Well the story of this month is lighter evenings - yay! That's been a real treat and long may it continue, and I'd rather this than more Doris, but more on that later. Let's start at the beginning of the month, and at the northern edge of the park. It's this gate that I've been using most mornings leaving the park, and you know how partial I am to some ironwork. It's full of character isn't it?
Close to the gate, quite early in the month there was signs that Spring was coming, it was lovely to see a blast of pink. I've been walking past the tree below regularly too, and this month it's been the trees that I've seen most often. I've missed the man with the Jack Russell for most of this month, I think that's partly a timing thing and partly a route thing, but I'm hoping to bump into them again.
Good news is that I've started to see the man with the black spaniel again, but I think it's a different black spaniel, a younger version if you see what I mean, and it's fun to watch them as they take their walk. I think the new spaniel has its owner well and truly trained and wrapped around their figurative little finger already, and I expect the owner is enjoying his new companion.
It's been a dull month mostly, weather-wise I mean. There have been blue skies but not so many and at one point I thought I might be struggling for photos for this post, but the lighter evenings turned that around. With the lighter evenings came some gorgeous sunsets, the photo below was on my first evening walk through Greenwich Park on the way home. That hasn't happened since October/November last year, so it was quite a treat.
Relishing walks home through the park I decided to make the most of it and instead of leaving at the Maze Hill exit I carried on towards the flower garden and across the grass on my most-usual summer route. It was still a little damp, but it was nice to walk that way again. This tree had me puzzled as I approached it.
The dark circle you can see is in fact mulch, and I presume it's to give the ground around the tree a feed and a boost. It's not something I've seen before, but it does make sense. While I was pondering the mulch I noticed a couple of tree stumps in the distance, where up to fairly recently there'd been trees.
The evidence m'lud:
Bolstered by two visits to the park some days, when Doris came along I was keen to see what impact she would have. And that's Doris the storm, not any other Doris. And it was pretty windy, my hair was going everywhere so I thought I'd capture that. Doris, the little minx, had other ideas and threw my scarf up into my face. Indeed.
Yesterday the blue skies were back and there was sun too. Feeling the sun on my back as I walked down the main avenue towards my tree - well I couldn't not include it could I - was very welcome. You can just feel the warmth can't you in the shots below.
So that's February, still full of action despite it being a short month. I'm already looking forward to March and to seeing the bulbs spring into life as along with autumn, spring is one of the times of year I enjoy most.
How's your February been?