walking to work

one of my daily pleasures during the working week is walking to work-is that a tongue twister?
Today I walked for the first time since my back problem; it is an excellent start to the day, and quite blissful. I walk through a beautiful old part of Brentford that has barely changed in a couple of hundred years, and along Brentford High Sreet. This is the only low point of the whole route. It depresses me to see the still boarded up shops, the dirt and detritus; uncared for, neglected....
a few brighter shops have opened up; the vintage clothes shop and the bicycle shop, but generally it is a sad and tatty high street...never mind, along past poor disregarded St Lawrences church I go towards the bridge...some very old buildings have been demolished by the canalside, one had been a lovely waterside restaurant for some time, then somebody's flat; next to the pub, there was a Cafe, at one point called the Black and White cafe- some friends I knew from Chiswick Village, Fran and Lisa ran that for a few years- I wonder where they are now... Anyway those buildings are now demolished- and there is just the pub, nicely renovated. The land is interesting too, it is all bare now except for a set of three or four stairs which look like they lean from the ground up to the river's edge, just on their own- they look very strange. I think they are just going to build flats on the land. I pass Glad's newsagents and turn left into Syon Park; the walled pathway is a relief on a very hot morning, a haven of shade, and I am in the park- this is wonderful, as I walk through, there are only a few others, some parents taking their children to the nursery, some people going to the stream to fish, and others going in both directions, to and from Brentford to work.
As I wander through the park, I have a lot of time to daydream or sort through what might lie ahead of me at work; it is meditative, prayerful and prepares me well for my day...I love my walk so much, I even walked to work in the heavy snow in January, it was beautiful treading in the pristine crunchy fresh snow. Every month has new beauties. At the moment there are meadow flowers growing in the field, bordering on the road, a lush parade of colour. Sometimes there are cows in the fields, how many people can boast of seeing cows on their way to work? Wlking through the park, you can be lost in another world, as apartfrom office blocks and Gilette Corner off in the distance and sometimes a car or two, you could be back a few hundred years ago, which is fun to imagine. Soon I emerge from the park at the river in Old Isleworth near to the church- sometimes I walk on the river side, sometimes high up by the church, it is stunning to see all this as leave the park. One day I noticed the message on the church sundial- it says 'time passeth like a shadow' that gives rather a melancholy tone to the day as I am all too aware of how easily time slips by.
I then admire the grand houses opposite the river, one of them the vicarage, where my friend the Rev Anna Brooker and her family live; her husband comes from Castle Cary in Somerset, where Phil's father and grandfather lived...
I then walk through past some pretty houses on Church Street, through an elegant square and round the corner past the Swan pub, the dance shop and onto South Street- once or twice a week, I pop into the wonderful deli for a coffee, and then through more back streets with lots of history including a house where one of Shakespeare's friends lived and an old police station, now somebody's house until I arrive at work, ready to face the day. I really am so lucky to have such an inspiring and interesting walk to work.