Well I'm just fifteen days away from celebrating a year of my walking commute which as you know takes me through Greenwich Park each day. And I'm still not tired of it. It changes, and so do the people that use it. And I guess I do too, I have quite defined summer and winter routes through the park (the summer route goes over the grass, the winter route doesn't!) and to mix it up for a few days I walked the winter route in summer. I know, how rock and roll...
Actually it was a fortuitous as I learnt more about the opening times for the Queen's Orchard and finally I made it onto the other side of the gate, which felt a fitting tribute to mark the end of my first year. It was great, and a space I plan to visit many times more before it shuts for the winter, as long as I can work out the opening times, that is...
But that's not all. July was the month that I noticed the banana plants were back in the flower garden. Last August they were my marker to turn right and head across the grass, the route has become second nature to me so I've not needed a visual clue, but it's good to see them back where I expect to see them.
This month I've been marvelling at the light on the trees, how it illuminates the leaves changing their greenness when it hits them. And while I was noticing this, I also noticed the conkers forming in the horse chestnut trees, they are only small, but even so...
How the sunlight flows through the trees and forms shadows has also fascinated me this month. There's been sunny mornings, there's been damper mornings too - hence walking my winter route in the summer. As the schools have finished the park has got busier, not only with families but also tourists and it's great to see the space being so well used.
This photo is from my winter route - just look at those clouds, you can see why I didn't want to walk over the grass now can't you? Everytime I walk this way, capturing a glimpse of London's skyline over in Canary Wharf, just takes my breath away. Even on a damp and drizzly morning, in July.
There was another development in July too - I finally started to cycle to work. The plan was to build it up in time for our trip to Suffolk at the end of the month, and it was going well, although MOH's bike incident and a summer cold did see good intentions slip a little. But the cold has gone, and the traffic is much less now that it's school holidays, so I think when I'm back at work next week the bike could be making a regular appearance.
It gives me the chance to make use of this gorgeous pannier - so there's an added incentive - getting to work is downhill, so that's all good and it halves my journey time. Coming home though is a different matter and there's the not-so-small matter of cycling up the hill in Greenwich Park. The plus is that I know I can cycle up this hill, even if it takes me a little while (and it does). But I'm hoping that by tackling it more often it'll become as natural to me as turning right at the banana plants did almost a year ago.
Who knows, but I'm hoping it will and you never know at some point I might treat myself to a new bike as well - well MOH can't be the only one with a new bike now can he?