London is blessed with many parks and green spaces and every Londoner has a favourite. Mine is St James’s Park. I love it for its views, its sense of history, its beautiful lake, and for its birdlife. The park was originally created by King James I who had the marshland here drained to create a park for his palace at Whitehall, where he kept a collection of exotic animals including camels, crocodiles and even an elephant
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‘If you go down to the woods today …’ We all know that the ‘big surprise’ in the woods of that childhood ditty is a teddy-bears picnic. But what about a surprise in a park – what could that be? On a recent visit to London’s Green Park, the ‘big surprise’ for me was a herd of seventy elephants!
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I love to travel and see other lands; I love to spend time in the country, time by the sea, time among mountains or deserts. But I am a city girl. I was born in London and this is where I belong.
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With travel photography impossible right now, I challenged myself recently to see how many interesting details I could photograph within a mile of my own front door. I followed a path I have taken almost daily over the last year or so, and very many times before that. It took me along a couple of suburban streets, past the tennis courts and into our favourite local park, Walpole.
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April is cherry blossom (sakura) month in London. And it has been a wonderful spring for blossom on the street trees of Ealing.
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London’s eight Royal Parks comprise areas of land that was originally owned by the monarchy and used by them for recreation, mostly hunting, of the royal family. Today the parks are all freely open to the public and are one of the delights of London. Bushy Park is one of them, less famous perhaps than its city centre cousins such as Hyde Park or Kensington Gardens, but with lots to offer those who visit.
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As a sports fan there can little that is more exciting than the Olympics coming to your city - and in 2012 they came to London. I still remember the announcement in 2007. Everyone thought that Paris would win, so it was a wonderful surprise to hear that London would be the host city.
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There is no getting away from the fact that I am a city girl at heart. On my travels I wonder at stunning landscapes (mountains and deserts in particular). And I'm always thrilled to observe wild animals in their natural homes. But I couldn’t live anywhere other than a city. I like to be close to the action: to galleries, cinemas and restaurants. And I enjoy the buzz of city streets and the diversity of modern city living.
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I can’t remember the last time it snowed properly here. It’s not something I’ve ever welcomed. Living in a city my experience of snow has been largely negative. It messes with our transport system and makes getting anywhere a nightmare; it looks pretty only for a matter of hours and then turns to brown slush; and if the weather stays cold the slush then turns to slick ice patches which (as a person with zero sense of balance) I dread!
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London is a city of contrasts, where famous sights and almost palatial homes can rub shoulders with the worn and neglected. Just as its people are diverse and eclectic, so too are its buildings.
