Our First Sunday Lunch,

at home,

 we decided on a roast chicken with parsnips, which I really like, Diana's with gravy, 

and mine without, after a dessert of mince pies,

 we joined Steve and Kai,

 for a walk around the park,

 passing some of our neighbors,

 until we were in the park entrance,

 and started our walk,

 the mansion house in the distance, which we will be going to but by a circular route,

 Lewisham council have changed the use of Beckenham Place Park from a golf course to a recreational walk,

 and have taken down some of the bigger tress and planted year old ones, no problems with planting new trees, but it does seem a shame when old established trees like these are felled,

 Diana, Kai ad Steve, all wrapped up warm for this chilly afternoon,

 for some reason there was a murder of crows in the park,

there must have been thirty or more,

in all of the years I have walked the park I have never seen such large numbers of them,

we continued down hill,

most of the trees had shed their leaves,

but one or two still had them,

the River Ravensbourne had formed a small lake in the far distance,

this building now abandoned brings back many memories, it was the Foxgrove Club, both Steve and myself were members, but despite our best efforts membership fell and the club several years ago closed, now here is a thing, councils are crying out for property, yet this one has been left to rot, it is a big building, on one of the band nights there would be a 10 or 12 piece band playing to an audience of over 60 or more members, it beggars belief that Lewisham council could not convert it it 3 or 4 very large apartments, rather than letting it rot over the past several years, but then I suppose Lewisham council must have a surfeit of council housing, 

we started our walk downhill,

Diana and Kai strike the pose,

Diana on one of the felled trees,

on we went,

looking at the colours of winter,

the park has many walks in it,

just pick one you like,

a map of the park,

this is the new lake that is being constructed,

it will be feed by the River Ravensbourne which runs through Beckenham Place Park,

above the mighty Ravensbourne, now dammed as work on the pond is being completed, the stream rising at Ceasar's Well in Keston Common joins the main Ravensbourne at Bromley and flows into the Thames at Deptford, as an aside back in the 1960s when water softeners were very expensive, Ceasar's Well was where aquarists would go to get their supply of soft water, which is the trigger for making some species of tropical fish to breed,

another old fellow downed,

and this is what the lake will become, a haven for swimmers and fishermen, although it might be a bit risky for the swimmers if caught with a hook, 

we made our way uphill,

to the mansion's outer buildings,

a favorite of both Steve and myself, bamboo,

work on what I think was the stables,

one of the more overgrown outhouses,

the whole area is going to be landscaped,

the top of this topiary needs some attention,

the grand plan,

there were a couple of nice cars in front of the mansion like this Ferrari,

and Roll Royce,

the mansion house itself,

 

we started our walk back,

the girls taking a break,

on this side of the mansion what was once the golf pro shop now sells vinyl records,

the murder of crow's numbers had grown, there must have been a hundred or more, I just could not get them all into the picture,

looking back at the mansion house,

we made our way to the park entrance,

where the owners of the gate house had made a nice display with a lighted Christmas tree, if you read our blog in May 2016 you would have seen the wisteria behind the Christmas tree in full flower,

we passed the site of yesterdays fair, the tree now illuminated,

 we made our way to Deli Nene Cafe,

 where Kai ordered, 

 duck wraps,

 for Diana,

nachos,

Steve went with pulled pork,

I stuck to my liquid diet,

next cakes,

for Steve and the girls, 

Kai went into shy mode, the meal was a nice way to end the day, but there was more, returning to our flat Steve, Kai and Diana, tried and succeeded to get Netflix working, we could not as we have not bought a mobile telephone that handles data, the one I have is just talk and text, after saying our thanks and farewells to Steve and Kai, we watched a few spinets of available films and then we were off to bed.