Holland Park, London

I had a day to kill while Sarah was at work and so my afternoon was spent meandering through a park I’d never heard of and was rapidly falling in love with. There was a fenced off space for stag beetles to live and roam freely and safely inside and it warmed my heart to see. Have you ever seen a stag beetle? I have once, wandering along a pathway in Hyde Park. They are magnificent little beasts and any attempts to protect them is oh so very wonderful.

I felt a little lonely as I walked under the shadows and through the trees, but a certain grey squirrel made sure to keep an eye on me as I walked around her little patch, and the rock pigeons made me laugh as they hopped around and in circles, landing (and doing other things) to the heads of statues. In another part of the park sat several Japanese gardens with a peaceful heron in their midst and further along a peacock sat proudly on his nest, high on a wall, his peahen sauntering along below. There is such a good mixture of the wild and the cultivated here and although there is no cure-all for the blues, a walk through this place helped, even when it was still on the very edge between Winter and Spring, with the balance not quite yet tipped.