I'm just a cock-eyed pessimist

It's really nice out today and we're bound and determined to go for a walk today. There's a nice path that goes through Putney Heath we're going to follow. Normally I am discouraged from doing this walk by how long it is (eight miles?), but if I hit it before noon I think we'll be alright. Plus there's a pub at the end of the walk and we can have Sunday roast there if we're quick.

Had a bit to drink at a party last night - shadowdaddy says champagne is sneaky that way - but don't seem to be suffering any ill effects today. On the other hand, he appears to have lost five pounds this week and thinks he may have been suffering from a cold.

Am a bit torn between cleaning the house and going to play mahjong this afternoon, but have decided the walk is most important, and the party can happen if I get the clothes in the bedroom put away. We'll see how it all comes together.

The weather just seemed too promising for me to stay indoors today, and with my surprisingly early night last night (in bed around midnight), I was up quite early. I resolved to at last try the "Beverly Brook Walk," billed as a 6 1/2 mile walk along a brook from the Thames up to, I don't know, Malden something or another, but through Richmond Park.

It was, indeed, a lovely walk, except for the crappy bit on Upper Richmond Road. We saw lots of fallen leaves and blackberries clearly past their prime, little rats scampering in the undergrowth (they were cute), guys playing cricket, the rad overgrown cemetery near Putney Heath, big old fungus growing out of the side of trees, the adorable pond at the center of Barnes Common, deer kind of playing with each others antlers (not too serious yet), adorable little girls on shetland ponies, and all of the split buckeyes you could want. shadowdaddy was sad because there weren't any salmon in the stream, but, well, so it goes.

We didn't make it all the way to the end of the trail because we got a text from our friend Elliot, who had a car for the day and wanted to do something fun. So we met him at Richmond Park's Robin Hood Gate (meaning we walked 5 1/4 miles, not too shabby!) and headed off with no real goal, but wound up at Hampton Court Palace. We decided to just walk around, but through good fortune the formal gardens weren't bothering with ticket collection, so in addition to the lovely roses on the back end of the palace, we got to stroll through the gorgeous misty lawns (with the crazily shaped trees) surrounding the giant fountain with the river way extended to the gates, and then the wacky curlique ultra formal garden with lollipop trees, inverted cone bushes, filigreed lawn, and general craziness. It was very OTT and "it's good to be king."

And it was lovely and it was a nice day and everything was quite good except for my knee. We came home and met wechsler, who'd kindly bought the ingredients for Swimming Rama. shadowdaddy cooked while I folded clothes, and afterwards we played a game of Alhambra, which I rather surprisingly won. All in all, it was a very nice day. I am enjoying fall.