The Park

Kensington Gardens in the snow – George Frederic Watts's Physical Energy ('that restless physical impulse to seek the still unachieved in the domain of material things'). The Round Pond, the Bandstand of summer Sunday afternoons, St Mary Abbot's spire. Childhood in the late 1940s, the park where we played and romanced in the 50s, and saw the great burning of the trees planted histories ago by Queen Caroline. In the harsher winters of those days the Pond froze over thick enough for people to skate. But then in spring and summer, in the more biting winds of autumn, we'd sail our model boats while old men would fly their kites before the Palace, testing their strength against Nature. 

3 March 2018