First blossom!

Today I walked Xena at Oxshott Heath and I noticed the first blossoms, which are a welcome sign of spring. I always love the lead up to spring and summer, as we have the anticipation of the longer and warmer days to come - by the time we get to June and the summer solstice, the days already start shortening and we turn our thoughts to summer ending.

And now a little bit of local history. Oxshott station borders the heath, and when the railways opened in 1885, it gave Londoners a chance to escape the smoky air of the city for the fresh air of the countryside quite easily. In those days there was a tea hut on the heath, set up by a local businessman who owned a small grocery store on the edge of the heath. Over time this tea hut developed as Oxshott Heath became extremely popular with day visitors, by 1904 as many as 800-900 children a day were visiting it. During the war the tea hut served the Canadian soldiers, and it was a regular rendezvous for ornithologists, botanists, cyclists and walkers. Unfortunately the tea hut burned down in 1980 (suspected arson) and it was never rebuilt. However, at the station there is a kiosk that sells teas/coffees for commuters and in the past month they have expanded it and are serving all manner of coffees/cappuccinos, bacon rolls, pastries, snacks, overnight oats for breakfast etc and so after my walk today I went along to buy a cappucino as I feel I should support this enterprising young couple who run it. It was delicious coffee and while we don't have a tea room back this is good enough!

After lunch I had another sports massage. My neck and shoulders have been very painful and tight all week, they only improved marginally after the last massage but the masseur said it would take a few sessions as  my neck and shoulders are very tense and full of knots. After today's session I do feel much better but it will take another session or so. 

I started packing my camera bag as on Wednesday morning I go to Norfolk to do a two day workshop with Justin Minns. He is a well known landscape photographer in the Norfolk/Suffolk area and has also written the photography 'bible' on this area. Last week the forecast for the days of the workshop was for sleet and gale force winds, this has since changed but it looks like rain every day with no sunrises or sunsets :(