The banks of the Thames between Richmond and Twickenham are one of London's more bucolic locales. I walked along the north bank from Richmond Bridge to the riverfront at Twickenham. On the way I stopped for a pint at the White Swan which overlooks the river. 

 I went as far as the footbridge that leads onto Eel Pie Island then doubled back past the Swan to the foot ferry that crosses the river between Marble House and Ham House. Several generations of several families have operated a ferry here since 1908.  The crossing costs a pound- good value in this day and age!

 Disembarking on the south bank I cut through Petersham and across the meadows back to Richmond.

 

 The Thames from Richmond Hill was a recurring theme in the paintings of Turner. This stretch of the river still evokes an older England but some of the flora less so; perhaps that is appropriate since it was the Thames that connected London to the world. 

  I saw lots of Himalayan Balsam sprouting on the banks and the marshy thickets were carpeted with Three Cornered Leek. These Giant Echiums from the Canary Isles stood tall among a mass of Green Alkanet.

 I have noted before that the blue flowered Echium pininana is naturalising rapidly in London. The red flowered E. wildprettii is rarely seen but intriguingly seems to have hybridised here with pininana to produce a group of intermediate forms in hues of blue tinged with pink and pink tinged with blue...