Parks in Springtime

This week the weather has been too nice to stay inside. So I met up with some friends for a picnic lunch at St James's Park and a walk through Green Park. London is especially beautiful in the springtime when the trees begin to bloom.

Even though it is in the heart of the city, St James's Park is very peaceful. It is the oldest of the Royal Parks and is surrounded by three palaces: Westminster (now the Houses of Parliament), St James's Palace, and Buckingham Palace. 

St James's Park has been featured in several movies over the years including the live action 101 Dalmatians. The dog owners take their dalmatians for a walk through St James's Park and end up falling in love and into the park lake. 

So many Londoners and tourists were enjoying the park and the beautiful weather. We saw people feeding ducks, eating lunch, reading under the trees, and of course, photographing the beautiful flowers. 

Buckingham Palace is in between St James's Park and Green Park. Below is a photo of the palace gates with Green Park behind. 

Green Park is different from the other Royal Parks because it does not have any flowers or lakes. I heard a very interesting (but untrue) story explaining why. Charles II's wife found out that he went to visit his mistress and picked some flowers for her as he walked through Green Park. She demanded that all the flowers be removed at once and no beautiful thing ever be planted there again. 

In actuality, Green Park was used as a burial grounds of lepers from the nearby St James's Hospital and digging in the park is forbidden as to not disturb the many shallow graves. Plus, Charles II was upfront about the fact that there was nothing his wife, Catherine of Braganza, could do to prevent his affairs...so there's that.

Pamela told us a story she heard on her ghost tour about a tree in Green Park. The story was that many people have fallen asleep under a particular tree in Green Park (no one knows with certainty which tree it is) and died with no cause. To make it even spookier, no bird will sing whilst sitting in the branches of this terrible tree of death. 

Tree of death or not, walking through these parks was a great way to spend an afternoon. Even though the winter here was not nearly as bad as the ones in Nebraska, I am really looking forward to enjoying more of this beautiful spring weather.