This has sort of become a tradition of sorts around our place.  Come to visit and we’re very likely going to Richmond Park.  I think we both just really love it there but need some sort of excuse to make the trip out.  Especially now as it’s a couple of bus rides away.

We had much more success finding the deer than we did at our last family outing.  The winter weather had killed off most of the shoulder-height ferns so there wasn’t anywhere for the deer to hide.  Well, apart from being somewhere in the vastness that is Richmond Park.  Fortunately we didn’t have to wait too long to find them, we just needed to be willing to get our shoes a bit muddy.  It has definitely rained this year!

I’ve been enough times now that I can act as a bit of a mini tour-guide, provided I can keep to the general middle area of the park.  We did a wide loop around the ponds and through as many of the treed in areas as we could.  I enjoy the wide open spaces as much as the next prairie raised lad, but the bitter winds had us seeking as much shelter as possible in order to prolong our hike.

All in all a very successful deer spotting sojourn.  I think mom was quite happy with the wildlife, which is saying something for someone who grew up in Vancouver with the Rocky Mountains on her doorstep.  There are a few more images in the gallery, but they’re mostly family images.  If you’re after more deer photos, I was at the park with gusto earlier in the year to get my fill of deer shots.

All of those Charles Dickens “A Christmas Carol” adaptations I watched growing up as a child led me to believe that every year the city of London was covered in a fresh blanket of snow.  I can tell you that generally that’s a terrible, terrible lie.

However, starting late Sunday night the snow started to fall and it kept on falling well into Monday.  At first it was just enough snow to make it stick to the ground, then it started piling up.  Pretty soon, it was the “worst snowstorm in 18 years“.

As a Canadian, it was pretty funny to watch the city grind to a halt after the first few inches of snow formed on the ground.  All bus services suspended, the same for overland trains and most of the Underground was disabled as well.  The city was eerily quiet, not just from the lack of people but also the dampening effect of all this white stuff.

To be fair to the English, they just haven’t got the infrastructure in place to deal with this sort of snow fall.  I saw one sand/salt truck out on my walk into the office and many different implements used for shoveling snow from brooms and dustpans to sheets of wood and anything flat and sturdy enough to scoop it away.

Work was more or less cancelled but I decided to walk into the office anyways and take a few photos along the way.  It felt a bit like being back home, only not quite so cold.  It was a really cool day, and I had a pretty happy grin on my face for most of it.  That being said, I’m pretty happy that it’s all melting under the bright, sunny sky today.

I don’t think anybody should have to suffer more than a day or two of winter after all.

Photos from the rest of my journey into the office are here.