A little snow

We do not get much snow around here so I like to take a note of when it does. That way I can compare years. This Winter (so far!) we have only had one significant fall and that lasted just a couple of days. It was bitterly cold but not very white.

I took these pictures on my usual walk to work through Royal Park Gate, you can just see the corner of the playground on the right.

I then walked along the tow path towards the Teddington Footbridge. This part of the walk is always pretty, even though I have done it thousands of times, and it still was even though the snow transformed its look.

Richmond Chase Phase 2

Richmond Chase Phase 2 is still behind a barrier but there are gaps in it so I am able to monitor progress. The biggest changes since I was last there are the planting on the front right and the wooden bin stores outside of the townhouses on the right.

Repairing paths in The Copse

The paths though The Copse are busy, my boys used to walk through there to and from school every day, and they stay muddier longer than some others due to the lack of sunlight and wind both of which are interrupted by the trees.

The reasonable solution adopted was to put down tree bark.

The bark looked good on a sunny day in Winter when the trees were devoid of leaves but it will be more useful on a wet Spring day.

Extension almost completed

I have been watching this extension, on the corner of Horsley Drive and Manston Grove, take shape over the last few months and now it is down to the finishing touches. I am still in two minds about it; I like that its appearance is largely in keeping with the rest of the house and the houses around it but the shape of the side extension worries me a little as it looks slightly detached from the rest of the house.

Welcome to Strathmore School

The old Strathmore School, next to Russell School, has this lovely sign by its entrance. It is side-on to the front door, which is to the left. To take this picture I had to scramble through the line of trees along the boundary to The Copse.

Repairing the pavement in Ham Farm Road

Ham Farm Road is one of the places that I walk the most, it makes a nice loop with Parkleys, and I have never thought that the pavements were a problem, certainly not when compared to some other roads locally. Somebody obviously thinks otherwise and extensive repairs are being done.

On another walk along Ham Farm Road a few days later the weather was much better so I took another picture, this one further along the road to the East.

Unexpected cycle rack

I have absolutely no idea why a cycle rack has been installed in the grounds of the block of flats on the corner of Richmond Road and Dukes Avenue and I have not yet seen them in use. Cycle racks are a good thing, it is just putting them in the middle of the garden that I do not understand. They do not strike me of being particularly safe and there is no cover either.

Friends of Ham Lands in action

Friends of Ham Lands (FoHL) have started working in Ham Lands to improve wildlife habitats, particularly for butterflies, on the morning of the second Saturday of each month. If you walk along one of the main paths through Ham Lands South you will see piles of cut vegetation as a sign that work has been done in that area.

In February they worked in this section clearing the encroaching scrub to protect the grassland. They also did some work on the path leading out of the middle of the picture both to make it more passable and also to clear more scrub from the grass verges.

This was not meant to be a little pick but the cans and bottles in the areas that they were working in were removed. It was a significant collection from quite a small area. Ham Lands is much better without it.

More maintenance in Royal Park Gate

The maintenance work that I first spotted along the main path through Royal Park Gate is at least as obvious along Horsley Drive.

Here the woody hedge has been cut down to the height of the wall behind it bringing the townhouses behind in Wittering Close more clearly into view for no apparent reason.

The biggest surprise was the reappearance of these railings at the junction of Horsley Drive and Richmond Road. This had been engulfed in vegetation for so long that I had forgotten that it was there.