In The Early Afternoon,

we were out, 

making our way to the 354 bus stop, 

arriving in Bromley, Diana went window shopping, I took a sideways step, 

into The Greyhound, so some liquid refreshment, 

we had arranged to meet later, so after an hour or so, I made my way past Primark, 

and past some of the stalls in the precinct, 

I was tempted, 

to stop for a few whelks at the seafood stall, but decided against it, Diana was waiting, 

onward past one of the vegetable stalls, 

and that is where I was heading, the Churchill Theater, behind the plant stall,

which had an attractive few plants for sale, 

like these geraniums, 

inside the theater and past the David Bowie bench, 

and were here, 

in Badgers Drift situated in Midsomer, yes we were here for a Midsomer Murder, we had bought tickets as soon as it was advertised, 

so the front row it was, I settled down with the usual, 

as the theater started to fill, 

Diana had a soft drink and ice cream, as you might expect, the show was superb, and a treat, Daniel Casey, who normally plays Sargent Troy in the television series, in the play took the part of Inspector Barnaby, we both thoroughly enjoyed the play, unusually as we left, 

it was still light, normally we go to the evening performance of plays or stage shows, but here we were and it was still bright, a quick detour into LIDL for a few things, 

and then a cash machine, first thing tomorrow Diana is off to Kraków until next week, so some cash for the trip, 

the reason we went to the afternoon show was that we could eat here, MISO,

first things first, a coke for Diana a bottle of red for myself,

our starters, peppered spare ribs, 

and a prawn tempura, 

'Cheers!',

main courses, for Diana a MISO wok noodle, 

dare I say it again? 'Cheers!',

for myself a roast duck rice, the bill came to £71.70 plus service charge,

next stop, on to the bus and home, past Foxgrove Lodge and into the park,

the rhododendron in the side garden of the lodge starting to open up,

then past the snail mail box and home, where it was feet up for a coffee and a few nibbles as we watched a Bangers & Cash, we then started to watch,

 Mad Max: Fury Road (2015), it had such a set of fantastical vehicles, if you have not watched it and want great car/lorry chases this is the one! 

photograph John Platt, I made a post about the stars of the film, the cars here, as it happens we did not watch all of it, we were both a tad tired and as we are up at 04.00AM tomorrow morning, we decided to have an early night, so we were of to bed.

After Dropping Diana Off At Work,

I made my way to Norwood Lakes, 

rain was forecast, 

but it was bright when I arrived, 

popular with dog walkers, fishermen and boaters,

it has a nice selection of birds, 

these are just a few I have posted at random, 

one of everything I saw today, 

but I have a few that are worth playing with, then it happened with a crash of thunder, or three, the skies opened up,

a huge storm passed overhead unleashing quite large hailstones, I made my way back under cover,

although it looks bright, the hail had turned into huge drops of rain, lots of them!

I and the camera were by now thoroughly soaked, so home I went, but here is one shot of a grebe in the hailstorm that I played with and printed out on a A3 piece of paper,

below are the three I played with and printed out on A3 size paper, 

a brown headed duck, the hailstones falling around the grebe, and a moorhen,

next I was out, the Beckenham Photographic Society was having the end of season get together, so past the snail mail box, 

I walked into town, it had rained so much the pavement was flooded in places, 

past a very wet green, 

and graveyard, 

into M & S for a couple of slices of fruit cake, 

and into here, Deli Nene,

there were going to be about 15 or so of us, 

and here we are, I started with chicken strips, 

and a mixed kebab, 

followed with baklava, a with a bottle of wine my bill came to £65.00, but before that on our table we chatted away, from book binding and my apprenticeship as a ruler, 

the machine I learnt on was a 4 carriage Shaw pen ruling machine, in the video above, 

also my travels in India and a series of videos I made and sold in the shop, for some reason the narration made by myself has disappeared and been replaced with music, it is a bit long as it is the complete video, below are a few shorts from it and other videos I made for the shop,

back to my apprenticeship we also chatted about fore edge pictures, I made a post about it many years ago it is here, and a then a coincidence I mention that I had bought Diana a early Christmas present, a hover, the one we bought 7 years or so ago when we moved back to the UK had failed, so when she first used I reminded her to remember this at Christmas, and then today I received this:

what a coincidence! speaking of Christmas I mentioned another present, a step ladder, which will come in handy to repair this, 

one of our three ceiling lights has come adrift, 

it looks serious but at least we have a step ladder, but we are running out of time, tomorrow in the afternoon we have tickets for a Midsomer Murder at the Churchill, and a meal afterwards, the next day Diana is off to Krakow, so I will get a electrician in to put it back whilst she is away, so back home I beat Diana by about 20 minutes so we settled down to a Bangers & Cash before we were off to bed.

I Had A Quiet Day,

and also a visit from Rainham Steve and his grandson Jay, 

for some time I have been trying to make a web page for my photographs, unfortunaly I had reached a stage where all of the bits & pieces I had to do was well above my pay grade, so Steve very kindly brought Jay up with him, and he nailed it! there is still a lot more work to do, (for Jay), but hopefully after a few more weeks my web site will be up and running, many thanks indeed to Steve and especially Jay, I would still be so stuck without his help, after they left I had another look at some of the photographs from my most recent trip to Kelsey Park, above a Canadian goose has a one legged stretch, 

I am always amazed at the size of a coots foot, 

one of the Common Goldeneye (Bucephala clangula), 

as it happens there are quite a few in the park, after I arrived back Diana was home from work, so a bite to eat and I was out, 

past the snail mail box and on to a number 54 bus, tonight it was the last of the seasons nature meetings before breaking up until the autumn, 

and this is where we were meeting, The Elm Tree at Elmers End, 

some of the group had already arrived, when all of us had settled down we started looking at my photographs, everyone  else had brought memory sticks with them, some of the photographs again were just so good compared to my efforts, must try harder! and that is the great thing about being in a photography club, it gives you the insight as to what others are doing, also where and how they captured the images they were showing, when the meeting broke up I made a move for home, as Diana had a 05.00AM start today she was getting ready for bed, for myself a Bangers & Cash before I too was off to bed.

I Have Forgotten To Mention,

tonight's nature group meeting, 

it will be taking place here at The Elm Tree at Elmers End, starting at 7.30 in the evening, the nature group comprises of members of the Beckenham Photographic Society, and anyone else that has a interest in photographs of our natural world, members will be bringing along prints and digital images, a laptop will be there to look at the digital images,

as you go into the pub continue past the bar and behind it we will be hopefully sitting here, the night manager, Liam said he will try to reserve the table for us, so do not be shy pop along and say Hi!