Potted skeleton

Many houses have made an effort to celebrate (!) Halloween this year and it takes something a little different to attract my attention, which this skeleton certain is.

New gate

There is a lot going on behind one of the houses in Ham Farm Road but sadly it is out of sight so my curiosity remains unquenched. The only visible sign of change at the front is a new side gate. I suspect that this is to allow direct access to what is happening behind the house and time will tell if that is the case.

Taking back control

Most of the landscaping in Royal Park Gate, which is xxx years old now, was good and has (generally) been well managed. There are exceptions and one of these is Manston Grove off Horsley Drive. Here the small communal areas were unimaginatively planted with the same shrubs and these have just been left to grow with the occasional extreme grooming.

 

Finally one or two residents have decided to take matters into their own hands and have replanted one of these areas with flowers. It is a marked improvement.

35 LE obstructs the pavement

I was concerned when this parking area was created and the driver of 35 LE was quick to prove me right by parking across the busy pavement.

A mystery

This enigmatic image is on a lamppost in Petersham. That is strange in itself and the mystery is deepened by its similarity to an image that was painted at the entrance to Petersham Nurseries ten years ago.

If you have any idea what is going on here then please post a comment below.

New roof at Teddington Lock

There always seems to be some sort of work going on at Teddington Lock and now it is the turn of the lock keeper's cottage which is getting a new roof.

Five feathers

This looks like an Indigenous American artefact to me but that is just a guess; I have no idea where it comes from, what it represents or why it is hanging from a tree in Riverside Drive.

21

As house numbers go this one is pretty discrete. It is a decent size but it sits just above ground level and is partially hidden by vegetation. 

Dead tree

Walking along Meadlands Drive this tree makes a striking image. It is just a shame that it does this by being dead while it is surrounded by healthy trees heavy with leaf.

185 Petersham Road

I think that I have posted a couple of pictures of 185 Petersham Road and its neighbours before but the arrangement of plants against the white wall strikes me with its beauty every time that I walk past, which is several times a week, and so it deserves to be celebrated here.

Time capsule

A time capsule was buried in the untouched wild area in the north-west corner of Richmond Chase and its position has been marked by this small discrete sign and a rose.

Hedge trimming

The substantial hedge that surrounds part of the Kew and Ham Sports Association site on Riverside Drive has had an autumn trim, It looks a little severe at the moment, as haircuts often do, but it is the right time of year to do this sort of maintenance (e.g. no nesting birds) and Richmond Council generally has a good grip on the management of open spaces.

Technically this area ia not part of Ham Lands (see https://www.goparks.london/park/ham-lands) so I do not know what the management plan for it is or which local community group, if any, is involved.

Tree 342

Wates Estate, like Gaul, is divided into three parts with each part being managed differently. The section nearest Thames Young Mariners, I learned on a recent HUG walk, has 26 acres of managed landscape and all of the trees are numbered. This is tree 342.

Fruit on display

For me the best thing about Ham Food Centre is its impressive range of fruit and vegetables which is looking stunning in the autumn sunshine.

Keeping Ham House standing

It is quite common for old brick structures to have tie rods and anchor plates to hold them in place and those at Ham House are fittingly grand.

New drive and wall

I caught the early stages of this new drive in Petersham Road in September and was concerned then that it might be given over to completely to cars, which it almost has. The large slab of paving is unwelcome and is only slightly ameliorated by the low brick wall.

Work at Sudbrook Cottages

Something is happening at Sudbrook Cottages in Ham Gate Avenue and, as always, I was pleased to seem the jumble of the work in progress and excited by the expectation of the finished result.

Shire Horses

Whatever the argument is for using shire horses to mow the meadow in front of Ham House I am delighted that they do so, as are the many other people who stopped to admire them.

Here I have caught them having a little rest while their driver, on the red cart behind them, was engaged in a conversation.

