First Thing I Was Out,

before Diana,

Diana is working a very late shift today,

I made my way through the park it was a bit of a grey day,

but it did not put the cherry trees,

off of putting on a good show,

in the garden of Foxgrove Lodge the bluebells starting to make an appearance,

just up The Avenue,

this cherry tree in full bloom,

into the station to Bromley South,

the next train to Sevenoaks,

after arriving I made my way past the bee garden,

I mentioned it on my last visit to see Duncan,

all of the flowers here,

have been selected,

as favorites of honey bees,

the local council planting this small and otherwise unused plot of land to give the local bees a help,

and it gives the walk to and from the station a little bit of colour that will change from week to week,

it is nice to see that Sevenoaks and in fact Lewisham councils encourage the growth of flowers, unlike the St Blaise Town Council, which covers the town of St Blazey, near St Austell, in Cornwall who have banned daffodils on Heath & Safety grounds,

it does not look it,

but it is a really steep hill,

leading to the nursing  home Duncan is in, I was quite puffed out when I reached the top, but then I did walk fast up it, as I thought a bit of  exercise would do me good! we chatted away for a couple of hours, Diana had bought a Easter egg to give to Duncan, he likes chocolate!

time for my walk back to the station,

a fire engine,

negotiating the difficult almost hairpin bend at the bottom of the hill,

into the station,

in Beckenham I was meet by Bob, who we have not seen in more years than I can remember, due to us living in Thailand and then the covid lockdown

we had a drink in the pub at Hayes where we were joined by Debbie,

we all called back to our place for a beer and a chat, what fun times we all reminisced about, after they left I watched a 4K film Prometheus, we had watched it before on television in Blu ray, but it is so much better in 4K, here is what we wrote the first time we watched it, 'a team of scientists travels through the universe on the spaceship "Prometheus" on a voyage to investigate Alien life forms, I can best describe it as another Aliens movie, but with a much more complicated plot and special effects, scary in a number of places, also lots of slime and goo, arrange to eat after rather than before watching would be my advice', 

I followed that with a classic, The Charge of the Light Brigade, we had watched it some time before, watching the ineptitude of our leaders in this film it is a surprise we won anything! there is of course the poem, The Charge of the Light Brigade by Alfred, Lord Tennyson,

Half a league, half a league, Half a league onward, All in the valley of Death Rode the six hundred. 'Forward the Light Brigade! Charge for the guns!' he said: Into the valley of Death Rode the six hundred. 'Forward, the Light Brigade!' Was there a man dismayed? Not though the soldier knew Some one had blundered: Theirs not to make reply, Theirs not to reason why, Theirs but to do and die: Into the valley of Death Rode the six hundred. Cannon to right of them, Cannon to left of them Cannon in front of them Volleyed and thundered; Stormed at with shot and shell, Boldly they rode and well, Into the jaws of Death, Into the mouth of Hell Rode the six hundred. Flashed all their sabres bare, Flashed as they turned in air Sabring the gunners there, Charging an army, while All the world wondered: Plunged in the battery-smoke Right through the line they broke; Cossack and Russian Reeled from the sabre-stroke Shattered and sundered. Then they rode back, but not Not the six hundred. Cannon to right of them, Cannon to left of them, Cannon behind them Volleyed and thundered; Stormed at with shot and shell, While horse and hero fell, They that had fought so well Came through the jaws of Death, Back from the mouth of Hell, All that was left of them, Left of six hundred. When can their glory fade? O the wild charge they made! All the world wondered. Honour the charge they made! Honour the Light Brigade, Noble six hundred! with the famous line, Theirs not to reason why, Theirs but to do and die,

 a favourite film of mine, Sir Henry at Rawlinson End, there are some films that I like so much I just have to watch them over and over again, Sir Henry at Rawlinson End is one of them, this is what I wrote about it when we watched it before, 

'what can one say about Sir Henry at Rawlinson End, not so much a black and white movie, more sepia toned, so many wonderful lines', 

'If I had all the money I'd spent on drink, I'd spend it on drink,' sounds like me! 

the one great thing about Sir Henry is that he combines his interests with a passion, take the still above from the movie, he takes three of his favourite vices, boats, a Purdey shotgun and his couple of drink optics placed on the side of the boat, what could possibly go wrong?

the film is totally mad, and of course in these PC times it could never be made, the uproar over a white man playing an black man would echo for years in todays culture, I mean could you ever think of a black actress playing someone one as white as say Ann Boleyn? back to the film, Vivian Stanshall narrated and starred in the movie, as it happens I saw him live in The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, when they performed at the Goldsmiths Collage in New Cross, and here is a piece of trivia, the real Sir Henry Rawlinson, of whom Viv was unaware, died exactly 100 years to the day before Viv, the film you will love or hate, I loved it,

you can watch it above or go to the Youtube link here, 

just after 02.00AM Diana arrived home, with a bottle of bubbly and a birthday cake, today the 14th. I am 72 years old!

eyes down and tuck in, we will make a start on the bubbly later today and with that we were off to bed.