A walk at the wetlands

On Tuesday evening, I sat and watched TV whilst stitching my millennium sampler. I'm almost at the bottom of the right side border. I'm not stitching tonight (Thursday) as I caught one of my fingers in the gate catch whilst we were out yesterday morning and it's rather painful. Stitching will be a little difficult for the next couple of days.

Wednesday morning I took a couple of hours off work to enjoy some time with John at Barnes. I've felt my concentration at work dropping over the last few days and I not getting so much done so it was time to take some mental health time. We didn't want to travel too far because of the current situation (LD 2.7) so we decided to visit the wetland centre at Barnes. None of the hides were open but it gave us room to walk somewhere different, the chance of a bit of bird watching, decent coffee and John the chance to try out a new lens he'd bought for his camera.

As we walked from the car park to the entrance I stopped to get a picture.

With the hides shut we followed the path that snaked around the site. You end up walking several miles but you're never that far from the centre.  Here's a map of the site which is formed from 4 disused Victorian reservoirs in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames.

This is a lovely setting to walk around.  It gives you the feeling of being out in the country when you're still in the city. With less air traffic the illusion is even better and our walk was very peaceful. There were quite a few visitors, mostly older couples or parents with young children. The school aged children are all at school and there are no school trips at present. The coffee kiosk was serving so we started with a coffee. There are a lot of small pools and this Tufted duck was determined to attract our attention. I didn't tell him I was more interested in the reflections

While John was bird watching and testing out his new camera lens I was interested in getting inspiration for some art work. I was particularly interested in textures and colours. The bark on this tree was amazing.

This one got on my list for colour as well as texture

The reed beds were a good colour and full of movement and small birds. The birds were all busy singing but refused to show themselves. Most frustrating!

This stand of silver birch caught my eye. They tend to grow tall and slender. The ground under the trees was littered with twigs that had been blown off the trees recently.

The whole wetland centre occupies 100 acres or 40 hectares so really isn't that big but this view along one of the channels gives the impression it goes on a long way.

There were a couple of plants in bloom. I'm not sure what this is but it is pretty and the leaves are interesting.

There were a lot of berries and hips around the site. 

The site has several buildings that would normally house exhibitions or education displays for schools visits. I loved the colours in this area.

This is looking the opposite way.

Finally, at the end of the walk I saw this glorious splash of colour.

We didn't see many ducks or geese since all the hides were closed but there were loads of small birds milling around the feeders. We had a good trip out which helped charge the batteries to go home and work for the rest of the day. There was no stitching yesterday due to my injured finger.

Today Thursday (LD 2.8) I was teaching face to face. It's was a fun day with a small group of students. I am very tired and bending my finger to sew is still painful so tonight will be watching TV. Tomorrow I have a work commitment in the morning and then plan on finishing the last three blocks for the Austen family album quilt. I'm looking forward to laying all the blocks out. I hope they look good together.

Take care

Lyndsey