Reston Lodge

My previous pictures of Reston Lodge were taken from the sides, and with a previous camera,so I fixed both issues by taking this one from the front with my current camera.

Reston Lodge is one of the most distinctive and attractive buildings locally. It sits in a prominent position on the narrowest part of the main road as it squeezes its way through Petersham.

Night working on Petersham Road

A substantial stretch of Petersham Road is being resurfaced and the road is closed overnight from Ham Common through to Star and Garter Hill. There is some access for local traffic but on the night that I walked past the road was completely closed at Sandy Lane. The bus routes were completely disrupted, which is why I was walking along there in the first place.

That night the action was outside the Fox and Duck. By Midnight a stretch of the road had been cleared, prepared and a new surface laid down with a roller compacting it and smoothing it out.

Towards Petersham

The long avenue that leads from the back of Ham House (where it meets Melancholy Walk) towards Petersham is looking bare but neat on a bright day just before Spring sets in.

Pretty Spring flowers on Ham Village Green

There have been quite a few changes made to Ham Village Green in recent years and generally I approve of all of them, though it is the opinions of the people who use the Green much more that I do that really matter.

The flowers are the most visible change at this time of the year as there are large swathes of them in the corner made by Ham Street and Woodville Road in the north-east.

Almost all of the daffodils are yellow but I managed to find a couple of white ones hiding amongst them.

Murder markings in Ham Common Woods

There is no point having a few hobby horses if you do not jump on them from time to time. One of mine of the relentless intrusion of the built world in to the natural when it is the natural world that attracted me to the area in the first place.

The latest victim is the messy pond next to Ham Gate Avenue, now being branded as Latchmere Brook. The original crime was to cut down many of the trees around the pond and now the path that used to lead mysteriously in to the woods is now signposted with clear borders and an unnecessary bark surface.

To make things even worse, a yellow line on the other side of the pond marks out where a new path is going to be created for reasons that escape me.

If people really want to look at a pretty pond then there is a very good one on the other side of the wall in Richmond Park. There is no good reason to open this one up when it's beauty, and the rest of Ham Common Woods', comes from its secrecy.

Lights on Croft Way

Another photo taken in the dark this time from a walk I took through Ham Lands. Passing along Riverside Drive the light on the parking spaces in Croft Way stood out dramatically with no other buildings nearby and an absence of light from the flats above.

Parakeets enjoying the sun

The sudden and dramatic change from rain to sunshine has woken the parakeets up and they are busy making a noise across the area, especially in the late afternoon. I caught these two on Ham Parade and catching them was difficult as they refused to keep still for the camera.

Flooding in Ham Lands

It has been impossible to escape from the flooding this Winter and every walk away from the built up areas has shown the impact of the wind and the rain.

A lot of the damage has been done almost out of sight in the parts of Ham Lands that most people ignore as the main paths do not go there. The picture above shows two close trees that have fallen together and the picture below shows the top branches of another tree lying horizontally just above the water.

This part of Ham Lands is normally damp but is not often flooded like this. It will be interesting to see what state it is in when the waters finally recede.

It will also be nice to be able to take some pictures of flowers in the sunshine rather than fallen trees in water.

St Peter's Church, Petersham

My self-imposed geographic boundary of this blog includes the narrow path that runs around the graveyard of St Peter's Church in Petersham. It is a boundary that I do not walk very often as I prefer to keep to the central parts of Ham and also because the path does not go anywhere interesting.

As a result, St Peter's Church has not featured here as often as perhaps it should.

The other reason is that I find it quite unattractive although the sheer mass of brick has some merit.

The graveyard looks much like you would expect a graveyard to look with graves old and new, and with some still cared for while others lie neglected. The trees lining the far edge hide the houses behind and the main road that they sit on.

A fallen tree in Ham Lands

The effect of a Winter of strong winds and continuous rain is most obvious along the tow path but plenty of trees have become victims elsewhere. This one is lying across one of the many small paths that criss-cross Ham Lands.