First outing of new walking boots and Nordic Walking Sticks!!!

My first outing with new boots and Nordic Walking Sticks!!  I love my sticks, makes my life much easier. My back was great and my hips didn't give me any pain...amazing! fingers crossed l may have found away to walk with tony with no ill effects!!!!!
The bird you see below, we think is a jackdaw but what caught our attention, was that he had a white stripe across each wing. Never seen this before!

Need some where to selter when it rain or just to play in with children..here is your tree! great isn't it? the whole pof richmond Park is covered with amazing trees and an awful lot of dead trees that have wonderful holes and tunnels in them! As you can probably guess, l love wood. I have a whole album in facebook, that is just all about wood!Ha!

When you look at the following image...one could ask..who needs Artists? When l look at this dead tree, l always think of Henry Moore or Barbara Hepworth!

Saw these beautiful yellow flowers, don't know there name but they were so bright and cheerful and really cheered me up..as it started to drizzle!

Another of the many trees l love and take images of every month or so, to see what changes through that time. I intended to do some Art with these images..maybe photos and text and also some embroidery work as well!

Oh bless him!Ha! Tony going back to his Army days and praticing being "On Parade"! So great to see that his sense of humour is returning as well as his stamina!
Another gorgeous flower that caught my eye, as we entered into The Isabella Plantation Enclosure.

Everytime l see this tree, l think that any moment it will start to move towards me! I call it my one eyed monster tree!

Once inside The Isabella Plantation, you see the little river that flows towards a small pond which houses many different types of ducks. I love watching and listening to this tiny waterfall which is one corner of the pond.

The image below is of a Mandarin duck which took a fancy to me..l kid you not! They are normally shy birds but not this one. I was standing by the edge of the pond, taking images, when suddenly l was approached by this male duck, who processed to do a mating dance infront of me. One of the Park Wardens was laughting his head off and said he had never seen them do this before! not sure l should be pleased or horrorified!Ha.

After awhile, when he got no response, he eventually went back into the water, found his mate and headed off to the bushs! Men..l ask you!

The bird below is a Coot, l know this because his beak is white, if it was red, it would be a Moore Hen! I think l have it the right way round....In any case, what ever it is, l adore his feet!!!

The duck in the image below has the most gorgeous glossy brown feathers, really would love to be able to touch it, juat to see if it really is as soft as it looks.

These two ducks were so funny, they waddled around the place as if they owned it. At one point, there were quite a few people wandering around and they seemed to appear to be trying to herd the people together. Very funny to watch!

The image of the above duck had a head with feathers the colour of russett. It was amazing, it really did glow and shimmer in the light. The beak was deep blue at both ends and a beautiful pale blue in between. The rest of its feathers shimmered in the bright light and when the sun caught any water drops on the feathers, they looked like small glass beads....beautiful!
The next image is of small of the ducks heading towards a man, who was about to feed them bits of bread.

I just adore the way the feathers on the head of the duck with black and white feathers, form into a sort of quiff but at the back of his head not on his forehead! very cute! The other duck had feathers of a brown that actually looked like velvet!

This next image is of a coot landing in the middle of a group of ducks, so he could be include in the feeding frenzie which was just starting!

It wasn't until l took this image that l realised that this duck had a bit of yellow at the end of his red beck. I had always thought they were just red. Will have to go and check my bird book to see iof this is normal!

I always love going to see the ducks at this particular pond because they are always so lively, funny and there are so many different kinds that it is never boring!

A trip to Wimbledon Park.

The other day, Tony and l went to see what Wimbledon Park was like. We had read about it on the internet and decided it was worth investigating. It is in a REALLY nice area and just to proof it..look at this amazing house and the garden few doors down!! Yes it is a whole house and not flats!

The park has amazing children's play areas but for obvious reasons l couldn't take images of the children or the play area. Each area is gated off and is beautifully kept and was full of children, parents and grandchildren. The Park also has public tennis courts and the lake you see in the images below has ducks and geese on it and also they sail on it. Too cold and choppy today for any action. In the image below on the left handside, you will be able to see a moorehen's nest. 

And here is mum on her nest. As l approached the dad tried to attack me, so l took image and quickly left so as not to frighten them any more. i was surprised to see how much rubbish was in the nest as well as twigs and leaves.

