The lockdown in the last three months has produced a city of explorers and walkers- since we have been allowed to go out once a day for exercise many of us has exaggerated and have stretched that allowance into great hikes of exploration around the parks of London and along its canals. I know many who have walked for three or four hours a day- and discovered a London that they never knew existed although they might have lived here all their lives. And friendships have been struck- like my new Welsh friend David who I found on a park bench by the canal in Little Venice the other day. He showed me Wormwood Scrubs yesterday- it is only up the road from Ladbroke Grove- it is huge and wild- actually a nature reserve rather than a park. Although I vaguely knew it was there I guess I was always put off by the name- and by the fact that its eponymous Prison looms gloomily in one corner on its parameter.
But meanwhile the vast central fields are bordered by woods and soft meadows and there are large varieties of wild flowers, grasses and lovely thistles which attract butterflies and insects buzzing about making it feel like deepest Devon...
One can reach this new haven by walking the canal route from Ladbroke Grove
I seem to spend half my life by the canal these days, on my way eastwards normally but this time the route leads west towards 'The Scrubs'. Plenty to look at on the way always- like this bird (must get myself some sort of a bird book: any suggestions?) with his elaborate boots!
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