I Am Only Making One Post Today For 2 Reasons,

firstly, there is a train strike on Wednesday, so I am travelling to visit Duncan on Tuesday,

secondly as Monday was Diana's day off we were out, and I took way too many photographs, so many in fact I started the blog late Monday evening after Diana had gone to bed, as she has a early start on Tuesday, so we started our walk to the bus stop,

a quick pose from myself before we caught a 227 to Penge and then a 197 to Forest Hill,

and that is where we are going, 

the Horniman Museum, as it happens my favourite museum,

we had visited before,

way back in May 2016,

and as you might have expected, 

a lot had changed, including the way in,

but looking through the entrance hall this lovely greenhouse was still here and empty, we found out why later,

inside we started looking at the exhibits in the natural history section,

all manner of stuffed birds and animals here,

stuffed because in the day photography was still in its infancy, 

so the only way to bring curiosities home was to take them as in these shells, 

or stuff them as taxidermy specimens, the name of the museum is Horniman's, a little about the museum, it is dated from Victorian times, when Frederick John Horniman, the founder, first opened his house and extraordinary collection of objects to visitors, his collection grew so big, the rest as they say is history,

the star of the museum the Walrus, which we have mentioned a few times before,

we looked at the bird section, these 2 parrots reminding me of a friend that had a pair in Thailand,

the male green,

whilst the female is red, they are known as the red-sided or Eclectus parrot, (Eclectus roratus),

well Diana just had too! another post about the walrus here, 

the cases were divided up into various parts of animals, 

this one dealing with flight, others on teeth, defence, camouflage, etc

a little history of the walrus,

this case devoted to game birds,

Reeve's pheasant, (Syrmaticus reevesii),

with its almost ridiculously long tail,

with striking markings,

the cabinet showing the development of teeth and feet,

here in the distance,

a living working bee hive,

the queen is in there, somewhere,

on the other side of the frames,

a tube which leads outside for the bees to come and go,

I made this short video, unfortunaly the light level is low, but I guess you will get the idea of how they enter and exit the hive,

a passion in the 1700 and 1800's, 

collecting and pressing flowers and of all things seaweeds, 

a little about the hobby,

on the next level,

about us and our beginnings,

a sign post of some places in our world,

well I had too!

Diana looking down on the next gallery we will visit,

along the walls snapshots from early expeditions in Africa,

downstairs each culture having its own display case,

up stairs mats and flags hanging from the ceiling,

when we watch antiques shows we often see cloisonné vases,

but none as large, 

as this one!

a portrait of Frederick Horniman, and family history,

one of the more frightening exhibits,

it is chilling to think that this was actually used,

on people,

a little about his travels,

we made our way to the stairs,

reaching the ground floor,

each section, divided into different cultures,

this was fun, a interactive fish pool,

there were exhibits form all over the world, I did read many years ago that Frederick asked each of his captains when visiting different ports to bring home souvenirs of where they had been,

this was fun, a wishing tree,

known as a Cloutie tree, 

so Diana left a note,

just there,

as I mentioned each cabinet featuring a different culture,

showing clothes, weapons, cooking implements,

and beliefs,

like these totems,

some had television displays,

other local animals with saddles and riding equipment,

we made our way to the entrance hall,

and the question that everybody asks,

next,

the music room, 

starting with pianos, 

and stringed instruments,

not a piano, 

a clavichord, 

when ever I see one of these, a serpent, I always feel it is a shame that they did not catch on,

in the music room there were three interactive tables, I had mentioned to Diana that I remember as a kid a instrument that had glasses in it, they revolved and by wetting your fingers you could play it,

 

and here on the table you could move the cursor until you found one and listen to the sound it made, 

and another from my childhood, along the street someone's dad played one of these, a musical saw, 

the time passed so quickly looking at and playing the various instruments,

onto the brass section,

detailed instructions of how the tube should be bent,

and where the pieces should be placed,

a DIY kit I guess!

