Wandering across London from the RHS Halls back towards Leicester Sq and Covent Garden I happened to pass through st James’s Park. It was an overcast afternoon, dull grey skies and the theat of rain.

I spent a few minutes watching the tourists watching the wildlife (there’s a fairly large variety of water fowl on the lake – moorhens, coots, Canada geese, and number of different kinds of ducks, swans and more). There are also large numbers of sleek and satisfied looking grey squirrels, they’ve figured out that it’s worth the risk of approaching the large bipedals and staying still long enough for a photo as they get rewarded with peanuts and nice food.

The thing that caught my eye however was the glorious and brilliant municipal bedding past Duck Pod Cottage and opposite Horse Guards Parade

These two shots, the one above and below, were taken standing at the corner of the bed.  The first is looking down a bed to the left, the second to the right.

And here’s a few close up shots, polyanthus and tulips seem popular with the ground staff! All these photos were shot without a flash and haven’t been photoshopped. The colours were just this vibrant.

Alas I was a week or so too late to catch this section at it’s best. The hyacinths had gone over but you can imagine how wonderful it would have been.

Municpal bedding tends to be frowned on so much but this was really quite lovely.  I must remember to pop back later in spring/summer and see what they’ve replaced it all with.