21/10/25: Wildlife and Walking.

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 What with one of us limited to strolling for the purposes of back care and the other one nursing a head cold, not a lot of touristing went on in the world of whilenotworking today.  Mind you, we both explored High St while variously going to appointments or searching for the best value grocery store.

Just down the road from Westwood House was the Thames River, with walking paths squeezed between the river and the roads.  We crossed the river on the Albert Bridge which, according to Wikipedia, is nicknamed the 'Trembling Lady' due to its distressing tendency to vibrate when crossed by large numbers of people.

The soldiers from the nearby Chelsea barracks were not allowed to march while on the bridge.  The Chelsea Barracks is now closed, so that's one less threat to the existence of the Albert.

The Albert was a mish mash of design styles largely due to repeated efforts to keep it standing, and was also a 'catastrophic failure' as a toll bridge.  Despite all that it was a very pretty bridge.

Despite being a toll bridge for only 6 years, and an unsuccessful one at that, it now boasts the only surviving bridge tollbooths in London.  The pretty colours were apparently to make it more visible to boats.


On the bridge: a red telephone booth and a Union Jack. How much more British could we get?
 
At the other end of the Albert Bridge lay Battersea Park with a wide promenade beside the river, views up and across the Thames, and a fine collection of dog walkers and joggers.

Thames views.

Autumn leaves and a dog party.

At the end of the promenade Roger turned around to take Steve home and I continued along the pathways past the tea house and around the lake.  And there I saw a squirrel!  In fact I stalked the squirrel, and when he ran away I stalked several more, snapping exceptional pictures of squirrel tales disappearing into the bushes.  I may have gotten so ridiculously excited that I'm sure the passing joggers thought I was quite mad and the dog walkers gave me a very wide berth.


That wasn't all the excitement either.  No sooner had I settled down after the squirrel-stalking adventure when I started bird-spotting.

Eurasian magpie and Eurasian Jay, both very pretty birds.

Well that was my thrills for the day.  I ambled back through the park, eyes on swivel for more squirrels, past the bandstand where I tried to take fancy photos of reflections.

Fido had other ideas.

Back I went across the Albert Bridge and home to nurse my head cold.  

It's an exciting life sometimes, being a tourist.

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