I Am Only Making One Post Today, Because,

you guessed it,

I took so many photographs, it was Diana's day off, 

so we were out,

on to a number 54 bus,

and heading past Peter Pan's Pool,

with its geese in attendance today,

to Blackheath village, Diana looking at the florists I past every Wednesday on my way to visit Duncan,

a nice show of cut flowers,

and plants in bowls.

we nearly crossed the road to look in Oliver Bonas, but decided against it,

a quick look into the greengrocers, every year we try to pop in here to buy Kentish cobnuts as they are called when they are fresh, or hazelnuts if they are sold loose in their shells,

a great bit of news, the bookshop, 

has weathered the covid storm and is still here,

we started to make our across Blackheath, 

it was a tad too cold for a ice cream,

in the distance a circus,

walking closer we could see it was a Zippos own event,

I had brought some peanuts with us,

that the heath's crows soon told each other about,

and a couple of pigeons also got in on the act,

as it happens Diana made a short video of me feeding them,

and here it is,

past the circus,

the fun fair,

all in palace for the bank holiday next weekend,

into the park,

 

and past the gate house, over the past few weeks we had been seeing lots of cherry blossoms, so today we thought we would visit the cherry tree avenue in Greenwich park,

in our visit in 2021 they looked like this,

Diana posing under one of the trees,

I had a beard then!

we were greeted with a show of daffodils,

but alas the cherry trees here were a month or maybe a tad more later than the ones near us,

the good news was that there were plenty of daffodils to take photographs of,

the cherry tree avenue,

sans blossoms,

back to the daffodils!

we just had to call into the Pavilion Café,

coffee and cake, 

for Diana,

just a coffee for myself, two coffees one cake just over £10.00,

in the summer time these tables and benches will be packed at the weekends, and quite a few week days as well,

warmed up we were on our way,

past the observatory, 

to the viewing area,

looking down on the National Maritime Museum,

time for a pose,

or two,

to the left the observatory with its dome for one of the telescopes,

then it was my turn to pose,

I just had to have two,

we started down the hill, 

past the Greenwich Time Ball, 

the pathway down is remarkably steep,

we took a few photographs on the way down,

the 4 chimneys of the now unused power station, if only we had not slaughtered it and others on the farcical road to green zero, the power station would still be giving Londoners their electricity, and before any lunatic, tree huger greenies jump on my case, think on this fact: China is building more than half of the world's new coal power plants, some 176 gigawatts of coal capacity was under construction in 2021, and more than half of that was being built in China, are you going to go out there and protest? no thought not!

looking back up the hill,

and down, 

we were soon on level ground,

as we exited the park,

passing one of the Citroen food vans, this one looking brand new,

crossing the road to the central square in Greenwich,

a quick look in Oliver Bonas,

then into the alleyway,

that leads into the market,

being a Saturday,

it was packed,

with all manner of stalls,

puppets anyone?

books, clothes, pictures and plants they are all here,

at one end of the market stalls selling goods,

at the other end stalls selling food,

food, glorious food!

there were even fresh oysters for sale,

I had another quick look at some of the goods on offer, from huge paper cut out pictures,

to paper pop up cards, it is a great market to look around, the bigger of the two in Greenwich,

then a real treat a Routemaster parked up on its trip around the capitol, being hired for a corporate event,

and there she is, the Cutty Sark,

the newly refurbished Gipsy Moth pub,

at the stern for any nautical coves the flags,

if you want to know what they mean, have a look here,

by the ship there were a few more food stalls, 

one thing you can never do here,

is go hungry for a lack of choice!

today the roundabout working,

so I had to take a video,

back to the food stalls,

the agony of choice!

as it happens we did not buy any food, tonight we are going out for a Indian meal,

a last look at the ship, for the non-nautical this is the pointy bit with its name on,

such a common sight when we were in Thailand, 'follow the flag!',

we walked to the market square,

passing Jack's fish and chip shop,

and church as we made our way to the bus stop,

this is the second smaller market in the town,

some of the most ugly planters I have seen,

but at least there was a good show of colour, 

near the bus stop a plant store,

we alighted at the top of the hill and walked into Beckenham Place Park,

towards the mansion,

with the nature pond on our right,

downhill towards the gates that stop cars from entering from the Foxgrove Road end of the park,

there they are,

lots of cherry blossom here, 

turn left by the snail mail box and we are nearly home, where after a coffee and a freshen up, we were out again,

on a number 54 bus to Kathmandu Masala, in the Croydon Road, Beckenham,

our starters arrived,

poppadums 

with a bottle of bubbly,

a glass for Diana as well as a coke,

a chicken chat for Diana,

a prawn puri for myself, 'Cheers!',

on to our main course,

mushroom garlic rice,

to go with,

onion bhajees,

nan bread,

chicken tikka,

and somewhere in there is a lamb pasadena,

eyes down and tuck in, along with a a coffee for Diana the bill came to £81.00 including service charge, next a bus back home, feet up for a nightcap and A Touch of Frost before we were off to bed.