Walking in Caledonian Park

The Clocktower Caledonian Park

It rained so much last week I couldn't get into the garden.  The path became a river. I did see that a day or two after the pond had been mended, there was a whole heap of frogspawn in it. I'll have to wait and see whether it gets eaten before any tadpoles can emerge. But at least I know its being used. 

Wild daffodils in the park

So I decided to take some pictures of the local park instead. This used to be home of the Metropolitan Cattle Market, opened in 1855 as a replacement of the one in Smithfield. It was 30 acres and consisted of the central clock tower, which contains a working clock used as  a prototype for the mechanism for Big Ben.  The tower is a grade 2* listed building and is open to the public. 

A whole box of white Vinca minor

The market was closed in 1954 and some of it turned into flats. These were all knocked down and in 2005 a new estate of houses and small flats was built instead.    

Rather wet crow on a very rainy day in  the park

The estate has been nicely planted with lots of native daffodils, and has a whole meadow for people to walk their dogs or play games with a corner of individual gardens including one used as a kind of allotment, and others with a central lawn and various plants growing at the edges. 

Main lawn at the park with a mixture of daffodils fronting it

There is even a small area of apple and other fruit trees and some young magnolias.

Young magnolia

Finally, my book of the week. It is full of things to think about.