Damp

We haven't had the heavy snow that's affected some areas of Britain over Easter - our holiday was just wet.   And everything has stayed... damp.  The weather didn't stop the kids having an Easter egg hunt in the garden, but it was perishing as well as soggy, and their poor little hands were all red with cold. 

These papier mache bunnies, in the shop in St. Martins-in-the-Fields' Crypt, (which I think I've mentioned before) were more my style, even though they were made of papier mache so you couldn't even eat them. You only have to look at them to see they come from a hot, bright, flowery place.

Naturally we bought out the collection of chick and bunny egg-cups for Easter breakfast.....

and had a relaxed Easter - inside. 

We've been feeling the lack of exercise, though.  First, being stuck inside for weeks because we were both ill with this bug earlier in the year, and now because the weather has been so uncongenial that it hasn't seemed like an attractive prospect to be out all day.

Yesterday, though, we took the tube up to Kingsbury, which is on the Jubilee underground line. We'd never been to this suburb, and wanted to see what kind of a place it was, and perhaps explore the small country park nearby if the rain held off for an hour or two. 

It turned out to be a pleasant multi ethnic area with a a good selection of curry houses, Indian sweetshops and truly mega food-supermarkets selling food from all over the world. 

The country park was accessed from a suburban street, and just as well we bought waterproof hiking boots.  The ground was like a bog - no, this is not a stream, below. 



Walking was a matter of stepping from tuft to tuft of grass and avoiding as much water as possible.

Yet it was worth going. The area was obviously once farmland, and consists of woods and small fields divided by thick thorn hedges and hedgerow trees.  The hedges didn't look at all interesting at first, being entirely leafless, but if you went close up and looked inside them, they were wonderful. 

 Everything is very late this year,  but the different coloured buds, mosses and lichens and the mass of twigs created a wondrous effect like a great intricate embroidery.

or what looked almost like pieces of jewellery.

Some parts of the hedgerow were like an ocean of life, with each part ready to go. 

On the way back to the tube, the suburban gardens, by contrast, were neatly tended and stocked with garden plants in bright colours.  My eye was taken by this dinosaur scene - the dinosaurs are arranged in an artfully created little valley of rock and vegetation.  I like to think of someone having fun creating it. 

We have a small field in East Anglia which we generally let out for grazing, but the farmer emailed yesterday suggesting it might be a while before he brought his cows along this spring, and sent a photo by way of explanation.   I've never seen the land flood before, but it really looks as if it could support a few ducks at the moment, doesn't it?

Stay dry!