An evening stroll

This evening James and I went for a 'stroll' along the river.

I say stroll, it was more of a gentle scramble along the riverside playground of james' youth.

(that's James, in case you were wondering)

You can join a path along the river right behind our house, we didn't know how far we might be able to still get along it now. Turns out, the answers all the way still!

We got all the way to this old disused bridge, although it can't be crossed now sadly, hard to believe that behind those trees there's estate after estate, and the city hospital!

There was some scrambling under the rail bridge, and jumping over boggy bits, but mostly it was really pretty!

The bluebells are out in force here, they're migrating into my garden too!

We seemed to be following the family of ducklings most of the way along the river.

We also found an approaching army of pylons, but hopefully they can't cross the river?

Frosty walks

There's been a lot more snow, and a thaw, and more yet snow since I took these pictures, but I still thought they were worth sharing with you. We went for a walk in the park, with two, yes two cameras, and apparently I made the walk about 3 times as long because I kept stopping to take photos. (he lies, I'm sure of it)

the cricket pitch:


This is the main (read: ONLY) bridge over the river through town. See that log that has somehow achieved equilibrium on the pillar of the bridge? That was put there by those floods I mentioned a while back. Thats a road bridge by the way, and that log is probably about 8-10 foot long. but I'm no good at judging dimensions. Gives you some idea of the depth and force of the water in this river at times. I can't wait til all this snow melts, and it does this AGAIN.

then I became obsessed with seed pods and frosty Cow parsley:

Reasons to love October #3

Several blogs I follow did this post or similar recently (Becky, Fay, Catherine, and Trishiekoh, who living on the other side f the world gets to talk about spring instead!) so I feel like a bit of a fraud, but I thought I'd show you what its like around here just now.
... Tree lined paths carpeted with leaves (this incidentally leads to the in laws)....

...Scarlet japanese maples in the chinese gardens. (I am aware how culturally incorrect that sounds)...

...a tree showing the full spectrum of autumn colours. healthy green leaves on the inside, changing to yellow, through to red on the outside....

...and this golden yellow sycamore outside my windows that looks gorgeous in the sun.