Wondering Wimbledon Common

We went a wondering on the common of Wimbledon all the way to Wimbledon town where we had a late lunch/early dinner at the Dog and Fox pub.  We also had an ice cream as, it was very warm (26C - the hottest day we've had), we made our way to the train station.

Walking through the common we found a long abandoned obelisk with a brick shaft, stone top and stone pedestal, the latter bearing inscriptions on all four faces. The inscription is barely readable but says ‘Commemorates the experimental ‘fire-proof house’ erected here in 1776 by David Hartley, which had iron and copper plates between the doors’.
     
       

From this marker we wondered deeper into the common grounds.  Being used to the Australian bush we unconsciously stomped  through the long grass (to scare the snakes which might be sun baking in the long grass) and avoided walking under hanging branches (to avoid getting entangled in spider webs).

   
Despite this we encounted several unexpected hazards.  The first was zooming cyclists as this is a place where people are allowed to cycle; though on specified tracks only (this is not what actually happens).  There are also horse riding tracks as there is a stable in Wimbledon (just behind the Dog and Fox pub).

The other was caterpillars.  Yep - those tiny 1/2 cm to 2 cm creatures were hanging at shoulder level by a very tiny thread attached several meters up to a large tree.  The minimal breeze meant that these creatures swung back and forth make it easy for us to accidently walk into them yet extremely difficult to get a photo of.

At first we thought we'd walked into spider webs and were concerned about having un invited spiders crawling on us.  We were relieved to note this was not the case and these were just cateperllars.  Thank goodness they weren't spitfire cateperllars or our relief would've been very short lived.

The other landmark which we saw was the windmill.  I originally thought that these were only used in Holland however; I was wrong.  English farmers also used them and this one has now been converted into a museum.

Throughout our wondering I kept my eyes open in the hope I'd see a Womble.  This was not the case and I was a bit disappointed.

The Wombles are fictional pointy-nosed, furry creatures that live in burrows, where they help the environment by collecting and recycling rubbish in useful and ingenious ways. Wombles were created by author Elisabeth Beresford, originally appearing in a series of children's novels from 1968. Their motto is "Make Good Use of Bad Rubbish."