As Soon As I Posted The Blog,

I was out,

into a cold grey day,

there was not a frost,

it was just cold,

I did not take a good photograph of Rudolph in the garden at Foxgrove Lodge, so here he is, 

in no time the bus arrived,

steamed up as usual for this time of the year,

the florist in Blackheath village, not quite set up,

well one half was,

I had a very short wait at both Blackheath and Dartford for the trains,

but now that the 481 had been discontinued, the 483 now once every half hour, so a cold wait it was,

grey skies over Gravesend station,

and over the hill after the bus ride as I walked to the nursing home,

the trees at the entrance now nearly bare,

as were the ones near the car park, we chatted away, Duncan remembering the times when he published a couple of magazines, we both recalled the names of all of the staff that worked for him all of those years ago, we said our farewells and I walked to the bus stop,

whilst waiting at the 483 bus stop, I bumped into a gentleman that I have meet a few times before, who was also going back to Gravesend bus stand, arriving at Gravesend,

the same as last week, a train was waiting at platform 0, 

arriving at Dartford the same thing, as I walked across the bridge to platform 3 my train was just pulling in, 

arriving at Blackheath in no time, passing the florists the display now complete,

the shop looking nice and bright in the grey day,

on to the bus and it looked like the weather was improving,

blue skies over Lewisham,

past the Catford cat,

what a great way to advertise the shopping centre,

on top of some of the bus stops,

the plants placed there for the summer bees looking nice and lush,

towards Peter Pan's Pool,

turn right and another bee bus stop,

again looking lush,

with a couple of mushrooms growing,

the shelter at Beckenham Hill, not looking so well cared for,

but if you look carefully a couple of mushrooms have taken hold of a part of it,

I stayed on the bus into town, the skating rink on the green taking shape,

I had a few things to do in town, 

so off of the bus and past the florists,

that had a nice display outside,

and into Boots the chemist for my bi-monthly prescription,

next into W. H. Smith's to post our Christmas cards, as I did so I was told they would sit here until next week due to the strike, is there any group not on strike this year? this from a newspaper last week, rail workers, university staff, teachers, nursing staff and NHS workers, Royal Mail workers, civil servants, barristers, lecturers, librarians and researchers, all going on, or are in a programme of strikes,

I made my way back past The George public house, in the garden and outside Christmas trees for sale,

into Lidl,

that had a few trees for sale,

and a few potted pants, 

as well as cut flowers, shopping completed, and I was on my way home,

when I noticed these,

mini pineapples, there were not priced and I did not want to queue up again to find out how much they were, but they looked so cute, 

the tree at the front of Foxgrove Lodge,

now with it's lights on, into the park and nearly home,

the sun was setting in a nearly clear blue sky,

at home my usual read and sherry,

'Cheers!', as I eat my prawn cocktail starter,

and tucked into liver and bacon, I have to admit I started Christmas early, listening to Chris Isaak's Christmas CD, Everybody Knows It's Christmas, pleasant easy listening songs from as far as I am concerned a much underrated singer, here are a couple of tracks, 

Washington Square,

and Mele Kalikimaka, for myself it is a great Christmas CD,

Diana was due to return from work, so I unpacked her Christmas count down calendar, it arrived by post a few days ago and I managed to hide it until now, it was one of a range from Boots, with a selection of cosmetics inside,

as you might expect when Diana returned home from work, 

she was delighted, in the evening we watched another BattleBots, followed by a Lewis and a New Tricks before we were off to bed.