River

I had a really good day today, taking the boat up the Thames from Westminster to Hampton Court. Our planned sailing, at 11 o'clock, had been revised and only went as far as Kew, where we got off, had a coffee and got on the later service to complete the journey. Without the break it would have taken three and a half hours; with the break it took four and a half. So it isn't the form of transport for the (wo)man in a hurry. But when the journey is pretty much the point of the day, when you are sitting and talking and having a leisurely picnic, it is just about perfect. Enough to see to keep conversation flowing but not so much as to excite and distract. All the expected sights at the beginning - the Houses of Parliament, the Tate - but as we went on, from about Hammersmith, the banks getting greener and an increasing sense of seeing London from a different angle entirely; after Teddington, no sense of city at all, just lush banks, big quiet houses with gardens down to the bank, willows, herons, and the wide smooth river.

And yes, the sun shone and yes, my nose has caught it.