Train, Picnic, Greenhouse

Despite having spent the whole of Saturday day and evening outside, I woke up on Sunday to the sound of the birds chirping and an overwhelming desire to be outside again. In my family this is famously described as ‘Collie dog syndrome’.

The weather was hazy and slightly overcast, with bouts of sunshine through the day. We had lots of left over food from the previous days barbeque  so decided that a picnic was in order. A leftovers picnic also fitted well with this years ‘thrifty treats’ mantra, so off we went to the station, along with boxes of salads, a thermos of tea and a blanket stashed away in a rucksack.

We decided to go to Richmond Park, as we hadnt been in an unforgivably long time. One of London's four Royal parks, Richmond Park is the largest open space in the capital city, covering almost 1,000 hectares of natural habitats.It is home to a huge variety of wildlife including Deer, badgers, foxes and birds, as well as nearly 1000 ancient Oak tree’s.

It was vast. It was so good to be in a greenspace in London so big that you could feasibly get lost in it. We found a good picnic spot and settled down to a delicious, slightly chilly lunch, watched the planes, admired all the lovely dogs and did some good cloud watching too.  

Can we just take a moment for my misters amazing plane jumper?!

Afterwards we did some more walking then paid a visit to Petersham nurseries café, somewhere I’ve wanted to visit for a long time. I fell pretty hard for this place. There are about 8 black wooden greenhouses which house rows of wooden tables filled with pots of flowers and herbs. The greenhouses also house a restaurant, shop and tea room, which have been filled with ageing furniture, creeping greens and large old rugs. Its slightly shabby, in the best of ways, children and dogs are welcome, and the staff are friendly and polite.

I loved their logo

Rather than go for lunch, which was the original more expensive plan, we decided to share a pot of coffee and a slice of Beetroot cake instead (it was mouth-wateringly moist and delicious, and had me planning all sorts of sweet beetroot recipe’s.)

Gorgeous, yes?

After cake we wondered around the beautiful grounds snapping pictures before walking along the Thames to Richmond station. We then took a short, sleepy train back to Waterloo. Bliss.

It was such a perfect inexpensive day trip that we are already planning our return trip, but this time with friends and family in tow. It goes without saying really, but highly recommended!

P.S I know that I still haven’t loaded any information to my London tab at the top of the page. I am still planning on doing so but it’s a much bigger job than I had anticipated, so please bear with me!