Mother and child

This delightful couple live in the corner of a garden in Burnell Avenue. They are hard to find but it is worth the effort.

Remodelled house in Sandy Lane

This house in Sandy Lane, on the South side near the junction with Arlington Road, has been completely remodelled, either by a new owner or by a developer. The house I quite like, especially the window to the stairs, the barren garden not so much.

Poppies

There are wide spaces at the junction of Dukes and Broughton Avenues, spaces for trees, lots of grass and a clump of poppies. They were literally buzzing this evening as I walked past and there with hordes of insects make use of the flowers.

Modern house in Sandy Lane

One of the most interesting modern houses in Ham is next to the playground toward the west end of the road. Sadly it is well screened and this is all that can be seen of it but at least that is enough to show its character.

Wilmer House

This is another one of those photos that I thought I had posted years ago only to find that I had only posted one of the gate. Anyway, this is Wilmer House and it sits in the quiet bit of Church Road that runs between Latchmere Lane and Ham Gate Avenue. One of our local celebrities lives here.

Pleasant garden in Burnell Avenue

Burnell Avenue seems to go through more changes than any other road in Ham and there are always two or three houses that are being extended or refurbished. This is one of the houses that has had major works recently and while the bold blue doors may be the most striking feature it is the garden that impressed me the most, even though it was not quite finished when I took this picture.

The design is nicely modern with interesting shapes, materials, structures and colours. Pride of place goes to the driveway which is functional, pretty and friendly to the environment.

Letting the grass grow

I appreciate that the combination of warmth and rain helps plants to grow but I do not recall the grass area running through Royal Park Gate ever being allowed to grow this while. However, I suspect that has more to do with Kingston Council's miserly approach to public works.

The broad leaf weeds are firmly established and there is not likely to be much grass left when they do get around to cutting it.

The little grey mark in the middle of the picture is a "No Ball Games" sign made redundant by the ball-swallowing vegetation around it.

Landscaping at Richmond Chase

Most of the site at Richmond Chase is still off-limits as the construction continues but the work at the west end of the site is clearly visible and this includes that landscaping of the green space that was there before the building works started.

I am pleased to see that the landscaping includes building some mounds. There is a slide being installed on one of them and I am sure that small children will also enjoy the simple pleasures of running, rolling and tumbling on them.

Ham Lands

Every so often I like to post another picture of Ham Lands just as a reminder of how lovely it is.