This morning seemed to start bright, but it has been getting duller and duller now. I think this rules out the BBC weather forecast as having any kinship with reality today. OK then, lets try the Met Office forecast again.

   The Met Office seem to have predicted it getting cloudy after a bright start early this morning. I'm not sure I believe a big heavy cloud is just about to pass over us, and drop rain on our heads, but maybe it will happen a little later. With luck there will be sunny intervals around lunchtime, and at 20° C it could feel warm in any sunshine. This evening will probably be wet - both forecasters agree on that, but not the actual times. Looks like the garden won't need watering again today. Tomorrow there seems to be two possibilities again, although they are similar at a very broad level. Both forecasts say it will be very overcast all day. The BBC reckon it will stay dry, but the Met Office predict a few showers. The BBC predict 21° C, and the Met Office say 20° C (but more like 19° C for more of the afternoon).

  If recent weather, and some of the predictions for a week or more ahead seem to be very poor for July weather, they are ! I have checked my records from last year, and much of July was at least 23° C, and 25° C more typical. There were even a few days over 30° C last July. I blame the Brexiteers for bringing back traditional English summers. I much prefer the continental summers we had while firmly in the EU !


   After being put off by walking out into some light rain the day before, I went out regardless of the weather yesterday. At the start there were some nice sunny spells, and the sun felt hot, but they were fairly short lived. For the entire walk the majority of the sky was covered by grey clouds. I managed the first two hours walking in the dry, but then it started to rain. It was just a brief shower or two at first, but the last 15 (?) minutes featured some semi heavy rain. That was the start of quite a few moderate showers that continued into the evening.

  My walk was partly a walk of discovery. I walked through some roads that I had never walked along before - and some of them were less than a quarter mile from where I used to live. Along the way I discovered a parade of shops that I didn't know existed, and a pub that I had never realised was there. The shops and pub were very close, literally round the corner, from part of my short lived paper round I did in 1969 or 1970 (I have no real idea of what the dates were, but I know it was at least a couple of years before I started work after leaving school).

  I also discovered a new road. Well, the road has always been there, and probably not significantly changed since I lived around the corner until I moved to my own house in 1983. On the whole it was very worthwhile walk, and it sort of made me feel good. The only downside is that it started to rain just as Angela might have been ready to leave her office, and possibly go to the park. She didn't go, and I can't say I can blame her, but I did miss seeing her. Maybe I might have more luck today.
  It felt like a bit of a struggle walking to the top of Mountsfield Park yesterday. The previous time I did it I felt it was much easier. The main consolation was that I did most of the walk from home in bright sunshine. It was all thanks to some gaps in the cloud like the one pictured above. This was the view to the east. There was a small patch of blue, where the sun was high in the sky to the south, but the rest of the sky was grey cloud. There are other views of the sky in the video.
  What may have been a temporary road block, probably to trial some traffic calming measures, near the junction of Davenport Rd and George Lane, has taken on a more permanent look now. There is now a gap between the planters, and a drop down bollard installed in the road. It all seems pointless because if you know the area there is a parallel road that bypasses the road block, and is shorter too, but maybe motorists don't like turning left, and prefer to drive straight on - well they can't now.
 Someone must have been reading my mind when I was thinking how easy it would be to drive up on the path to bypass the road block. Well you can't do that now. A bollard has been put in the middle of the path now.
  It is not a road, street, avenue, alley, or lane - it is just Littlewood ! This road, because it is a road, is less than 10 minutes walk, probably just 5 minutes at fairly fast pace, from where I used to live, and I didn't know it existed. It is probably because it doesn't go anywhere useful, or at least it doesn't now. Once upon a time it would have been useful as part of a short cut, including a couple of alleys, to get to Ladywell Swimming baths - but only if I had wanted to go there, which I didn't except on the school bus (although I think we did walk once or twice).
  At the end of another road I had never gone down before (Campshill Road) I found a parade of shops I never knew existed. The style of the flats above the shops matches the style of the house I used to live in, and on that basis I estimate these shops were an early 1960s build, but possibly earlier. There are a scattering of similar style houses in the area that would seem to have been build in places that were bomb damaged (or flattened) during WW2. I can imagine they were a thriving row of useful shops once, but now they all look very sad.
  It is hard to miss a pub, but I never knew this one existed until yesterday - and that being despite it being only just off the main(ish) road that starts as Hither Green Lane, and ends up as Courthill Road at the Lewisham end. Of course one reason for not knowing about it is that it closed in 1971, and that was just as I started drinking. After all these years it is still instantly recognisable as an old pub. It was called The Sir John Morden.