 metres along a narrow section of Columbia Road. However it was still interesting to hear the sales pitches of the various cockney sounding hawkers as they spruiked the bargain they were offering. There was also a “wolf” sitting on one of the upstairs window ledges overlooking the markets being a bit crafty – I think he was doing needlepoint.

There was a bit of light drizzle as I left the markets, but not quite enough to warrant an umbrella. I decided to catch the tube to Covent Garden to go in search of Neal’s Yard (which used to have an establishment which served delicious frozen yogurt) but by the time I surfaced from the tube station there the rain had started in earnest, requiring my first use if an umbrella on this trip.

I starting having a bit of a look around in the rain but decided to have a late lunch and return to base early – since I had web site updates to do for the Photo Club anyway and I had been struggling to find time to do them for about a week, and alternative indoor pursuits like museums would no doubt be extra crowded in this weather. I opted to travel back via the overground train to Wandsworth Common since that would involve a shorter walk, though by the time I made it there the rain had pretty much stopped anyway. At least the early end to the day’s sightseeing enabled me to get the web site updates done and some emails sent. Otherwise it was another pleasant evening in.