Another birthday? Let's go for a walk!

You know how it is. Another birthday rolls around and while you try to make it special (and you do) it's hard to make it a knock-out affair. The weather didn't help (in that a cold front was scheduled to bring rain to the south-east) but also a level of indecision got in the way of organising a weekend away. So instead we've decided to make the best of it this weekend with a spot of walking and perhaps a visit to our wonderful local Japanese restaurant Tosa in the evening.

And so, to cut a long story short, this is why we found ourselves in Stanmore on a wet Saturday afternoon! It's not somewhere that we've visited before but it's relatively close to us in North London and I'd managed to unearth a route-guide from London Footprints. With the decision made we found ourselves trying to park in some expensive looking suburban streets and ended up at Stanmore Country Park - where the car park itself was utterly empty! Probably not a good sign but we set off in the drizzle up Stanmore Hill and by the time we reached the top and Stanmore Hall it was pouring down:

I am a hobbit and I live in a hole!

But we persevered and actually walking along some of the London Loop it was really quite nice to be out in the countryside (well you know what I mean - there were trees and all). Heading up to Stanmore Common we spent a bit of time watching Harrow Rugby Football Club in action (Joshua was actually quite interested for once) before meandering over to Fish Pond and thoughts of maybe escaping the rain and getting back to the car:

Fish Pond - maybe there are fish here?

Fortunately the steady shower eased off as we walked in solitude around the water's edge and by the time we turned back towards Stanmore we could even make out the Wembley Arch in the distance. Okay it wasn't exactly framed against a brilliant-blue sky but you can't have everything. The fact is that it was nice to be out and about in a place that isn't our familiar home turf:

It's my party...