Tuesday,

Diana's day off for this week,

we decided on a walk through a part of the park where we live,

this part of the road is unmade up,

and occasionally needs to be resurfaced,

I am not sure who pays for this as I believe the road is 'unadopted' by the council,

meaning that the residents on this part of it have to pay themselves,

and there is a lot of it,

in both directions,

time for a pose,

or two, Diana wearing the top we bought when we went to Oxford back in May 2016, and a nice trip it was too,

at the other entrance to the park, the road turns right, a few pennies need to be spent on this part of the road!

we had the early part of our walk to ourselves,

except for a couple of crows,

I am glad we brought a few peanuts with us,

so a few for them and we were on our way,

we will go 'that way!',

so we did,

on of the legends placed around the park,

Beckenham Place Park used to be the most used public golf course in the UK, but lack of reinvestment meant that it went downhill and closed, it was a 9 hole course so players would go around twice to make the usual 18 holes, at the end of this path looking towards the mansion courtyard was one of the tees,

and this was another place that players would tee off,

this tree looking that it will soon be felled, many of the trees are of an age,

this one stood out,

so a few photographs,

it was covered,

in so many berries,

time to wonder if my grandmother will be correct, lots of berries, a hard winter,

I am not sure what this tree was, but what it lost in size it made up for in colour,

the open air swimming park closed,

due to the current lockdown,

when it first opened it was packed,

but due to now two lockdowns,

and the Beckenham Place Park itch that swimmers catch here, and looking at the infection here cercarial dermatitis, I am not so sure I would even paddle in it never mind swim! so even when it reopens I am not sure many people will want to expose themselves or their children to the parasitic infection, better off making it a fishing park!

we made our way towards the mansion courtyard,

that was still open,

we went through the courtyard gardens,

not much in flower now of course, but this bush was,

I am not sure what it is called, but the bright yellow flower spikes stood out,

looking across to one of the flower beds,

the bar now open for business,

as is the café in the courtyard,

a steady stream of customers queueing to pick up their orders,

which you place here for food,

if it was a drinking day I would have stuck to the bar,

normally there are bench table and chairs here, it all seems so weird, you can queue and order food, but you can not sit down and eat it,

on our way to the mansion,

we stopped to take a photograph,

and a panorama of the open space at the rear of it,

we walked past the side of it,

and made our way to the pond,

the covering of Azolla, (Azolla filiculoides), being pushed to one end of the pool by the wind, 

there is a nice decking area,

by the side of the pond,

where a couple of crows eat a few of the peanuts we had brought with us, one with two damaged claws,

we left the pond, such a shame that nothing can be done about the azolla, which is in fact a fern, when it covers a pond it blocks out sunlight, meaning there is no aquatic plant growth, which results in virtually a dead pool, as without light nothing apart form the azolla survives,

looking back to the pool,

when the wind drops the azolla will once again cover the surface,

we made our way downhill, yes it is strange, the natural pool is at the highest part of the park,

the tree line leading down,

to where last year on the right hand side a school project planted lots of young trees,

on our way home,

the weather had been quite nice to us,

arriving home our Christmas mat already in place, 

and feet up for a Christmas treat, tea and some all butter mince pies,

then  time for Diana to make a start on decorating the Christmas tree,

we know it is early,

but with all of the doom and gloom,

it is a great way to have some fun,

naturally I directed operations,

as if!

that is enough for today,

time for our evening meal,

bar-b-q ribs for Diana, a Indian for myself,

after our meal just a few more things for the tree, our little illuminated village,

around the base,

and the little angel on the top,

'Ta-Dah!',

Diana put together this speeded up video, where I occasionally get in the way! then a Midsomer Murder followed by our film for the evening, 

Jojo Rabbit, funny, terrifying, slapstick, sinister all in one film! we really both enjoyed the film, a young lad in Germany wants to join the Hitler youth movement, and has as his imaginary friend, Adolf himself, fiercely patriotic, it is a disturbing realisation when he finds his mother is hiding the girl in the wall, a Jewess, so funny, so tragic, a really great and unexpected joy of a film, we rounded the evening off with a New Tricks, I am only making one post to day as this one took a long time, and with that we were off to bed.