when I think of a flute I think of just one instrument,

but in truth there are so many of them, each one sounding just slightly different from the rest,

a last look at the brass section,

before the big one,

the note says it all,

a quick look at the gift shop, then we were outside,

and found out why the greenhouse was still empty, it was for hire, for weddings and other functions, what a dream of a place to get married in,

we stopped for a coffee and cake for Diana,

a bacon bap for myself,

it looked like rain, 

but as we were here,

we thought we would have a look around the garden,

a quick look at the map,

in the garden a few mature trees,

some really ancient looking,

the bandstand, 

with the Shard in the distance,

we really must attend one of the Sunday afternoon concerts,

down the stairs,

the bandstand now behind us,

 as it happens it looked in remarkably good condition,

a quick pose from Diana,

and we entered the garden,

in the distance a pool,

along the side,

a rockery,

with alpine plants,

and mosses,

then the formal garden,

and look,

a banana flower, 

we could not go into the central section to get a close look at the pool,

at first glance these looked like bamboos,

but they were giant reeds, (Arundo donax),

my grandmother always used to tell me if the holly had lots of berries it will be a cold winter, looking at these,

it will be cold!

as far as we could see,

red berries,

I give up,

I do not know what these spikes are,

but they look very impressive as they open and drop down,

under the runner beans,

into the ornamental grasses and vegetables,

when we looked carefully,

we spotted rhubarb, beetroot and tomatoes,

lots of huge tomatoes,

some taller than myself!

on each corner of the beds,

more grasses,

then a tomato I had never seen before,

black tomatoes!

it had started to rain a tad,

but we were nearing the exit,

these looking nice,

past the last few, 

beds of ornamental grass,

as we approached the gate, 

open,

sesame! "Open sesame" (French: Sésame, ouvre-toi; Arabic: افتح يا سمسم), a magical phrase in the story of "Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves" in Antoine Galland's version of One Thousand and One Nights, 

bye-bye to the museum and gardens,

ah! so sad to leave, and that is our bus disappearing into the distance,

it really is a delightful museum,

a look at what was once the entrance,

and steps up to it,

we were soon on the 176 and then a 227 to Beckenham, 

Diana made this short video of our visit to the garden at Horniman's Museum, arriving in Beckenham as we still had plenty of duck from Sunday, it was into M & S for some spring onions, 

and duck pancakes for our evening meal, after which it was a couple of Midsomer Murders before Diana went to bed, I stayed up for some time to complete the blog for the morning before I too was off to bed.

Diana Was Asked To Go Into Work Today,

so she will have Monday as her day off this week,

but it meant we had a very late Sunday lunch, in the morning I had a zoom meeting about the house and ongoing expenditure, the list of items that have to be upgraded to conform with the latest fire regulations is long and expensive, strange that for 140+ years or more all was well, but we now need doors in the building replaced to the tune of tens of thousands of pounds, plus new boards for the electricity meters and ventilation of the gas meters in the cellar, the list goes on and on, still the upside is that we live in a lovely area in the park, after Diana returned home it was time for a read and a sherry, followed by mussels in a white wine sauce,

then a real treat, Diana had bought a whole duck for our late Sunday lunch,

eyes down and tuck in! it was delicious, we decided on dessert later in the evening we were so full, for the evening a change from our usual Columbo and Midsomer Murder, 

we watched Sherlock Holmes, the television series starring Jeremy Brett, who fitted the role so well, after 5 episodes back to back, for us we were off to bed.

We Are All Used To Seeing Flora And Fauna,

in their usual colours, 

so I was intrigued when I found a site with creatures and plants as we are not used to seeing them, the above photograph from reddit.com, take this mouse, it has fur known as satin texel, the satin gene makes them shiny, and the texel gives them long curly hair, as it happens there are silver ones as well,

photograph reddit.com we have all seen green or yellow bananas, but blue ones? these come from South East Asia and spread to Fiji, Hawaii, the Philippines, and Central America, for more information about them have a look here,

photograph reddit.com I am not sure what this condition is called, but with the white fur the cat is certainly striking, 

unusual colours are even known in aquatic environments, photograph reddit.com, this shark has an a amazing iridescent colour, hopefully he was released after capture, for more totally different takes on creatures that we are used to have a look here.

As Usual At This Time Of Year,

I am racking my brains, for a Christmas present for Diana,

I thought of a dress, so where better to look than Paris Fashion Week S/S 2024: Valentino to Balenciaga, the show takes over the French capital with a schedule spanning both the city’s established houses and some new arrivals – from Peter Do’s Paris debut to a one-off show from Italian house Marni, so here are a few contenders, above photograph courtesy of Marni,

photograph courtesy of Junya Watanabe, of course the problem is, which one will suit Diana the best?

photograph courtesy of Noir Kei Ninomiya, all have their attractions,

photograph courtesy of Comme des Garçons, but Diana has to like it as well, so I will continue looking over the next few weeks of the fashion show, of course it would help if there was some mention of price, but there it is.

