Frog

I love looking into people's gardens because on lucky days I find things like this. The frog looks perfectly at home on the lawn.

I do not want to give the exact location away but it is somewhere close to Broughton Avenue. Happy hunting!

More mature trees felled

This is getting rather depressing. It seems that every time that I go for a long walk through Ham, and I do that a lot, I find more evidence of mature trees being felled.

This one is between Tesco and Ferrymoor.

Kew and Ham Sports Association, on Riverside Drive close to the Ashburnham Road mini roundabout, are adding a raised seating area next to some of their pitches and, unfortunately, they have had to get rid of some trees to do so.

 

A closer look shows just how mature some of the felled trees were.

Gates in a wall

I posted this a week or so ago when it was just a gap in the wall behind Meadow Close and now the gate is in place, and a rather lovely gate it is too. I was lucky to walk past when the builder was working on it and was able to tell him so directly.

For reasons that I simply do not understand, there is still some controversy over this new gate and so, having posted the nearest gate in the same wall last time, I thought that I would post all the others.

This arch is in the new section of the wall next to the main road. It is somewhat out of keeping with all the other gates in the immediate area but the wall is new so I am not sure that it really matters.

 

This gate is also unusual in that it is a complete break in the wall, i.e. there is no lintel with the wall continuing above it.

The final gate is different again with a gentle arch rather than a lintel.

Easter Bunny

New Road is the most arty road in Ham which is one reason why it is always a pleasure to walk along it. (It is also the most spoilt by cars, but that's another story). Number 17 is celebrating the season with an imaginative rabbit that would brighten anyone's day.

Some changes in Ham Farm Road

Two adjacent properties at the east end of Ham Farm Road are having things done to them by new owners. In the bigger project hoardings are being put up to protect, and hide, the property.

I cannot find a planning application for either, and they are both in the Parkleys Conservation Area, so I assume that nothing significant is being done to either.

New canopies at Fox and Duck

The Fox and Duck is gearing up for reopening for outside service in April by adding a canopy to its seating area at the front. I like the look of it and the colours match well with the pub behind but this is a busy main road and I will not be sitting there. I am happy to wait for May (on current schedule) when we will be allowed inside pubs again.

 

Soon after I took the first picture a second canopy appeared at the side of the pub, just in front of where a controversial extension is planned.

New canopy at Ham Cross

There is no great difference between the new canopy at Ham Cross and the old one so it is lucky that I caught the work in progress to prove that there has been a change.

The only difference that I have spotted so far, and it is not obvious here, is that the lighting is stronger.

The tower shaped sign has been updated too and the annoying black section has gone to be replaced by a green one.

Sundial

I took a photo of this sundial in Ham Gate Avenue before but that was twelve years and a few cameras ago so it is time for a better and closer look at it.

This should not be a parking space

For reasons that escape me, The double yellow lines that mark the junction of Broughton Avenue and Lock Road stop short of the footpath that leads directly to the bus stop and to the path to Teddington. Or there should be a dropped kerb there.

Either way, it should not be permitted to park here, blocking the route for pedestrians.