The wild and the tamed

A sunny summer morning is a gift and not to be ignored. I have a (self-imposed) daily walking goal, in the absence of longer walks, and got out early on the Parkland Walk - convenient, peaceful, green, what's not to like?

One of the joys of walking is noticing things, and now that I'm using the phone camera for all my snaps, it is always to hand. Nor can I resist documenting ....

"Weeds" beautifully backlit by low-slanting morning sunlight 

Ingenious storage of supplies for the wood-burner (but...London is a smoke free zone?)

Prolific blooms, what are they?

I'm almost convinced these slow-down signs are on some
sort of random timer, rather than related to traffic

"Back home" in BC these fuzzy pink things (what are they?)
grow prolifically in slightly-wild places 

Recently repainted, this proud sign is on Stapleton Hall Road

...and round the corner on Stroud Green Road
(heading into the home stretch)
the cafes are open at 7am but shop shutters are still down

The local off-licence, Jacks, has recently had a face-lift - boy oh boy,
 has this area changed since I moved here (to Sparsholt Rd) in 1983!

New carvings have been added to this collection,
but the bamboo now obscures those in the other windows

More damage to the diseased chestnut trees ... how much
longer till they have to be cut down? I dread the day

From the corner of my block - it too is much improved in recent years;
I moved here in 1994

"Here" is the top two floors, a maisonette rather than a flat;
there are 33 stairs inside and another dozen outside

The garden, my expensive toy, belongs to the "basement" flat,
which now belongs to my empire-building son, thanks to inheritance
and my pension contributions. It was two years in the renovation
and is now rented out, but even so, that
was one expensive bike shed!