For A Change We Decided On A Pre-Lunch Walk,

in Crystal Palace Park, 

so warm clothes on,

and along to the bus stop, where these pots had been nicely planted with some colour,

just 3 minutes waiting for the 227,

and we were soon at the entrance of Crystal Palace Park,

in the far distance the weekly Sunday farmers market,

the sign,

with a map of the attractions,

the café with one of the best business practise in the world, the café is owned by Bromley council, who also licence each of the pitches for sellers,

who have to sign a condition of their lease that in the winter they will not sell hot drinks and in the summer they can not sell cold drinks! as I said 'the best business practises in the world', what is it called? a total monopoly!

the strange thing is each time we have visited there have been less and less stalls, but there it is, 

we started our look at this weeks offerings,

if you like Turkish delight, this is the stall for you!

and this one for cheese,

lots of it,

quiches and pies on this one,

and what a selection of scotch eggs, 

so many to choose from,

Diana was tempted with the Filipino street food, but we already had our Sunday lunch at home waiting to be cooked,

one of many culinary treats I have not sampled here, biltong,

there were a few stalls,

selling cakes,

like these,

and quiches,

at the end of the market,

the vegetable stall,

a last look at the stalls, for us no sales today, the stall selling beer was not here, or the one selling wine and bubbly,

we made our way to the lake,

this willow tree is huge and has over the years almost fallen into the lake,

giving a nice show of leaves,

and plenty of shade,

this is perhaps one of the least known of the concreate dinosaurs, 

and other creatures that are here in the park, almost hidden behind trees, in the summer I guess it would be pretty difficult to spot,

the reason many will miss it is because there in the distance are the big ones,

this section of the park was constructed in 1853-1855 and has remained largely in the places we find them today. The statues represent the first ever attempt anywhere in the world to model extinct animals as full-scale, three-dimensional, active creatures from fossil remains,

behind Diana a tree that looks like it could be from the age of dinosaurs, a monkey puzzle tree, (Araucaria araucana),

back in the day this was once a waterfall,

but it has not worked in years, now completely overgrown, I am guessing the bill to run the pumps spelt their doom,

over the bridge to the other side of the falls,

a look at the bigger attractions,

in the distance the crocodiles,

the dinosaurs here are big,

some in need of a paint,

and a tidy up in the landscape,

a little of their history, the sculptor, Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins, was a natural history illustrator and sculptor of international reputation, His work combined the pursuit of technical accuracy and animate expression, the sculptures were set in a landscape designed by Joseph Paxton that also included hillside illustrations of economic geology created by Professor David Ansted, Queen Victoria and Prince Albert were fascinated by the dinosaur displays in Crystal Palace, and they visited the site several times,

moving on to the plesiosaurus, 

and crocodiles,

the snout on this one,

reminding me of a Indian gharial crocodile, (Gavialis gangeticus), 

a handy perch for a seagull,

looking back towards the main display,

a quick pose,

and we were at the end of the lake,

looking towards the entrance that we entered the park by,

in the distance the boats that can be hired in the summer,

now a place for birds to rest,

it is going to be quite a clean up job in a few weeks to get the boats ready for the summer season,

to the right of the boats,

the Crystal Palace Transmitter, 

across the lake,

I am not sure what it is, but the tree was full of white flowers,

a last look at the lake,

as we made our way to the bus stop,

and into Beckenham Place Park,

arriving home it was time for a sherry and a read,

we are going to use our Valentines day glasses, so Diana bought some non alcoholic bubbly for herself,

I had the normal,

easy does it, for our starter we had garlic King prawns, smoked salmon with a avocado salad with sliced red peppers, spring onions and radishes, delicious!

'Cheers!',

and another one after a long break as our main course arrived, roast beef with vegetables,

for dessert a sherry trifle, we had a break before settling down for the afternoons film, 

we decided on the new version of Dune, which we had seen before but enjoyed watching it again, in the evening a real treat, Stephen Fry, Fantastic Beasts: A Natural History, what a treat it really was, and then another treat with Stephen Fry, this one about Dinosaurs, we rounded off the evening with one from A Touch of Frost, before we were off to bed.