London Diaries - Green Spaces - Richmond Park

This post is a bit outdated or perhaps I should call it 'Not in Season'.  The plan was to visit, click and write about Richmond Park  in the Autumn months where the landscape has the autumnal feel and colours to it and when it's  the rutting season of deer. So, in that aspect this post has been a bit delayed as we are in spring now. Nevertheless, here’s a note about the park and the deer that it’s known for.

Richmond Park is quite unique to the rest of the parks London has to offer.  It feels like you have gone a long way away from the city to this natural reserve, a forest area and that’s the best thing about it. You are very much in the city but so out of it too giving you the best of both worlds.

Our first visit to the park was on foot and we realized that we wouldn't get too far walking. One look at the map and the scale made us head right back. We made many trips after that day where we typically visited Richmond Park either as a destination for a drive in the evening or in the summer months where we can hire bikes to go around the park which by the way, is great fun. There are a few little trails that you can pick from and it does make a good day out.

Going on bikes is also perhaps the best way to spot the deer that the park houses.  It’s just amazing to be able to spot deer just steps away from you in their habitat while you can stop by and watch the scene.

It’s been a long standing plan to visit the park in the Autumn months to see the colour of the trees turn yellow and brown and also to see this rutting of deer which only happens in the autumn time. It pretty much has been a 5-year plan to be able to do that (you know those 5-year plans...like the ones we studied in school about the Indian constitution). Last Autumn we finally made it happen. 

We managed to do an early-ish visit on a weekend and had a lovely morning out.

We didn't really see the deer in a lot of action, but them camouflaged with the drying grass made a lovely sight. Here are a few clicks. It was one of those grey, dull, the-sky-is-going-to-fall-on-us-any-minute type of days, but we waited a fair bit to get some pictures. Unfortunately, there was no blue sky. Take a look....

The Music of Rain..

I tend to get caught with a topic while blogging (i.e. when I do blog!!!) ... when I write about coffee I am drowned in it, when I write about travels, I am lost in it and now that I just wrote about Rain.... looks like I am going to get drenched in it.

On a lighter note this time, with an attempt not to write the part 2 of the previous tale....is about this song...which I consider as one of the best songs written and picturized describing 'Rain'...It goes Rhim Jhim gire saawan .. sulag sulag jaaye mann...bhige aaj is mausam mein, lagi kaisi ye agan....

.......Many years ago, I heard this song from my room while my mother was playing this on her favourite stereo in her room... I loved it instantly. It was the Kishor Kumar version of the song (which I thought was the only one), I remember playing it over and over again to learn the lyrics.....it was a simple song.... no heavy lyrics, not the greatest tune yet had an ease about it, seems like he has sung it so effortlessly....it definitely has a feel good factor...It used to take me back to a rainy day and my own imagination of having a good time.

However, I saw the video of the song much much later and well! It was a female voice, that of Lata Mangeshkar, but the video bowled me over.....I loved it all over again.
Today, I love both versions of the song and the videos, however the one which is picturized in the streets of Mumbai with the Rain is the closest to my heart and remains as one of my most favourite videos... it makes me feel happy and doesn't fail making me smile.

The Tale of a Rainy day

Ask anyone whether they ‘Like rain’ and more than 90% of the answers would be ‘Yes, I like rain, I enjoy rain, I love rain’- I am surely one who falls into this category – sipping hot coffee with friends, eating hot spicy food and chatting along while you hear and smell the rain outside is something I would always rejoice! However there are a second set of people who could add on the fact that Oh! It’s so messy after it’s rained; I don’t quite enjoy getting drenched in rain when I have to get to some place or if I am in a hurry. There are also a third set of people who says ‘It doesn’t affect me, I am not quite bothered whether it rains or not’ and so on.

Rain can mean different things to a lot of other people too. For the office goer’s it would mean a nuisance if it rains just at the time they need to leave home or leave for home from work, for the school kid, it’s a joy who can play in the puddles, get the clothes and shoes wet, perhaps very heavy rains can also bring them an unexpected holiday; For the street vendors, it’s a blow on their business, as it might force them to close down the shop for the rainy day. For those who have organized an outdoor activity, event, a function it’s a cause of tension – what if the shelter is not good enough, what if people drop out of the plan of attending, what would happen to all the food, where can we make alternate arrangements, for the sports freak especially a cricket fanatic, it would be a missed game, a missed day of fun, on the other hand for the person whose home is the very street, he would be swept off from his home.

For most of us accustomed to city life, it doesn’t quite matter whether it rains on not as much as the farmer or that individual who is dependent on it for his day to day life. For them, rain would be a blessing; they would pray for it and would be overjoyed and relieved that it did rain. Of course, we city dwellers might get to realize it only when it’s too hot, or there are too many power cuts, the cost of vegetables are way too high and when little issues creep in. It would be out in the news and can also become a topic of discussions – especially when you are with a group of people who you are not acquainted with.

It’s interesting to see the turn of events when the skies cry…. You can see the dogs on the street just running at a slow pace trying to get shelter, but also at the same time not quite bothered about getting wet, the cows who remain so unmoved from their positions, birds flying from tree to tree….On the other hand, you can see the vendors hurriedly covering their cart full of things, women running to get the washed clothes hung outside (which had almost dried up until this happened), old men/ladies retiring with a cup of hot coffee/tea by the window sill, kids trying to sneak away and play in the rain, a group of friends talking about having hot fried food and coffee at their favourite restaurant or café and monkeys hanging from a Mango tree and trying in their so many human like ways to cover themselves…these could be amongst many other things you might have noticed.

The smell of rain is a much loved thing to most people who enjoy rain, the smell of mud, the smell of the garden – the washed leaves of trees, plants and flowers – all of them looking clean and green, the smell of hot corn on the cob, the smell of hot spicy food by the street where people who wanna have a quick grab, the people coming out once it has stopped and having a chat together, the noise of the street businesses resuming, some people working on cleaning up the havoc caused by it, everyone getting back to their activities…….The after effects need not be always good….if one doesn’t pay attention while walking along the street, they might end up with a shower of mud and rain water, the slippery roads can be quite horrible, the flies in the evening is the most and the only annoying aspect of rain that I remember. It can also be in the news or the next day’s morning paper if things have gone pretty bad…..Nonetheless, the whole cycle ends and routine begins again until the spell of rain starts the sequence of events on yet another day… a morning of shower, an afternoon of quiet rain, an evening of heavy rain, or a downpour at night…..

Winter Wonderland

Winter was here...the month of December is for many reasons the best month during the winter, it's festive with Christmas around the corner, the New Year's would soon follow, lots of holidays, celebrations everywhere, gifts, decorations, partying, less work and all things nice. On the other hand January is the most dreaded month - all celebrations over, no more holidays, festivals for a long long time....Just as we wait for January to get over, the weather reports say that the Winter progresses into February and we just start the countdown of 6-7 weeks of winter remaining....

On the night of Feb 2nd and the early hours of Feb 3rd it was a complete Whiteout. UK experienced the heaviest snowfall in 18years; it was my first major one…. There was 15cms of Snow settled -clean and white.... all around us. It gave us all a playground of a different kind, everyone forgot of the ongoing economic crisis, about work, about all tensions.... and played like kids...
Having listened to the song from the past few months - it was indeed 'Walking in a Winter Wonderland'....
Take a peek at some of the shots I could capture….

National Gallery @ Trafalgar Square


The garden in our Courtyard


Streets of London


The Big Ben as seen from Trafalgar Square


Icing Sugar on the Houses of Parliament & Big Ben