As Soon As I Posted The Blog,

I was out,

and on my way to the bus stop to visit Duncan,

a bit of an overcast day, in the distance one of the trees,

was putting on it's autumn foliage,

opposite the park entrance, a bit of a drama, it seems that every 3 or 4 weeks when I walk out of the park I see bits of plastic and broken number plates from cars that have an accident here, 

the problem being the large main road, Southend Road, the A2015 has an intersection of Foxgrove Road and Park Road, people in cars commuting between their homes and London have to cross the A2015, and many on the main road do not give way, or cars crossing Foxgrove Road to Park Road or vice versa try to push their way across the A2015 if the traffic does not stop for them, then add to all of that families like us that live in Beckenham Place Park, and this is the only viable way in or out, this junction soon becomes a recipe for the occasional drama,

onto the bus and past Peter Pan's Pool,

the heron here again this week,

Lewisham Town Hall, still going through it's facelift,

past the market in Lewisham,

and into Blackheath village,

in the florists this week, some more heathers,

new for this week, some cypress, 

also new for this week, Christmas cactus, (Schlumbergera bridgesii), well Christmas is only 80 days away! 

one of the reasons I do not buy my rail tickets here, the ticket office is seldom open, the two gentlemen picking leaflets about tomorrows rail strike,

off of the train at Dartford, the pond by the station looking nice, and on to the train to Gravesend, where a ticket inspector checked everyone tickets, and there were more than a few problems, if you have a student travel pass, or in my case a OAP freedom pass, you can travel free to a number of stations outside of London, but when you reach Dartford on this line free travel stops, which is why I buy my tickets 2 or 3 weeks in advance, in case the Beckenham ticket office is closed, well 4 travellers found out that they had to buy tickets as their passes did not extend past Dartford, 

at Gravesend it looked a bit overcast, then my luck ran out, whilst there was a rail strike on Wednesday that I knew about, so I travelled a day early on Tuesday, what I did not know about was today there was a bus strike! no 481 buses at all, and only an hourly service on the 483 buses,

so it was sit and wait, arriving at the nursing home Duncan was in fine spirts, over the weekend his wife had called in a left him some biscuits and chocolates, the good news was that the Christmas almond tarts that we had during the weekend were so nice, Diana bought a packet of those instead of biscuits, so it will make a nice change for Duncan, we chatted away until his lunch arrived and I made a move for the bus stop, 

naturally as I neared the end of the road the bus went sailing past, so a long wait at the bus stop counting cars until the next one arrived,

then my luck changed again, a train was waiting on Platform 0 and would be leaving in 10 minutes or so, arriving at Dartford, a train was actually waiting to depart in just a few minutes, so that was a great time saver,

and it got better as I crossed the road at Blackheath village, a 54 was just 3 minutes away,

I was soon passing the refurbished building,

looking down the side of it, no windows on the ground floor, but there it is,

I just had to take another photograph of the Catford cat,

the bee garden on top of one of the bus shelters looking lush, and if you look carefully,

a mushroom is growing there as well,

past the Beckenham Hill entrance to the park,

I arrived at the Foxgrove park entrance just in time to see the damaged car of this morning's drama,

being taken away, hopefully no one was injured,

into the park past the lodge,

the sky looking ominously grey, but it did not rain, so that was alright then, just after I arrived home so did Diana, so a coffee and a chat as we watched a couple of quiz shows, 

after our evening meal it was one from Are You Being Served? the series ran from 1972 to 1985, Diana likes the show so much because of the characters, I enjoy it because in my youth so many huge stores were just like Grace Brothers, we followed that with a Antiques Road Trip, a Midsomer Murder and rounded off the evening with a New Tricks before we were off to bed.