A field of buttercups in the deep depth of the countryside? A bucolic scene where black & white cattle graze the long grass and rub their rumps on wild plum and ancient hawthorn? Petersham Meadows, actually, and the cattle are the Belted Galloways that are taking their summer holidays from the main herd at Box Hill in Surrey.
Richmond is a short walk along the Thames towpath for any amount of retail therapy and traffic fumes – and the hurly-burly of central London-life just a few hops along on the tube. But stop awhile and take a breath. One of my favourite poems comes to mind – a life-lesson really….
W. H. Davies
Leisure
WHAT is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare?—
No time to stand beneath the boughs,
And stare as long as sheep and cows:
No time to see, when woods we pass,
Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass:
No time to see, in broad daylight,
Streams full of stars, like skies at night:
No time to turn at Beauty’s glance,
And watch her feet, how they can dance:
No time to wait till her mouth can
Enrich that smile her eyes began?
A poor life this if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.
The Teddington Gardener 
I think this is an excellent life lesson. It was Mother’s Day here in Canada yesterday. We went with my parents to the Royal Botanical Gardens Arboretum to smell the lilacs and marvel at the magnolias. Everyone is always so busy, I like to slow down and enjoy what there is around me.