A Mostly Sunny Walk to Edgware

After spending all of Saturday in the house, I decided I needed some exercise and a change of scenery. So yesterday I grabbed the big camera and headed north along Edgware Road for a good, long photo walk.

I trekked through the neighborhoods of Kilburn, Cricklewood, Colindale, Burnt Oak, Edgware and Canons Park. I've been up that way before but it's been years. As you can see above, I was lucky enough to have sunshine for the first part of my walk, and although it was chilly out it felt good.

 I stopped at the Welsh Harp Reservoir, which has recently undergone a massive cleanup that involved draining the water, relocating fish and gathering tons of rubbish. I was glad to see it once again full of water and if the birds are any indication, it has been restocked with plenty more fish (as was the plan).

Here are a couple of other fun snapshots I grabbed along the way:

Free perfume/cologne, anyone? I don't wear any of that stuff so I left it behind. (I can't even tell if it's meant for a man or woman, or maybe there's a mix of both?)

A curious name for an apartment building. "Holocene" is the name of our current geological age, but it also stems from the Greek words for "all new," so maybe it's named that because it's a new building?

Mysterious graffiti in Colindale. There is no beach nearby, though I suppose if you head in any direction for long enough you'd eventually hit one.

In Edgware I stopped by St. Margaret's Church, which has an interesting graveyard that provides a green oasis in the middle of an otherwise quite developed area. There was a frog pond, wildflower plantings (mostly gone to seed now), an "insect hotel" and other ecological features, as well as historical gravestones, with the graves of former soldiers marked with red poppies.

Across the very busy road -- where it was impossible to take a picture without cars, though I did try -- is the historic but troubled Railway Hotel. It closed in 2006 and although plans for its renovation were announced more than five years ago it remains mostly shuttered.

From the Canons Park tube station, I caught the Jubilee Line straight back to West Hampstead. All told I walked about eight miles. (According to the health app on my phone, I took 2,153 steps on Saturday, and 20,972 yesterday!)