Taking a walk round Forest Hill today I was overwhelmed by a sense of optimism that I haven't felt since the Overground arrived in May 2010.

I started by taking my daughter to the new swings in Horniman Triangle (which fit in really well), where I saw volunteers planting new hedges round the edges and building a stag beetle loggery.

I crossed over the road to find more of Horniman Gardens open than has been the case in the last year, with the bandstand looking great, the animal enclosure looking interesting (no animals yet), and the new education centre looking pretty impressive. I was particularly pleased to see a well designed wiggly path going down from the education centre to the large field, as this was one area of the plans I was not convinced about.

We popped into the Horniman Museum which was heaving with children, buggies parked everywhere, but still plenty of room to move about - except in the cafe. So wanting somewhere else to go for lunch, we wandered down to have a quick look round the new cafe, which looks great, and then had lunch at one of the other excellent cafes around the town centre.

This afternoon I went to hear about some of the future plans for Albion Millennium Green, which has great potential as a small community space and performance venue. The journey down there took me past the post office, where work is going on to give us another excellent cafe/restaurant/pub, and past the impressive structure that will be our new swimming pool in a few months.

What a great year 2012 looks like being for Forest Hill!

I agree, the spot light really is on Forest Hill and HOP at the moment, we are moving there next week but we've met so many young couples and friends recently who want to move to HOP/FH area and are looking, it ha a fab reputation!