Osterley Park Bluebells

The bluebells have been really fantastic this year.  I've been seeking them out- on a sunny late afternoon (or morning, if you are up with the larks) the light filters through the forest just right and the forest floor becomes awash with the stunning purple blooms.  

After a rather intelligent google search (bluebells near london) I settled on a trip out to Osterley Park, a National Trust site out by Heathrow.  

It did not disappoint.   

The grand mansion house was closed when I was there but the gardens and grounds were open.  I was hoping my sunshine would last, but it soon became overcast and the light muted.  (ah, and they had used the interior as the set for Wayne Manor in the latest Batman movies).

It was a lovely garden walk though.  The spring blooms are such a relief and still a novelty after a drab winter.  

I didn't get too much info about the history of the estate.  Queen Elizabeth was a onetime visitor.  Thomas Jefferson was as well.  I guess he wasn't on the no-fly list like I would expect an American patriot to be.    There were several posh outbuildings on the grounds.  I mean, this.  This was where they kept the cold-intolerant plants:

And this elegant little outbuilding was described as a place where people could come in if they got caught in the rain while walking in the gardens:

The real stars were the flowers.

While I didn't get the beams of sunlight throwing streaks across the forest floor that I kept dreaming about.  Going through a quiet forest carpeted with bluebells is pretty much magic at any hour.  Well, except for midnight.  Then it's just inky.

I didn't even "touch up" this picture, but it looks super fake:

It wouldn't surprise me at all if tiny sprites appeared.

Crystal Palace

Spring has been about as glorious as it gets.

I took a quick train ride out to Crystal Palace.  The name is misleading- there used to be the OG Crystal Palace there. The 1851 World's Fair took place (the very first!) in Hyde Park, and this innovation of cast iron and glass was considered a wonder in its own right.  How genius- in the days before electric light, creating glass that could be used as walls was a fantastic solution to illuminate a great hall.  Originally, the building was in Hyde Park, but it was later moved south of the Thames to the neighborhood which is now called Crystal Palace, where it burned to the ground in 1936.  The foundations and statues are still there, and it gives it a slightly eerie sense of space.

It's an easy place to spot from a lofty height in London.  The Eiffel-like BBC tower dominates the skyline of any view south.

There were people in historical costumes trying to get everyone interested in re-building the palace.  Sadly, it seems like that day has long gone.

Maybe I was just feeling a bit moody on this particular day, but I lost interest in the ruins pretty quickly.  It was all concrete and cement, and most of the interesting nooks and crannies were fenced off.  Safety, yo.  

I did have a walk around the big, sprawling park with views of the North Downs and a huge football stadium smacked down in the centre of it.  It was a nice little outing and only took 20 minutes to get to from Brixton.  

Rye Meads

The weather in Southern England had been unusually pleasant.  I don't even know the last time it's rained, and day after day of blue sky is starting to get disconcerting, and the fact we had a day near 38 last week in which all of London emptied out to occupy the lawns and parks in a sprawl of skin.   

Rye House, a former grand residence 

Not a mud puddle to be found.  In April.  Global Warming is real.

I won't complain.  I've been trying to get out as much as possible, slathered with SPF 50.  I headed out to Rye Meads, an RSBP bird reserve north of the city in Hertfordshire, right near the Lee Valley waterway.  Like most wetland reserves, it's sandwiched in an industrial wasteland.  It's surrounded by an enormous wastewater treatment plant, a rail line, powerlines, a motorway, a go-cart track and a caravan park.

Once you are in though, it's peaceful.  I grabbed a pair of binoculars from the front desk and set off to see what the birds were up to.

They have a whopping 10 hides around the marsh, each giving a surprisingly different view of the habitat and most have completely different birds depending on the depth of the water or the amount of shelter offered.  

Little Grebe

Pochard

Gadwall

The real stars here are the Kingfishers.  They are unmistakable- the most brilliant shades of blue and orange, much like a New York Knickerbocker.  The first time I saw one was at the dumpy canal near Merton Mills on my way to the stables, and I've been looking for them ever since.

Happily, Rye Meads has a pair that are attempting to nest in a bank, with a great hide-view of the action.  They even have a webcam set up in front of the nest site waiting to witness kingfisher fledglings.  With a bit of patience, you can spy on their comings and goings.  I even witnessed some bawdy kingfisher-on-kingfisher action, which means that they aren't sitting on any eggs in the nest at this time.  Hopefully soon.  The world needs more of these beautifully painted fisher kings.

They do seem to like their privacy.  Or, at least the day was hot enough so they were seeking out the shade.

On the northern edge of the reserve, it's more grassland than marshland, and I spied a giant.

She was kind of far off, but it was a Marsh Harrier, a large raptor that flies in almost awkward swoops.

The paths were almost eerily devoid of people once you left the hides.

They also kept a herd of Konig ponies to help manage the grassland.  Without large grazers, marshland would turn to scrub and forest in a hurry.  A lot of places employ fat cattle or horses to do the job for them.

At this point, the heat was getting to my head.  I was happy to sit in the shade at the RSBP info centre with a lemonade and chat with the lovely volunteers there before taking the train back into the city.