Lockdown Stomping Grounds

I thought I'd do a post today about my regular stomping grounds during lockdown.  To be honest, we're very fortunate where we live in London, to be only a 15-20 minute or less walk from some great open green spaces.

One that I visit regularly is like a green. It used to be just that, flat and green but it has been landscaped a little in recent years, with mounds, a big rock and a community orchard. It runs alongside a busy road, but if you go to the back of the green there's lots of space and it's safer to let your dog off the lead. This is probably a 20 minute walk from our house.

Even closer, about 10-15 minutes walk away, is probably the biggest open space, which is Hackney Marshes. This is vast and is famous for being a very popular place where local football teams play their matches on a Sunday morning. It has multiple football pitches on it, as well as cricket pitches for the summer and rugby pitches, along with changing pavilions for both, and is well used by the surrounding communities.  I never venture there with the dog on a Sunday morning, for example, as it is just too busy, but at the moment there are obviously no team games being played there, save for families kicking a ball about.

Here's a couple of pictures of this vast urban oasis. I was stood almost in the middle and took one photo of each end, which gives you an idea of how big this space is.

The van in this picture is not on a road, that is way beyond, it is on the marsh itself, as the council are doing work to a cycle path that crosses the marshes here. The buildings in the background are in Stratford, where the 2012 Olympics were held.

The dog can run about freely here and there are also woodland walks and river/canal side walks around it's edges, to offer a bit of variety.

It's very popular with professional dog walkers, who bring van loads of their charges to be walked here. It has obviously been pretty busy recently, more so in the afternoons, but there's room for everyone if people are considerate.

I feel lucky to have such a resource on my doorstep, especially in our current situation.

Another open green space that I regularly walk to is behind our local Ice Arena and Horse Stables.

The hangar like building in the distance is the ice arena.  Some celebs practice here for the Dancing on Ice show. I saw Jade Goody's ex Jeff in the car park here once,when he was on the show.

Behind the previous field is another huge field and from there you can walk down a path alongside fields of horses that belong to the local horse stables.

I like this path, as it is not that well known.  I only discovered it in the last year or so. Even this path has been much busier lately though, but luckily it is wide enough to keep a good couple of meters apart when passing others. It's a little further away from our house, probably 20-30 minutes walk, but it's worth it to get away from urbanity. The horses being here, make you feel like you could almost be in the countryside. When I took this photo, though, there were swarms of small flies all along the path, I had to turn back and go another way that day.

I used to be able to take the car and park near the stables for free and walk, but the gates have now been locked to prevent people from driving in, which is fair enough.  On Mother's Day weekend, when the lockdown started, I counted 40 people in about a 30-50 square meter area near here, so I can understand why they did this.

Our local park, above, which is 5 minutes away, is also very nice, but gets very congested at some times of the day. I can usually find a way through the gaps, but sometimes with all the cycles coming through, it can be a bit precarious with a dog. I tend to walk on the grass, well away from the footpaths when I go through the park, which is much less busy and much safer for the dog.

The park is split into two main halves divided by a busy road, so we can venture to either half of the park, depending on how we feel.  This photo is the other half across the road which tends to be a bit quieter and is a bigger space.

All of the above spaces and some I haven't even mentioned here, mean that there are multiple different walks we can do on any given day, which is very fortuitous.  To be honest, if we didn't have our dog, we would probably never even venture to explore the surrounding area so much, so we are pretty priviledged really.

I think this whole crisis has probably meant that many people have come to appreciate the open/ public spaces in their vicinity.  Recently, I've even noticed that there is less litter than usual everywhere, which is unusual considering the warm weather, but I don't know if this is because people are being more responsible or the usual litterers are not coming out.

Anyway, I hope you have enjoyed a trip through our local open spaces. Not as built up as you might think London would be. Not where we live anyway, thankfully. We're still only 20 or 30 minutes from Central London by car on a good day. Obviously, during a normal weekday rush hour this would take a lot longer.

Have you been enjoying the open spaces around where you live recently?