What a lovely day for a walk! After all that wintry weather we’d had in the previous week it was a joy to be out in the sunshine. All together we were 24 blind and sighted walkers and Paris, a black labrador.  Beforehand I was worried that the parks would be heaving with people but on the morning walk the parks, green spaces and woods as we wended our way along our route were not that busy apart from occasional tennis players, quite a few dogs and their owners and chatting pushchair couples. There may have been a mention in the walk description of the bronze statue of a naked woman that attracted the numbers today but, being unable to discern it from our side of the thoroughfare, I decided it wasn’t worth risking crossing the multiple lanes of  “the noisiest road in Britain” to try and find the statue! While we were talking about it, Stuart caught up with us, accompanied by a dripping wet Paris he had had to haul out of the Brent Stream because the sides were too steep for the dog to get out on its own! Luckily the stream wasn’t very deep! We took our lunch break at a kiosk in the park just after Cherry Tree Wood and then made our way up to Highgate Wood and Queens Wood, where we parted company. The blind ramblers with Stuart and Sandy made their way to Highgate tube and the rest of us carried on along the surprisingly green Parkland Way, through Finsbury Park, along the New River, past two reservoirs, Clissold Park to Abney Park Cemetery and so to Stoke Newington to try and find buses to get us home as the Overground was closed due to engineering works. Finsbury Park and Clissold Park were full of families and groups enjoying the belated (and possibly brief) warm weather in typical British style, exposing as much skin as they could to the sun’s rays, heedless of health warnings! Thank you to all the Polyramblers who turned out again to accompany the blind ramblers for a very enjoyable walk.

Pam