The first task we set ourselves was to go to Boots to buy an anti-fog cloth for our spectacles. If you wear specs, you will certainly have discovered that in cold weather, when you wear a mask, the lenses fog up making it difficult to see.

The various “remedies” suggested in the media are of limited effectiveness (a polite way saying that they are useless and a waste of everybody’s time) and the only sure way to beat the problem is to buy an anti-fog cloth. Above is the one we bought. Preliminary results are promising.

The High Street

Here we are on our way, amid busy traffic, along the High Street, en route for Boots.

Redemption Coffee

Our next decision was to buy our coffee straightaway, sit somewhere pleasant to drink it and go for our walk afterwards. For the coffee, we went to the local branch of Redemption Coffee.

We took our coffee to Duncan Terrace Gardens where we easily found a vacant bench. So far, the sky was overcast but, just for a moment, the sun came out so I took photos from our bench…

…first, this way and then…

…the other way. The narrow shape of these gardens, as you no doubt remember, is owing to the fact that they cover this section of the New River. Notwithstanding the odd shape, the gardens provide a pleasant environment in which to stroll or sit (providing the weather cooperates…).

Duncan Terrace and the Church of St John the Evangelist

The Gardens are in two parts, separated by a side street (Duncan Street). As we made our way from one to the other, I photographed the above of part of Duncan Terrace and the Grade II listed Church of St John the evangelist.

The second part of the gardens is even narrower than the first and is characterised by the presence of (artificial) rocks.

This section of the gardens has a different atmosphere from the first part, more that of a woodland with rocky glades. Both are enjoyable in their own way.

Looking back at a “glade”, currently beautified by the trees being covered in blossom.

Separated from the road

We then walked along this part of Duncan Terrace in which the houses are pleasantly separated from the road by… well, can you guess?

This is also the New River

Between these houses and the road runs an even narrower strip of garden but this too is part of the New River.

The river is still there, of course, but here it is confined to an underground culvert. Further on, it breaks the surface again and recovers its nature as a “proper” river though only for a while…

Doorway with face and lantern

I photographed this doorway because it has not only a sculpted face above the door but also a lantern over the entrance. All of the houses in this row had the face and the metal support for a lantern but this house was one of only two that still had a lantern in place. The other one had a modern replacement while this one has kept more or less the original form.

Flowering shrub

This beauty was one among the several trees and shrubs in flower over the course of the river.

Devonia Road

We went for a walk along Devonia Road, which runs parallel to the gardens. Curiously, this street was renamed in 1938 from Devonshire Street. It is unusual, not only in being a “road” rather than a “street”, but also in containing not one, but two churches, though, admittedly, one has been decommissioned and is now residential. The other (visible in the photo) is the Polish Church of Our Lady of Czestochowa & St Casimir.

Old pub?

It’s not only churches that can be decommissioned and assigned to other duties, of course. On the corner of Devonia Road stands this substantial residential block that, to my eyes, looks very much like a converted pub though I have not so far been able to find confirmation of that or what its name could have been.

The Regent’s Canal

Finally, we took a quick peep at the Regent’s Canal between the trees in the garden over the entrance to the Islington Tunnel, before turning for home.

On the way, we met one of the owners of Jusaka. It turns out that the “reliable” information we had received to the effect that Jusaka was closing down was incorrect – or has perhaps been superseded – and that they in fact hope to reopen at some future date though not straightaway. We look forward to seeing them back in action!