Diana Had Today Off,

but there was a downside,

because of a store reorganisation some of the staff were asked to work 2 overnight shits, from 10.00 in the evening until 06.00 in the morning, so today we were out, glad rags on,

into the street towards the park entrance,

the day overcast but still warm,

on the off chance it might be open, we called into the station, and joy of joys the ticket office was open, so I bought tickets to visit Duncan for this week and next,

we had decided on a walk around Kelsey Park, so we passed the charity shop with the dolls house in the window, I had wondered how much it would be, I missed this,

in the bottom right hand corner, offers over £1,500, is that cheap or expensive? I have no idea,

we passed what was one a public connivance, long ago closed as the council did not want to pay for its upkeep, but the plants in front of it looking nice, at the bottom of the crest of arms pole,

a solitary crow,

the towns crest of arms, the reference to Thornton's Corner was when many years ago the confectioners Thornton's had a shop here that was so popular the cross roads was named after it, it closed for the last time many years ago, but the name has stuck,

into the park, in front of the Lodge House,

and opposite lots of pink geraniums,

there was also a nice bed of marigolds at the front door,

the stream now barely a trickle,

the shrubs even though nearby, are suffering from the drought,

their leaves wilted and curling as they dry up,

hardly any movement of water,

and no curtain of water over the falls,

barley a trickle, bring on the rain!

one thing we did notice was a huge increase in the number of Canadian geese,

not being a weekend the park was quiet,

another sign of the drought, trees that should be lush and green are now shedding their leaves,

the flower beds looking nice,

looking across the lower half of the lake,

below us some ducks out of the sun,

and here it was,

the ice cream van as usual,

2 to go,

we sat on one of the waterside benches as we finished our ice creams,

the bridge across the lake still not repaired, it seems to be a thing about footbridges, both this one and the one over the railway line at Beckenham Junction, have been closed for several months with no sign of them being repaired any time soon,

we remembered to bring some peanuts for the ducks and squirrels,

a couple of them here were very tame,

the peanuts did not go unnoticed by the pigeons and geese,

but the goose soon gave up,

Ah! so cute,

the giant Chilean rhubarb, (Gunnera manicata), had plenty of leaves,

and it really did look like a giant rhubarb!

it had plenty of flower spikes,

this old tree now the home for pigeons and so many parakeets,

we made our way out of the park and past the now brown graveyard,

we were on our way to O'Neil's for our late afternoon lunch,

we grabbed a window seat, as it happens it was so windy outside,

our meal arrived,

fish and chips for Diana,

bangers and mash for myself, with a pint of coke for Diana and a glass of wine for myself the bill came to £16.00,

as we passed Foxgrove Lodge we stopped to look at the garden, in the center of the photograph,

there was a nice show of lilies,

a pose before we continued walking,

the sky still overcast and it felt like it was going to rain, but unfortunately it did not, we watched a Midsomer Murder before Diana was off to work, for myself it was a New Tricks followed by a Silent Witness before I was off to bed.