Pronounced Stret-Um

I'm so behind with these posts. As I might have mentioned in earlier blatherings, each day is an opportunity to marvel at this place that is strangely familiar yet light years away from what we're used to at home. I try, in vain I might add, to show you a little of what we are experiencing, but it's impossible. London is inexhaustible. You could live several lifetimes here and barely scratch its surface. And don't bother with those guidebooks. Unless you want to check a few monuments off your "bucket list".

Here, for example, is a walk we took just across the street, in Streatham Common. What looked like a soccer field run amok turned out to be part of the Capitol Ring, a series of walks linking parks and other public spaces in Southeast London. We stumbled on the rookery and the rest of it completely serendipitously because I said, there must be more to this park than the field. Let's see what's over that hill:

Just outside was the "white garden", a tiny strip of a thing dotted with what else, all white blooms, including white lavender.

Here's a map of the common:

I'm still trying to figure out how the whole puzzle works with the Capitol Ring and the Green Chain and the commons and parks. Stay tuned.