Ladywell Fields: a house divided

Saturday afternoons are no longer filled with rugby, and I take T out.

These are busier times than my usual morning visits, and it's interesting to see how people use the park.

My usual route, established over the past year, is to enter the park by the station, take a left to look at the ducks in the river, down to the play area for the swings and slide, then up via the ship climbing frame past the cafe.

A month of doing this after lunch has confirmed as hard fact what was previously a mere impression.

More middle class families hang around by the cafe, and are less likely to venture to the play park at the bottom.

I wonder why?

Tufted duck

The weir on on the Ravensbourne has been repaired, and the river again flows through Ladywell Fields. With a much deeper pool behind the weir people walking in the park or across the bridge to the hospital can now see a greater than usual number of ducks. Amongst the usual mallards yesterday was a rather impressive (if solitary) tufted duck.

Ladywell Fields: what no water; what no trees?

Saturday morning found me ambling behind T as I pushed him along on his new trike. T was more interested in watching the men cutting down the trees by the path next to the railway than he was in going on the swings. It is a shame to see them come down, but at least we knew this was coming.

Not so the absence of water in the new stream that has been cut from the Ravensbourne. There was no running water in it, and no obvious reason why. The dam which diverts the water looks like it may have need breached, but if anyone knows whether this has happened through accident or design, then I'd really like to know.

Where is the wildlife?

ladywell fields river
Originally uploaded by londonlens

The changes made late last year in Ladywell Fields were impressive, and I've really enjoyed walking and running and cycling by the new arm of the river.

Speaking as someone who spent a lot of his childhood messing around by the edge of or on rafts on top of rivers and ponds (and a lot of time in them too), one thing disappoints me.

I have been enthusiastically awaiting the growth of water plants and the consequent arrival of dragonflies, whirligig beetles, and maybe the odd heron.

So far, nothing.

I wonder why? The old course of the Ravensbourne seems fine, so it can't be the water. I saw a shoal of small fish in there for the first time on Sunday, and there's always a wagtail or two to show it's clean enough.

Still, it's a nice place to be, and is refreshingly free of litter.