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.

Off To Work,

on a grey rainy day,

puddles were everywhere, it must have been raining over night, on to a number 54 bus,

and off at the shop, we had a busy day I am happy to say, and I even had one customer remember me from the 1980s when I was working in the shop full time before moving to Thailand,

work over after leaving the bus it was a wet walk through the park home,

where Diana had made me a quick snack before going out to meet Steve,

the rain had continued, flooding the path, thankfully I had decided to wear my waterproof hiking boots, 

no one in the tennis courts tonight,

which was just as well as there was so much surface water,

into the club where I meet Steve, we chatted the night away, as it happens at the shop some new fish had arrived, some of which we chatted about, after saying our farewells I walked home for a New Tricks before we were both off to bed.

When I First And Second Saw This,

I had to ask, "what is it",

photograph Record Institute for Germany, a few facts, it was built over 2500 hours, it is over 5 meters in length, almost 2 meters tall, and weighs in at about 4,800 lbs (2,177 kg), now this might give you a clue as to what it is, it has 35 forward gears and 7 reverse gears and can tow up to 15 tons, without any problems, it has a built-in engine, but only for powering the alternator that charges the user’s cell phone, so what is it?

 

it is named Kleine Johanna, and was built by Sebastian Beutler, who lives in Köthen, a town in Germany’s Saxony-Anhalt state, it is the heaviest rideable bicycle in the world according to the Record Institute for Germany, a national version of the Guinness Book of Records, the fantastical machine is powered by just one person and thanks to a truck gearbox adapted to enhance the classic bicycle gear system, easy to ride, so easy in fact that, the builder says he plans to ride to the Baltic Sea for a vacation in the summer, a 389-kilometer ride that he estimates will take him about a month to complete, note to car drivers, if you see this in the cycle lane, defiantly give way!

It Is Fair To Say,

the UK is a nation of dog lovers, 

image Dulux, so the news was greeted with sadness when Dulux paint announced it had retired its icon of some 60 years, its faithful Old English Sheepdog that was the brands trade mark, the brands web site reads, "Fans must now wave goodbye to the beloved icon, and rise to welcome the new face of the paint brand - a King Charles Spaniel" the move is to welcome King Charles' Coronation on May 6th. Karen Wilkinson, marketing director at Dulux said, "we understand this might cause upset amongst devoted fans of our beautiful sheepdog, however we think it is high time that she put her paws up for little TLC, and what better time to take a step back than April Fools Day...?!" so how many times will you be fooled today? for a few more have a look here.