I Am Only Making Two Posts Today,

as I have a few things to do during the day, 

back to Wednesday, as soon as the post was posted I was out to visit Duncan, not too cold today,

 

I caught the usual bus, 

thankfully today no change of drivers at Catford bus garage,

at one of the stops I noticed a nice stand of bamboo in one of the gardens,

in Catford work on the pavements was still ongoing,

on both sides of the street,

past the gayly painted pub on the right,

and a not very flattering photograph of the cat on the left,

next on the right, the building that never seems to be finished,

Lewisham market,

almost seemed deserted,

arriving at Blackheath, the florists next to the station, 

had a nice display,

of cut flowers, cards,

and potted plants,

these looked interesting,

chin's chin's, I have never seen or heard of them before, and could not find out what they are, so answers on a postcard please, as they used to say,

now why is it not like this every week? I arrive at the station at 09.19, the second train, the 09.31 goes to Gravesend which means I do not have to change trains at Dartford, hopefully this is a sign of things to come,

the sun trying to break through at Blackheath,

arriving at Gravesend, it was almost sunny,

after just a 10 minute wait for the 483 bus, I was soon off of the bus and walking uphill towards the nursing home,

into the grounds,

it was almost blue skies, Duncan was his usual self, we laughed and joked about the times he published Oil & Gas Product Review, along with his co-workers Dave, Rodger and John, plus Lee the printer amongst others, and some of the small Christmas and other office parties that I was also invited to, so many memories came flooding back, for both of us, I stayed until just after 13.00 when Duncan's lunch arrived, after saying our farewells I made a move for the bus stop,

looking back at the clock tower, I bumped into one of the staff who told me originally this was the site of a school,

out of the grounds to the bus stop, where there was a bit of a wait,

at the station just in time for the train to Blackheath, so again no changing trains as Dartford,

onto the number 54 bus at Blackheath and I was soon passing Taco Bell, the interior of which had not changed since last week, will it ever open?

I stayed on the bus until the green,

walking along the path to St. George's hall I noticed these,

a nice show of crocus,

and this is where I was heading,

a model railway open day which was free to look around,

there were several exhibits, 

some of which were complete,

like this one,

which had such amazing attention to detail,

many of the items not shop bought, but made from scratch as they say, that is every part individually made by hand,

this is one long display,

going through various scenes that would be expected on the way,

titled Gordon's Lane,

this layout featured bridges and rivers,

the sponsors Invicta Model Rail, who put in so much work to these events,

a work in progress,

this a completed diorama, 

on to another work in progress, 

titled Heathcote Lane,

I went back to Gordon's Lane,

to look at some more of the scratch built models,

I would not know where to start!

and then a bit of fun, the smallest track here,

it is known as 'T' scale, it is the smallest in the world, to give an idea of size that is one of my blog cards and a one pound coin, there is just 3mm between the rails, which scales to 0.61mm:1ft or a ratio of 1:450, for more about scales or gauges as they are sometimes known have a look here,

I took a few photographs of displays around the hall,

before I left,

the meeting was not as big as the ones at St John's Church, but this one was a free get together rather than a big show,

a last look at a work in progress,

I put together this video, if you listen carefully as some of the trains go by you can hear the clackety-clack of the noise a full sized train makes as it goes over joints in the rails, if you enjoy looking at model trains as I do the next meeting is on Saturday 1st April 2023 10am - 5pm. St John's Church, Eden Park Avenue, Beckenham, Kent BR3 3JN. Adults £8 accompanied children under 15 free, hopefully I will see you there!

outside and into the Co-Op nearly next door, for some milk and few other bits and pieces,

a walk around the corner and I was passing the nice neat posts and chains that have been installed to stop dog walkers that park their cars there from trampling the spring flowers in the grass verges, 

but it did not take long for the dog walkers to take down the chains,

and yet again trample,

the spring flowers into the mud,

which is such a shame,

over the road where there is double yellow lines where the dog walkers do not park their cars, a nice show,

of crocus,

someone has made a nice job of tiding this area up,

bits of wood that were used to protect the trees that were newly planted removed by guess who?

photograph Chanel 4 screen shot, how about this for a coincided, arriving home as Diana was asleep I watched a couple of quiz shows and as usual a Simpsons, just a couple of days ago I started watching The Prisoner, and here it was in this Simpsons episode, amazing,

after Diana woke it was time for a read and a sherry,

we only had one course this evening, a prawn and scallop cheese pie for Diana,

for myself a wagyu beef pie with wagyu triple fried chips,

'Cheers!', we watched a couple from A Touch of Frost, and then for us we were off to bed.