Ramshackle and Manicured Green Spaces

Although the rain drummed on our kitchen skylight all night long, today was full of blue skies and it was the first day of the new year that the sun actually felt soothing and warm on our faces. Getting over our coughs with each passing day, we decided to take advantage of the sunny weather and headed over to a place just minutes from home that we'd not yet explored: Abney Park Cemetery and Nature Reserve.

We've gone up to Church Street with every intention of wandering through the park on several occasions, but each time we found ourselves at the cemetery too close to dusk (and the locking of the park gates) to make any wandering worthwhile. Today we were up there by 1 P.M., so we had plenty of time to walk down a few of the numerous ramshackle paths in this amazing park. We kept saying over and over how incredible it was that we were only a few minutes from home, since the centre of the park felt removed from everything London and twenty-first century. The cemetery has been allowed to become overgrown in the extreme,

resulting in an amazing array of flora and fauna, as well as human-made artifacts. The abandoned Abney Park Chapel is an imposing sight, full of pigeons and rubble. It's very strange to see such a building lying completely open to the elements--it really is a shame that it isn't restored. The gravestones lie at all manner of angles throughout the cemetery, often with trees or roots splitting stones apart.
We heard this woodpecker before we could see him, but he was well worth locating amongst the trees. If you enlarge this photo, you should be able to see him, pecking away, near the centre of the picture:
This bird was also twittering away, filling the sunny silence with a song:

Perhaps oddest of all were the many small gravestones that lined quite a few of the paths. Practically unadorned, or with lettering long smoothed away, the diminutive size of the markers as well as the close quarters laced the scene with pathos:
After we exited Abney Cemetery, we decided to head west, over to a part of London that we've not yet seen, Primrose Hill. We began our visit with a hike to the top of the hill itself, part of a lovely park with spectacular views south, over London:

The park was filled with people and their dogs, and the lovely expanse of green in front of the London skyline seemed shockingly tidy after the overgrown charm of Abney Park. (We kind of preferred the latter though!) The streets near Primrose Park are filled with restaurants, shops, and all manner of places for its moneyed residents to spend their Sunday afternoon £££.

We held onto our £££ though, and did some grocery shopping at Sainsbury's before heading home for some lattés (made by Bob) and a beef curry (soon to be made by me).