Tree cutting in Garthside

It is good to see the street trees in Garthside being managed and removing low branches that obstruct the pavement is always a good idea. Less welcome is the gap between these two trees where the orange remains of another tree can be seen. I hope it is replaced soon.

Ham House

I have said many times that the back of Ham House is its better side and I have normally justified that statement with a picture taken from near the rear gate to the Kitchen Garden so this time I will make it from the other side of the Plats and from slightly closer to the house.

Sprucing up Orchard Cottage

For a short road with few houses Sudbrook Gardens gets a surprisingly large number of mentions here. That is partially because almost all of those few houses are noteworthy and partially because so many of them have had significant work done to them in recent years. The latest is Orchard Cottage which is having the tiles section in the centre of the house rehung.

I took this picture to remind me which house was being worked on and it is worth posting in its own right. I did post a picture of this sign previously but that was many years and several cameras ago. 

Gold bear

I have walked past with gold bear in Meadlands Drive many times waiting for the light to be right for a photo and finally it was. I have absolutely no idea what it is or why it is there, and that adds to the fun of it.

VU11 XPF

These double yellow lines on Ham Parade are possibly the most abused in the area. What makes this example even worse id that the driver has left the back end of the car sticking out making it very difficult for anyone trying to enter the slip road fom the main road.

HV63 GOH on the pavement

There was a spate of parking here a few years ago and a posted a few pictures then, some provided by other people, but I had not seen one here for many years, until today.

GF18 EUJ takes all of the pavement

If you park so badly that I have to walk into the road to get past you then I am definitely going to post it.

Three houses in three roads

I had to do some research on this as the positioning of the houses interested me. The near house is in Garthside and the one furthest away is in The Shires but I was not sure where the middle house claimed to be, It looks to be a twin of the house in Garthside but it actually faces the other way and so is in Church Road, so we have three houses in a row in three different roads.

Two walls

I have been watching these walls grow in Clifford Road for a few weeks just because I love bricks and find the construction of wall interesting, and I caught these at an interesting point.

The outer wall of yellow brick is complete except for the coping stones and this allows us to see that the hidden part of the second wall, an external wall of the house, is built with breeze blocks and the visible part with red brick.

Pink joy

My regular walks along Broughton Avenue are being brightened by this bold display of flowers. Individually they are pretty and combined they make an eye-catching display.

Kitchen Garden at Ham House

I will continue to post pictures of the Kitchen Garden at Ham House while it continues to look as good as this, and in October too.

And this was the bed right in front of me while I sat outside drinking a coffee from the Orangery Cafe.

I was only in Ham House for about twenty minutes and that was plenty of time to be refreshed and uplifted. It is why I am a member of National Trust.

Girl and boy on bench

I was pretty sure that I had captured this cute pair of children in Garthside before but I cannot find the photo again so either I did not take it or I indexed it incorrectly, which amounts to the same thing.

If they are in the collection somewhere I can justify another photo of them as they seem to have moved; Google Street View shows them under a large window in the centre of the house and now they are in a little alcove to the side. They look better in this location.

24 Stretton Road

In what has become something of a depressing pattern of identikit refurbishments, 24 Stretton Road now has grey windows, a grey front door and a paved front garden. 

Grave warning

Church Road was already a little disconcerting in the dark and now some deeply disturbing things are happening in the front garden of Troll House.

More grey windows

I first mentioned this redevelopment in Tideway Close back in July and since then most of the work done has been inside or at the back so there has not been much to see. That changed when the original white ones were replaced with grey ones.

The colour is not the only issue that I have with the windows, they also lack the horizontal glazing bars that the original ones had and I think that the new windows look stark as a result.

Pergola at Beaufort Court

I like pergolas because they add height and shape to an otherwise flat space and I think that these in Beaufort Court are very effective in doing that.

5 Ashfield Close extends

There is a lot going on at 5 Ashfield Close, which is at the end of a no-through-road off another no-through-road, the most obvious being the extension to the right.