Common ground

Been here in Wimbledon for 3 years now but never really explored the Common – that great swathe of open land from the Village all the way to Richmond Park. Sure, the occasional run but I hadn’t really seen the variety of flora, fauna and landscape.

From fairly barren shrub land (Parkside, the A219 is just beyond the treeline)…

…to the Kingsmere and Queensmere ‘ponds’. It’s not exactly easy to find your way around: footpaths – yes, signed – no. It’s a sad reality that the best way to navigate is by the A3 on one side of the triangle and the A219 on another but venture into the largely untrodden centre of peaceful hills and gulleys.

There’s obviously been some thought into the conservation – tidy enough without being fussy, wild while remaining safe. No Wombles in sight but maybe they’re being timid on this first visit.

Uncommonly beautiful

The pond on the Common is now considerably healthier than the drip that remained last summer. Still, even in early March it was warm enough to saunter alongside at sunset.

And what a sunset.

I spy

Just found this live webcam of Wimbledon town centre – surprisingly good refresh rate compared to those city cameras in the old narrow-band world. Click here to get a live view looking towards the centre from Wimbledon Hill Road; the camera is near Ely’s department store and the train station is on the left past the traffic lights.

Outfoxed

Two weeks ago the top story in the greatest city in the world was one of the highest profile anti-terrorism swoops in British history. Two weeks later the top story seems to be about the menace of the urban fox in Croydon: it either shows just how quickly life returns to normality & banality (and the failure of the terrorist cause) or that we need something to fear and get worked up about.

Since moving to London 7 years ago (is it 7 years?!) the often-spotted urban fox has never caused much alarm… the occasional shock as it scampers across the road or as you get caught in the glare of each other’s headlights. This photo was taken just a few days ago: the house is reasonably close to a railway line which seems to act as home, highway and good scavenging ground.

They’ve never been particularly pestly but I can’t exactly see them as being the urban dweller’s friend: unbelievable that some comments on the site above actually admit to feeding the blighters. Still, they’re probably the ones who make the pilgrimage to Trafalgar Square to feed the ratty, disease-ridden pigeons.