The Valley Gardens 11 March 2017

Time for some exercise - enough of being cooped up indoors because of the weather. It's supposedly spring and Windsor Great Park have been trumpeting the fact that there are flowers. I thought I'd go and have a look for myself.

After doing some chores I headed over to the other side of Windsor. This map will give you an idea of how big the park is.

But first of all, breakfast. I parked at the Wick Road gate, first time I've entered the park from this angle, and what a good idea it was.

Bacon roll and tea at The Bailiwick. Perfect. And served with style. I would recommend this pub.

Then into the park. Grey and gloomy, as usual.

First up, the Totem Pole. A gift from the people of Canada in 1958. 100 feet tall and weighing 12 tonnes, it was carved from a single log cut from a 600 year old Western Red Cedar. Apparently, the carver - Chief Mungo Martin - placed a curse on the pole as he hadn't been invited to the presentation party. Fortunately this was lifted when a local (to Windsor) historian heard the story, raised funds and invited him across - crisis averted. It's pretty impressive, though quite a strange sight in the middle of the english countryside.

Heading into the Valley I came across a giant Sequoia - planted in 1860, it's 39.8 metres tall as of January this year. There really are some awesome trees here.

Bursts of colour started showing up in the gloom now.

This is an Acer Griseum, native to China - how beautiful is the bark?

It's Azalea and Rhododendron season .. the fragrance in this area was astonishing.

A memorial to the great storm of 1987. This must have been a period of natural disasters around the globe - my twins were born on the 20th of October that year in Pietermaritzburg, Kwazulu Natal and there were huge storms and floods the week beforehand, so much so that I was worried about getting across the Duzi river which was in flood. It subsided luckily, but there was great damage.