A lunchtime walk

The weather was lovely today - far too good to stay inside at lunchtime, or just wander round the shops. I decided to take a walk down to the Hospital of St Cross again, although not as long a route as I have taken in the past. I didn't have my camera with me, so all these photos were taken with my trusty old Sony Ericcson K800i. Seven years old, bought especially for taking photos around the Cathedral and still going strong.

This was the river Itchen as it flows through the park, taken last week -this was the part of the walk I had to skip today but it looked quite something with all the weed forming channels with the current flowing through it.  There were lots of spring shrubs and blooms in many of the gardens I passed by. I don't know what this climber was growing up this house. A few more days of warmth and it will be in full bloom - not the best time of day to take a photo of it though. It looks far better taken straight on but the sun was towards me... (Update - having seen Gardeners World Friday night, I think this is a type of viburnum, similar in style to a lace-cap hydrangea.)

Did I mention the house nestled at the foot of St Catherine's Hill that has a large garden turned over to a huge veg patch? Well, I managed to get a reasonable picture of it today. For the second one I stood in the shade of a tree, looking into the sun. Look at all those bean poles!! That's a LOT of runner beans!

As before, there was almost no-one else around, just peace and quiet in the middle of a busy day.

On the way back to the office, I stopped to look at this house in Kingsgate Street with its beautiful climbing rose. There were several houses in the street with well established climbing roses. The ones with low enough blooms to sniff smelt amazing - a real old fashioned rose fragrance. They put me in mind of the roses that grow in the garden of the office building we used to be in.

Oh what a glorious garden that was. Lunch breaks were like a little trip to paradise and back!
I would often nip round the garden before work (in my wellies!), cutting a rose here, a fox glove there, a bit of foliage etc and would have a vase on my desk throughout the summer months. I would often come in the next morning to find there was also a cobweb from the flowers to the desk, or the screen!
Friday was a good day to fill a vase as I would obviously then have to take my bouquet home for the weekend!
I commissioned my friends daughter Laura Haines, the artist, to paint me a picture of the building as viewed from the garden, with the summer flowers and the table and chairs I found cheap in Tesco. My desk - luckily facing away from the window! - is at the far right as you look at the picture, on the first floor. Such happy times...
If I start showing you photos from those days in the garden, we could be here all day!! So I'll leave you with a shot of Laura's lovely watercolour. A bit out of her comfort zone as she prefers to work in acrylics and oils normally. But I think she did it rather well, don't you?...