St James Park

I had some plans fall through which meant I had a morning in central London to myself. The sun was blazing so I thought this was the perfect opportunity to head to my second favourite park in London; St. James Park. 

St. James Park started as a location for a women's lepers hospital but around 1530 Henry VIII brought the land so he could go hunting in London. Although the landscape has change dramatically since then I like to think of him dashing through the fields at the height of his power and health (you know before he went a bit too far and killed two wives). Today St. James Park is a stunning green space with beautiful flowerbeds and an interesting selection of water foul on the lake. It's on the door step of Buckingham Palace so does get extremely busy with tourists, but it never feels too congested.

I was glad I had brought my camera and decided to take the time to mess around with my macro lens.

Just I was getting carried away my camera stopped working; I'd made a rookie mistake and not checked my battery pack before I left and was now out of juice. First thing I'm going to do when I get paid this month is buy a spare battery pack! This unfortunately means the photos in the rest of this post were taken with my ipod. My morning of finally trying to learn how to use my macro lens had to be postponed. 

With no real camera to play with I decided to a cafe for nice cup of  tea and a muffin and watch the world go by. It was a little weird, although I've had lunch on my own tons of time on workdays I normally have a book to distract me. This time I had no book and I felt a little strange sat on my own, but they do say you should eat alone at least once (I don't know who 'they' are but I'm pretty sure I read it in a magazine somewhere). Within half an hour my view started to get a little busy, and I still felt a bit awkward on my own so I drained my cup and went to wander around a little more.

It was a lovely stroll and I soon found myself outside Horse Guards parade.

As I arrived the mounted troupers of the household cavalry were getting ready to move off to Hyde Park. I managed to push through to get some photos of horses bums (it was the only area where there was space - strangely tourists don't choose to stand behind horses!).

It was a fun morning, being a tourist in my own city, but next time I'll remember to charge my camera battery!