We Started Driving Early,

hoping to beat the crowds,

we were going to visit both Mayfield Lavender Farm and Battersea Park,

Diana has a long weekend as she has Friday, Saturday and Sunday off, now the bad news, we did not beat the crowds, there were cars parked around  both fields in many places cars were double parked, but never mind it was a glorious day,

as we walked into the field that was not in flower last week the change was amazing, one of the workers was harvesting todays crop,

cut, crop and tie, before going on to the next one,

we just had to have a selfie,

before Diana struck the pose,

naturally a close up,

or two,

or three!

in the distance,

the tractor train making the rounds,

Diana looking to the right,

and left,

as the train continued,

its journey around the two fields,

another pose for the album,

having said that,

do people still have photograph albums?

I continued snapping away,

as Diana posed,

then it was my turn,

just a few more,

as we continued our way to the top of the hill,

then time,

for the sunglasses,

a panorama at the top of the hill between both fields,

the heather looks so nice now, but only last week you would not have given it a second look,

time for a few selfies,

without sunglasses,

and with,

and without again,

the last pose of the lavender field,

one of the staff still cutting lavender,

the bunches soon for sale in the farm shop,

as we drove out of the farm Diana took a couple of photographs,

as we left, arriving home it was a change of clothes for Diana,

we made our way to the station,

and in no time at all we were at Battersea Park,

the park is a 200-acre green space at Battersea in the London Borough of Wandsworth in London,

it is situated on the south bank of the River Thames opposite Chelsea and was opened in 1858,

it was Diana's first visit here, for myself I visited once in an evening back in the 1980s for a car show, so I had no idea as to what was in the park,

we spied a boating pool through the vegetation,

and made our way to the café,

and bar,

well it was so hot!

'Cheers!',

we started our walk,

towards the lake where you could hire a boat,

looking back to where we had just been sitting,

across the lake,

the boat hire jetty,

we started our walk through the park, in the distance we could hear a 'click' every so often,

and these were the guys making the click, a student and his master,

practising Kendo, take that!

we soon found ourselves by the bandstand that has been featured in so many films and TV shows in and around London,

one we immediately remembered was an episode of New Tricks,

it was so pleasant walking in the dappled shade,

I had to have a pose,

as we walked we came across a large number of these plants,

on both sides of the pathway,

I do not have a clue as to what they are called,

but they certainly looked spectacular,

on our right we heard the sound of water, so we went to have a look,

and found a water garden,

with all manner of water fountains,

and jets of water, 

if only we had brought our swimming costumes!

the park is huge, we had just looked at a small part of it, there were not one but two cricket matches going on,

we left the park at the gatehouse entrance/exit,

opposite the Prince Albert pub,

and that is where we were going,

the Albert Bridge,

we wanted to cross to the north side of the river,

and walk along the embankment, we had never walked there before,

in the far distance the Chelsea Yacht and Boat Co Ltd yard we were heading for,

we made our way across the bridge,

nearing the centre,

and here is the centre of the bridge looking upriver towards the Chelsea Harbour development,

looking down from the bridge some of the many house boats moored in the area,

we both liked these benches,

we had seen similar ones near Cleopatra's Needle, 

a quick pose,

and a view of the bridge,

above one of the Egyptian styled benches a sign I had not seen before,

and here is the drinking fountain, next to a statue of,

Sir Thomas More,

one of the many things I like about London, is the fact that a standard lamp post could have been placed here, but someone many years ago decided to make a utilitarian lamp post into a piece of fine art, I just love things like this,

I have no idea what this building is,

or its purpose, but it just looks so neat,

we arrived at the boat yard,

where houseboats are moored,

I guess they look much better at high water,

the entrance to these three looked nice,

the owners making a flowery display by the front door,

this one on the jetty as well,

if you fancy living on a boat have a look here for some prices,

we then walked to Chelsea Harbour,

which is a design centre, but you can live here,

there are a number of apartments for sale in the area, 

we passed the creek,

to the Imperial Wharfe overground station,

we took the train to Clapham Junction then to Victoria and arrived home,

where it was feet up for a read and a sherry, 'Cheers!',

for tonight a couple of hot dogs for Diana,

 burgers for myself, with some triple fried chips, all of which was so delicious,

all followed by strawberries and cream, after our meal we watched a Midsomer Murder,

and rounded off the evening with Catch 22, we had watched the film before, this is what I wrote then 'a difficult but rewarding film to watch was next, Catch-22, you will either love it or hate it, having read the book more than a few times I loved it, Catch-22 is a parody of a "military mentality" and of a bureaucratic society in general, with a little shock and humour thrown in', with the end of that we were off to bed.