With a friend last Thursday and then with another yesterday I returned to Bushy Park,  where I introduced them to the hop kilns/Oasthouse precinct that is hidden at the end of 10 Acre Lane, next to the Derwent River.  They were amazed and delighted with the discovery.

As it was when I first walked there, no-one else appeared on site. Thanks Alex and Andrew for the revisits. This site proves to be enthralling and special each visit.

Yesterday I realised the vegetation had grown dramatically and lushly in recent weeks so that ‘fences’ of flowering and green leafed Hawthorn blocked some previously easy views.  When Alex and I smelt delicate fragrant perfumes floating in the air, our noses were led to a throng of tiny roses clambering over themselves with a very strong but beautiful perfume. Standing beside this tangle was a flowering tree with perfumed drops of flowers somewhat similar to those on a wisteria, although coloured white.  We couldn’t identify this tree.  In another part of the precinct was a mass of trees with flowers in cone shaped clusters sitting up above their branches. Alex thought they might be chestnut trees.

The ducks ran out of the Junior Angling Pool hoping for a feed.

Idyllic.

Revisiting the hop kilns was my reward after walking a little more of the edge of the Derwent River. But more about that in later posts.

My sunhat has seen better days but it has a long way to go yet.