Adventures in Dog Walking: Bruno vs The Pigeons of Harrow Lodge
🏡🐶There are some parks you accidentally forget about. Not because they’re bad, but because life happens, routines settle in, and before you know it you’ve walked the same three streets so many times even the local cats recognise you. Harrow Lodge Park is one of those places for me. Every time I go there I leave wondering why we don’t visit more often.
This weekend's expedition featured Bruno, our permanently hungry Pomeranian, and his ongoing war against pigeons.
The moment we arrived, he spotted one. Tiny fluffy body. Immediate fury. It’s genuinely impressive how much emotional energy a creature weighing less than a shopping bag can dedicate to disliking pigeons. The pigeon, naturally, could not have cared less. It waddled away with the confidence of someone who’s won this argument many times before.
Harrow Lodge really is one of those proper community parks. Big open green spaces where kids can have a kick-about, people wandering about with coffees, couples feeding ducks, runners pretending they enjoy cardio. Bruno has absolutely no interest in football, mainly because he’d rather eat the ball than chase it, so we skipped the sporting activities and took a slow walk around the lake instead.
The lake itself was lovely on Sunday. Peaceful, reflective, full of little baby geese drifting around like fuzzy bath toys. Unfortunately, the mother goose had the energy of an overworked nightclub bouncer and made it very clear that nobody, especially Bruno, was to come anywhere near her children. Fair enough really. Bruno looked mildly offended despite clearly having no parental responsibilities whatsoever.
We stopped off at the café for a classic British park luxury: a 99 with a Flake. Although at £3.50, calling it a “99” now feels like historical fiction. Inflation has turned the humble ice cream into a premium dessert experience. Still tasted brilliant though, especially sitting in the sunshine watching the world drift by.
One of the nicest things about Harrow Lodge is the little woody areas tucked away around the edges. You can wander into them for five minutes and suddenly Havering disappears. The traffic noise fades, the trees close in a bit, and for a moment you feel like you’re on some countryside ramble instead of being fifteen minutes away from a Tesco Extra.
It’s just a joyous little park. Nothing flashy, nothing trying too hard. Just open space, fresh air, geese with attitude, and enough scenery to make Bruno feel like he’s gone on holiday.
Even if the pigeons still refuse to surrender.