I Had A Busy Morning,

first thing Jenny called round, 

to pick up some boxes for her brother Mark, who lives in Cambodia, after a coffee and a chat they made a move to go shopping, for myself I was out to the doctors surgery, another covid booster for me!

on the way a quick look at the car that demolished a couple of gate pillars a few days ago, looking at the open bonnet the front of the car looks undamaged, but just look at the state of the rear of the car! hopefully no one was walking on the pavement at the time,

onward past the green,

and churchyard, where in the right of the photograph I noticed these,

a lovely stand of cyclamen,

they looked just so nice,

down the steps towards the restaurants at the bottom of the hill,

at the traffic lights a look up the High Street,

and behind me towards the church, into and out of the surgery in no time at all, there were four rooms with nurses, and in my case my doctor injecting people as they arrived for their appointments, 

back up the steps by what was once the police station, now a thing of the past, our 3 local police stations now closed, Beckenham, Penge and Bromley, 

as I passed the church I noticed this,

a tribute band to Buddy Holly and the Crickets, guess where we will be on November 4th.?

into the park and home for a coffee and my breakfast, in the afternoon I updated the shops special offer page for the October offers, as well as prepare some invoices, 

after which I watched The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar, which was directed by Wes Anderson, a delightful film of a story by Roald Dahl, 

it was then time for my evening read and sherry, 'Cheers!',

for tonight a lamb hot pot,

eyes down and tuck in ! then feet up for, 

65, a neat sci-fi about the age of dinosaurs, I will not make any comments as it is a new release, so you may have not seen it, 

I followed that with Tenet, visually stunning with great effects, although in one special effect they really did crash a full size 747 into a hanger, again I will not comment, but I will say I lost the plot, and then by shear happenstance Diana returned home, so a coffee and a chat as we watched a Midsomer Murder before we were off to bed.

Do Not Mess With Fish 285,

and you thought fish were fun!

photograph: John G Mabanglo/EPA well this one has I guess a fun life, at an estimated age between 92 and 101 years, Methuselah, an Australian lungfish, (Neoceratodus forsteri), at the Steinhart Aquarium in San Francisco, is allegedly the oldest fish held in captivity, the fish arrived in 1938, on a steamboat from Australia, along with 230 other fish, Methuselah is the only one of the fish still alive today, scientists believe it’s a female, although they can’t be sure, scientists usually harvest the ear bones of fish after their death and count them like tree rings to estimate their age, but lungfish have very different ear bones, “Genetics is really quite straightforward for normal fish – but for lungfish, they’re so unique and so different that all of those techniques didn’t or don’t work,” David T Roberts, a senior scientist with Seqwater, told The Guardian,

 “It’s always pushed the envelope on uncovering some of its secrets to be able to manage and conserve it – and age is a really important one.”, lungfish can breathe air using a single lung when they are out of water or when the water composition changes, and they also happen to have the largest genome out of all known animals – 43 billion base pairs. That’s roughly 14 times the number of pairs in humans, so how long is Methuselah going to live? as it happens no one knows, but by all accounts she/he seems to be as lively as ever.

I Have Always Wanted To Be A Pop Star,

nothing special just the usual one, no discernible talent, but with huge wads of cash coming in, 

well it appears I am not to late if this group G-Pop is anything to go by, the name of the group is a play on words, the Japanese word ‘Ojii-san’ translates as ‘old man’ the members are aged between 65 and 87, so at 73 I should fit right in there! The Kochi Prefecture-based music troupe made its professional debut seven years ago, it’s been busy putting a positive spin on the country’s rapidly aging population ever since, Universal Studios Japan reportedly signed G-Pop soon after the group’s debut, and the band’s two most successful singles, ‘Hooray to Old Age’ and ‘I Was Young’, got hundreds of thousands of views on YouTube, and here one of them is,

described by their record label as “ordinary grandpas usually working as fishermen or Bamboo Union heads,” the 5 G-Pop members are all very energetic, despite the group’s average age of 74, and welcome the challenge of changing people’s opinions about aging, just when they were about to go into mainstream productions Covid hit so that was it “We kept in touch with each other by cellphone even during the pandemic to make sure we were fine so that we could come back anytime,” group leader Noriyasu Tanioka, said, but now the pandemic seems to be over watch out for G-Pop, hopefully if they want a Western look to their line up, they will find me!