As I remarked before, Perivale Park is surrounded on all sides by other green spaces. This time our daily and (very) early exercise walk took us west towards Northolt and Belvue Park. This area has a very long history, dating to medieval and Roman times. I will let the highly informative signs that you eventually come across speak for themselves. They are located near the old Northolt Manor, complete with moat and church. You would hardly think you were in London!
Paradise Fields at dawn.
Perivale park has neighbouring green areas in all four (arguably even five) compass directions. The one to the north is called Paradise fields, with the Paddington branch of the grand union canal running along the north and east edges and with Horsenden hill visible further east.
The Park has had a haircut (and a facelift).
When the Coston’s Brook corridor that runs out of a culvert near the children’s playground and joins the river Brent about 200m further on was opened up about 18 months ago by removing much of the impenetrable undergrowth and blackthorn, we always knew the shrubs and trees would come back. Meanwhile we enjoyed all the new shoots coming up along the new path leading to the new bridge and in the morning with hoar frost they looked fantastic. But it was time to move to the next season and so the haircut arrived yesterday.
Continue reading “The Park has had a haircut (and a facelift).”
An abundance of greens on our doorstep.
The Portuguese always had a love affair with “grelos”, these being the flowering shoots of the Brassica family. Two or three weeks ago we harvested a lot of cabbage “grelos” but those are now in full bloom and no longer tender enough to be consumed. Since last week the mustard variety started producing their “grelos” and we have been harvesting them in large quantities. If it does not get too hot we will go on doing so for the next 2 weeks.
What Dennis Did
Birds in the park – February 2020.
This morning we went for a stroll around the park with Neil Anderson to see how many different species of birds we could spot. The final total: 31 and as Neil put it “if we’d looked harder we could have found House Sparrows by some of the gardens + previous visits have seen Jay & Greenfinch”. The kingfishers in particular were a treat! As the river Brent improves we hope to see them far more often.
Google maps: “Your photo is making a difference”
Google maps has for some time allowed anyone to upload a photo of a feature on the map. Once you have done this, they then kindly send you periodic encouragements to continue the habit by revealing the viewing statistics for your photos and a slider which supposedly rewards your activities with “points”.
Continue reading “Google maps: “Your photo is making a difference””
Gurnell-Greenford Greenwayers Outside the Box!
As the name indicates, the Greenwayers normally work along the river from Gurnell to Greenford but on Sunday 10th November, in the spirit of friendship, we went slumming it in Pitshanger Park to relieve them of a bit of their rubbish before it reaches us!
Continue reading “Gurnell-Greenford Greenwayers Outside the Box!”
A year in the Park
Carmel Cahill sent me these photos; she is one of the new Friends of Perivale Park, which was formed on Monday 4th November, 2019. The photos come with the comments:
The Perivale Park Orchard Garden in July.
If you have visited the park recently you might have noticed progress with the orchard. The trees are in and are being watered, four sturdy benches made from recycled tropic hardwood for seating are now complete and very soon raised beds will appear for planting with herbs.
Continue reading “The Perivale Park Orchard Garden in July.”
A LIDAR map of Perivale Park.
LIDAR (light and RADAR map) is a 3D mapping technique that detects surface features which are not otherwise discernible from the ground. One of the Ealing park rangers (thanks James!) pointed me to this site; https://houseprices.io/lab/lidar/map?ref=TQ15148280 which provides a postcode based map of UK LIDAR data. Here it is for Perivale Park.
Trees for Cities Perivale Planting (+ double rainbow as a bonus).
Trees for Cities is a charity which mobilizes armies of volunteers to go plant trees. Today, it was the turn of Perivale Park, part of the new Greenford to Gurnell Greenway project.
Continue reading “Trees for Cities Perivale Planting (+ double rainbow as a bonus).”
Sunrise in Perivale Park.
You obviously have to be up fairly early to see this aspect of the Park. Here is sunrise on the morning of November 14, 2018 at ~07.10 am.
Greenford to Gurnell Leisure Centre Greenway
I have previously mentioned this flagship plan by Ealing council for enhancing the Perivale Park area. Today the plan was published, along with an invitation for people to comment. I do urge anyone reading this to do so!
Continue reading “Greenford to Gurnell Leisure Centre Greenway”
Nicky Hopkins Memorial Bench in Perivale Park.
On September 8th at 12.00, a memorial will be unveiled in Perivale Park to Nicky Hopkins (“Rock’s Greatest Session Man“) He was a famous session musician who played with many of the greats of the 1960s onwards such as the Rolling Stones, the Beatles, David Bowie, Paul McCartney, Jeff Beck, Rod Stewart, Ella Fitzgerald, Art Garfunkel and many others.
Continue reading “Nicky Hopkins Memorial Bench in Perivale Park.”
Trio Oreade play Beethoven and Schumann close to Perivale Park.
Close to Perivale Park is St Mary’s Perivale, a 12th century church now used as a music venue.
Continue reading “Trio Oreade play Beethoven and Schumann close to Perivale Park.”
#StationWalks from the London National Park City Project
London is about to become a national park city, with the aim of encouraging Londoners and visitors to London to get out and explore its many green features. One way of doing this is to go on a StationWalk, where you start and end at a station.
Continue reading “#StationWalks from the London National Park City Project”
Wild flowers in West London.
Bees are having a tough time around the world. Oddly, they are surviving very well in cities. One reason are the wild flower meadows in London and for some summer relief I thought I would tell you the story of the one shown below.