It is funny how much you take things for granted. I am fortunate to have Wimbledon Park a short walk away from where I live, and I have rediscovered it as somewhere to go for exercise and relaxation. Today's park is all that remains of a much larger landscape by Capability Brown for Wimbledon House, once owned by Queen Henrietta Maria and later by Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough - so their are links with Blenheim Palace. Today, although the lake remains, most of the original features have been lost and there are proposals for some landscaping, which would we welcomed as parts of the park are in need of a little TLC and feel a little tired. There is a relatively new waterfall garden and some interesting plans to be found. There are different dynamics during the week, which was relatively quiet when I visited, and on a Saturday morning when it was much busier, especially with families. The ducks of course love all the attention they receive from children feeding them with bread. Popular with parents and children, dog-walkers, lycra-clad runners and with cyclists, the cafe is back in use as are the tennis courts and on Saturday morning there was even an ice-cream van!

Lovely park, however one must avoid it in weekend mornings - from 10am until 3pm, when it inadvertently turns into a 'circus' of sorts. Parents letting their children go absolutely haywire, riding on scooters and bicycles most of the time unsupervised (sometimes resulting on near-misses crashes into pedestrians and runners - talking from first hand experience), blocking pathways with prams and not showing consideration towards those who wish to do their training runs in the park!! Very quiet and peaceful after 5pm though and on weekday evenings. Barbeques are allowed in this park, which is great. The flip-side being that some people don't throw their post-bbq rubbish in the bin or even make an effort to extinguish their bbq's, leaving their trash behind.