As I Posted The Blog,

I noticed the crow family,

in the back garden,

the parents with this years youngster, begging to be feed,

it was a glorious day,

and hot,

as I made my way past Foxgrove Lodge,

into the station for my ticket, I had paid £30 for a senor discount rail card, but none of the machines at any of the stations will accept the card, you have to buy your tickets from the ticket office to obtain the discounted fares, and so far every time I have been to the Blackheath station the office has always been closed, so Beckenham Junction it was then, one piece of good news the chap in the office said to try changing trains at Lewisham instead of Blackheath, so today I will give that a try,

 

past the green,

to the number 54 bus stop,

and I was soon on my way past Peter Pan's Pool,

the traffic was a bit slow, the bus stopped opposite Catford street market,

and the Catford cat,

I got off at Lewisham, and made my way past the market,

I had not seen these since we left Thailand,

jackfruits, at £5.00 each, which considering their weight I thought quite reasonable,

the station was at the far end of the market,

unlike Blackheath where the bus stop is almost on top of the station,

I had a quick look at the fishmongers,

what a nice display,

Lewisham was certainly going up, new buildings everywhere,

past the Docklands Light Railway, and up the hill, 

to the main line station, next down the steps under the tracks and up again, and guess what?

it was exactly the same train I would have caught if I had stayed on the bus to Blackheath! so here I was at Dartford,

looking at the fountain,

as usual a short wait at Dartford,

arriving in Gravesend a short walk past the Railway Bell,

to the Somerset Arms opposite the bus stands,

I walked to the nursing home after the bus ride, Duncan was in fine sprits, but there was a bit of a problem, it was so hot the chocolates had melted, and there was not a refrigerator in the room to cool them down, luckily a nurse brought along a spoon to scoop them out of their individual places in the tray, on the good news front Duncan now has a smart television, so he can now watch programs on the Internet like Netflix and others, we chatted away until just after 1.00 when his lunch arrived,

I made a move to the bus stop, on the way I could not help but notice how strong the aroma of the roses in the flower beds was,

I am guessing the heat of the past few days had helped,

waiting for the bus,

I had not seen a road going horse and cart since being back in the UK

arriving at Blackheath,

I made my way past the florists to the bus stop opposite, I had already decided to go back to plan 'A' next week, stay on the bus and avoid the walk through Lewisham,

past the still unoccupied building,

it still needs a bit of work,

over 50 years since I first passed it and in all of that time it was in use for just a few years each in the 1970s as a dance hall and a bingo hall, after that many years ago its refurbishment started and stopped repeatedly, and is still not finished!

I did not stop at the park entrance, but stayed on the bus into town,

I had to call into Boots the chemist to pick up the one item that was not in stock last week for my prescription,

walking back and looking up, not a cloud in the sky,

the same as I entered the park,

I watched a couple of quiz shows before my evening meal, as it happens when I stopped off in town I bought some cheeses and biscuits in Marks & Spencer's,

eyes down for a read and a sherry before my meal,

a mix of cheese and cold cuts that Diana had brought home yesterday,

'Cheers!',

for dessert some sliced melon, delicious,

tonight I had finished reading 1,000 years of Annoying the French, all 654 pages of it, I should say this is not an anti-French manifesto, in fact in many instances it pulls no punches when describing some of the despicable things the UK has performed in the last 1,000 years, it is just a book filled with subtle humour and facts galore, a veritable history lesson, despite the title, it is a really enjoyable and fact filled book,

in a total change of subject I started The Painted Voyage, from the blurb:

'the book looks at the ways in which travelling artists influenced early western attitudes towards distant lands, and examines how far the artist's own vision of these places was a distorted one, affected by factors as diverse as changing artistic fashions, the demands of colonial propaganda and the frequent need to work from memory. Michael Jacobs' lively, good-humoured text contains a wealth of anecdotes relating to the adventures of these intrepid figures and the peculiar difficulties with which they were faced when travelling beyond the well-trodden path - difficulties which ranged from being mistaken for spies to offending local religious sensibilities. The extensive illustrations form a fascinating and entertaining visual record of the lands visited and include a large number of undeservedly little-known works',

I never realised that early artists would often have stones thrown at them, be beaten or even shot at! a fascinating book indeed, I made a start on the first 45 pages, before I watched a Lewis when Diana arrived home, so a coffee and a chat over a New Tricks and a Silent Witness before we were off to bed.