Bluebells in Chalet Wood, Wanstead Park

For our hour's exercise yesterday, Gill and I went for a walk in Wanstead Park to see the bluebells in Chalet Wood. They are simply magnificent this year and appear to be at or near their peak.

The park was not crowded at all and the the pathways in the wood itself were cleverly turned into one way only paths to aid self isolation. After the bluebells (please be careful to keep to the paths and control dogs and children) there is a superb walk around the various lakes in the park.

The park is around 10-15 mins walk from the Newham boundary with Redbridge in Forest Gate, Manor Park and little Ilford

I will post more pictures from the walk on Facebook & link to it.

Wanstead Park 4 Seasons Walk (& good news about a West Ham Labour comrade)

Off message but this morning Gill and I went for a walk across Wanstead flats into Wanstead Park. The weather was seriously weird!

One moment cold and very windy, the next, warm blue sky sunshine followed then by hail or rain.

This occurred several times during the walk. It reminded me of walking in Wales!

Wanstead Park is a fantastic local amenity.  It is the ornamental garden of a massive stately home (now knocked down) that was built to rival Blenheim Place.

Everyone was being very sensible with regard to social distancing but also cheerful and friendly with plenty of good mornings/afternoons. Which in London pre-coronavirus would have been pretty unusual.

The City of London own the park and they had shut the cafe and fenced off the benches

We checked out Chalet Woods (inside the park) for its famous bluebells. They are just beginning to flower (is that the right word?) and should be in their prime in a week or so.

I will post a link to more pictures of the walk on Facebook.

Finally, yesterday I rang an elderly member of West Ham Labour Party, who I had not been in touch with for a while to see how he was. He was actually on his way home from hospital, after being taken there for a number of days with Coronavirus but had only had mild symptoms despite him having a  very serious underlying medical condition. Great news!