Rather windy

The park was closed because of Storm Eunice, so I took the Underground to Richmond and walked along the Thames from Richmond Bridge to Battersea Bridge. I only took the small camera because the large one would have been unusable in the strong wind, so today's pictures are not of good quality.

This is Richmond Bridge, designed by Kenton Couse ...

... who also remodelled number 10 Downing Street and gave it its present front. His only other surviving work is Holy Trinity Church in Clapham which, appropriately for a building consecrated in 1776, has a very New England look to it.

On the train I had watched Big Jet TV, the YouTube channel that shows live video of airliners struggling to land in adverse conditions at Heathrow, and when I got out there they were passing low overhead, buffeted by the strong wind. This is a Boeing 767 of British Airways.

The tide was coming in but still low, and the mudflats beside the river were well populated with birds ...

... including many Cormorants and Herring Gulls ...

... quite a lot of Grey Herons ...

... and a few Pied Wagtails.

It was surprising to see so many Wood Pigeons in the scrubby trees along the riverside.

Another surprise was to find several Cabbage Palms. These Australian plants, liked by gardeners because they look exotic but are quite tough, bear fruit which is eaten by birds, which spread the seeds all around some of which germinate.

A Carrion Crow made itself as streamlined as possible to avoid being blown out of a tree.

Fallen trees blocked the path in several places. This one took some climbing over.

A fibreglass cow stood on a balcony.

At Battersea you can get down to the river at low tide, and the shore is much favoured by metal detectorists.

But before that, in 1857, a fine collection of ancient British artefacts was found on the Battersea shore when the foundations for the predecessor of today's Chelsea Bridge were being dug. Chief among these is the beautiful Battersea Shield, now in the British Museum.

The prettiest building along the route is St Mary's Church in Battersea. It has the look of a Wren church, though in fact it was designed by Joseph Dixon and completed in 1777. William Blake was married there.

On the shore there is a ramp for launching boats, and Greylag and Canada Geese come up this to crop the grass in the churchyard and around  a large block of flats, so there is never any need to mow it. Today there were no big geese here but there were a couple of Egyptians, of which I saw quite a few on the way along the river.

Finally, Battersea Bridge, where I left the river and walked home to South Kensington. The present bridge was designed by Sir Joseph Bazalgette, architect of the Embankment and London's sewerage system, and opened in 1885.

A Herring Gull floated over the bridge, lit by the setting sun.

Here is a sequence of little clips of what I saw, in chronological order. There is nothing spectacular in it, though it was good to find a Teal.  It was hard to stand at times in the 60 mph gusts, so I hope you'll forgive some shaky camera work.