Sunday 17th January 2010 was a glorious sunny day made even more glorious by coming after several weeks of very wintery weather.
The air temperature rose to around 8 or 9º C, but the sun felt very warm, and particularly so on the dark clothing I wore. It seems a bit
unlikely, but after nearly two hours exposure to the sun I am sure I felt a small tingle on bits of my face like the start of sunburn.

 With such fine weather I just had to go out and enjoy it. It was tempting to go to the seaside, but after weeks of semi idleness I decided
that it would be better to stick to walking around the local park. I did a far longer circuit of the park than I did on xmas day, and while I
enjoyed it, I did find it wore me out far faster than when I was in good practice for long walks in the warmer months. It was definitely
nice to get back home after nearly two hours and have some dinner.

 While I was out I took my camera with me, and here are some of the pictures I took. A few of them I have made some improvements
to, and unusually I have not shrunk them down that much. So this page may be a little slow loading.



 In my blog on Sunday 27th December 2009 I showed a close up picture of this fallen tree. This shot shows more of the tree, and some recent ground clearance reveals
even more of it. Just beyond the tree runs the River ravensbourne. In that December blog I mentioned that I regretted not taking a picture of another tree that seemed to
be at a very precarious angle.

 That tree is pictured above. You can see how the main trunk is almost at a 45º angle. It is mind boggling to consider the weight that the bottom of the trunk, and the root
system is holding at such an angle. The tree looks healthy from the outside, but if there is any decay inside then it can't be long before a good storm snaps it like the other tree.


















On the north east corner of Ladywell Fields lies St Mary's church. The front
of the church faces on to the main (A21) road, but the rear is usually partly
obscured by trees. In winter it is more esily seen. The rear part contains the
bell tower, and I had not realised that it also featured a clock as well.



















 Between the rear of the church and the river that separates it from the park lies a sort of memorial garden with a few graves and these two yew trees (at least I think they
are yew trees). They are not huge, but they do look very old. Perhaps the most striking thing in that gardem area was some moss growing on one of the paths. After all
the snow, and everything being sort od dead for the winter, it looked brilliantly green and vibrant.


 I don't think the camera could capture just how violently green and bright that moss seemed.



On the 30th of December 2009 I walked through a very cold icy park to meet up with Patricia. I found her waiting for me on the right hand seat in the picture above. On that
day the sky was a leaden grey, the grass was covered in frost, and there was ice on the pond. It could not have been more different to the rather tranquil picture above. The
pond is free of any ice, the sky is mostly blue, and if there had been leaves on the trees you have even thought it was summer. With hardly any wind, and the sun beating
down on my dark clothing, I did actually feel quite warm when I took the picture. At the rear of the picture you can see the bell tower of the church waiting to disappear
behind the trees when they eventually get into full leaf.


I did take some more pictures of ducks, including a very pale coloured one, but I think I have used pictures of ducks too often on these pages. So here's a pigeon. What I
really wanted to show was a couple of pictures I took of a water bird with amazingly green feet. I am not sure what it was, but I do know that I could not get close enough
to take a clear picture of it.


After all the Church Of Englandish of St Mary's church it was nice to find some alternative religious iconery. Planted in the Ladywell nature reserve (or one of them) is this
rather young peace tree. Apparently Ikeda is some dude from Japan. While SGI-UK is the British arm of a new religious movement based on Budhism. Well, it's nice of
them to plant a tree.

To finish off - signs of new life. Spring is still some way off, and we have yet to endure the snows of February, cower from the March winds , and fend off the April showers,
yet this tree is making an early start to herald more pleasureable days with this display of catkins.