The image below, a pontoon, is where the boats would be  launched from. At the moment it is occupied by ducks, moorhens, geese and pigeons! I have put images up of the birds around the lake.

The area where the boats, canoes, windsurfers and all the other kit is kept, is fenced in and locked but l have to admit the security looks very flimsy!!! 

The next image , is of my husband, being happy watching a game of bowls in the Park. Tony has his granddad's woods (name for balls!) and l think may very soon join to play. One of the things l saw at this club which made me smile, was there were several youngsters playing, as well as the "elderly"players.

As we were walking towards the exit, l looked up for some reason, and there on the roof of one of the out buildings was this young lady!! Strange place for a statue...interesting though!

Can you see the sleeping monster in the below image?!Ha!

The fungi in the image below, was tucked up in the roots of a tree, at the entrance/exit to the Park. I wandered round to the other side of the tree, to see if there were anymore...and got a surprise.

In a crack in the trunk, which in it's self l thought was interesting..was a fungi trying to grow and getting quite contorted! After you have look at the fungi, look again at the wood....isn't it amazing?

Mr.Owl and a visit to the garden centre.

As it was such a nice day, decided to go for a trip to a garden centre, coffee shop and the National Trust grounds. On the way, l pass this owl and have never been able to stop safely and take an image. Today, l stopped right opposite in the traffic lights queue! Isn't he something old Mr. Owl? He sits there through rain, snow, sunshine and gales and he never moans!

The next image is the little bridge that you cross, to get to the Garden Centre. It is like a Japaness bridge, in the sense it is arched, wooden and then painted in a beautiful blue. Love the shadows.

After we had parked the car, l got out and there in front of the car was this tree. What caught my attention first, was a bird in the tree that l couldn't identify. As l drew nearer, the bird flew away but l noticed something else interesting. There in the bark was a hole, looked inside the hole and wow...an owl? What does it make you think of? 

The below image is another bridge you can cross from another part of the complex. Can you see a duck in the distence? There is a beautiful green on theduck's head? It is so beautiful.

This is the cowshed, a part of the old house that has been kept and revampted! At one time, while l was at Art School, our tutor was trying to arrange for us to do an exhibition here, but it never came to anything. I am going to see if now, as a professional artist, l can get a group of us together and try again. I reckon it could be an amazing place to put a show on in!

At the other end, there is an extra room and these milk churns are on show. I can remember seeing these being delivered to the farm we used to live near, when l was a child. Oh dear..my past is now history!Ha!

There are some old out houses too, that are rented out to different artists to use. One is a potter, who has some of her pottery leaves hanging on show in her window.

The next image is part of a signpost, that shows some more of the attrations available in the grounds.

Here Tony, is looking at the fish in the stream, they were not very big but still visible to the naked eye! Very peaceful spot, that is until some teenage boys turned up with very loud voices! Oh boy, l sound like my mother!!!!

The image below is the river just a few feet away from where Tony was standing!

Just on the other side of the path, is another part of the stream and here adults and children were feeding the fish. I tried for ages to catch a fish coming out of the water to get the bread. They were just TOO quick! But l did get this image of the splash, as the fish went back down again!

In the grounds, is this amazing Water Wheel...so beautiful and the river runs really fast at this point. It seems so unfair that the bridge you see in this image, is unaccessable to the public. Spoil sports!

The power of the water and the under current is shown in the image below. The orange gas cylinder you can see in this image, spent 45 mins being draged under the water and back up again, before the water let it go! Imagine a person trying to get away from that!

The family below were coming into the Park to see the rose gardens, which were just in front of them The colours and the smell of the roses was gorgeous! Must admit this Indian family did add colour to the place. Beautiful colours.

This young man was with his father, riding his machine round the roundabout. Look again...this machine is electric and costs quite a few pennies! To me, he seems too young to be in charge of an electric motor car! What is he.....3? Frightening! 

The last image is of Tony going through the spinning gate into the area that sells tropical fish, tanks and water loving plants. THAT TREAT IS FOR TOMORROW!Ha! I can remember l was very frightened by these sort of gates when l was a child. That was because they were very stiff, could only move forward and not backwards and was also a tight fit , which scared me!