A walk in Richmond park..

Today John, Lucy and I had planned to take Missy on a walk along the Thames path. Our plans changed when older daughter asked to join us but keep it more local to where she lives. So we opted for a walk in Richmond park. This is a lovely open space and Missy had never been there. We knew she would love it so we changed the venue and drove to the park to meet Katy and her 20 month old son. Grandson and Missy were very excited to be walking together and both of them were very gentle with each other. We parked at Pembroke Lodge near the Richmond gate and after having a coffee we set off toward Kingston gate and beyond. As we moved away from the road I was able let Missy off her lead and Grandson decided it was time he went walking as well. They spent some time chasing each other. On our walk we came across this large tree stump.

Grandson decided he wanted to see inside and once there he played at being in a rocket. Missy would have liked to join him but I thought that could get a little dangerous.

Walking further on we came across a herd of deer. There are a lot of deer in Richmond park and at this time of year there is a cull when the park is shut. This is to ensure that the number of deer doesn't exceed the number the area can support. Deer in UK don't have any natural predators and hunting is not allowed in the park.

Grandson wasn't at all concerned by the deer and told me they were reindeer! We kept Missy on her lead for safety. Not much further on we stopped for a snack as it was lunch time before heading to the Isabella plantation. This area is fenced to stop the deer getting in. It is a beautiful garden area with ponds, ornamental trees, shrubs and flowers. Missy was a little annoyed to find she had to be on her lead in this area. We came across a scots pine and I had to take a photo. I couldn't fit all of the tree in the viewfinder it was so tall.

My grandson loves flowers and spent some time hunting them out. The dwarf narcissus were pretty

Grandson picked up some of the blooms that had been blown off the camellia and carried them for a while 

I'm not sure what this plant is but I liked it. Any ideas anyone?

There are several ponds in the Isabella plantation but we hadn't send any ducks until the very last pond.

We left the plantation and once again Missy was happy to be off her lead and running free. It didn't last for long as we soon came to the road which took us back to the car park. A lovely family walk involving some running, singing, talking and a lot of giggling. By the time we got back to the car we had walk almost 6 miles. Even Missy was feeling a little tired.

Back at home I had some housework to do and then I'd planned to get the sewing machine out. I decided that I would do some hand stitching and then a little knitting later in the evening whilst watching TV. I couldn't rustle up the energy needed to get the machine set up or pull out the project bags. I love reading about the sewing rooms that many of you have and I'm currently trying to make a space in the house where I can leave my machine set up.  I'll show you the hand stitching tomorrow. For now I just need to relax.

Take care

Lyndsey