Thanks to a clear sky this morning my thermometer says that the temperature in my garden is only 8.9° C. Hopefully it will rise to 18° C again, but maybe not until as late as 6pm. The sky is mostly blue at the moment, and the sun, still very low in the sky, is doing it's best to shine. Apparently it won't be long before clouds move in again, and the latest revision to the forecast says it will be completely overcast from about 9am, and no more sun will get through for the rest of the day. Sometimes the sky will be heavily overcast with dark grey clouds, but the chances of rain never get higher than 10% today. Tomorrow may feature sunny spells from morning to early in the afternoon. It will take it's time getting there, maybe not until 6pm, but the temperature may rise to 19° C tomorrow.

 
  Yesterday was a busy day, and quite enjoyable - very enjoyable for a while ! It was also a day that featured some annoying pain. I think I mentioned back ache yesterday morning. It was a bit strange as back aches go, and may well have been some internal organ complaining rather than a pulled muscle. The centre of the pain was offset to the side of my back rather than centred on the spine as many back aches are. It was not noticeable when standing up, or sitting upright in a chair, but was bothersome when, for instance, bending over the bath while washing my hair. It was a real bother when laying down, and even more so when trying to get to sleep.

  I went out for a walk unusually early in the morning yesterday. I had hoped it might cure that back ache, but primarily I was out to take what pictures I could get of the bridge replacement work going on under and over the railway - it was the bridge that carries The Catford Loop Line over the Mid Kent Line just south of Catford and Catford Bridge stations. Unfortunately there is no way to get close to the bridge, and there are too many trees to get a clear shot from any distance away. It would be easier in winter when the trees have shed their leaves.

  I walked more than originally intended because I decided the best thing to do was to do a circular walk centred on the bridge. That meant half by road, and half through the River Pool Linear Park. There is one spot in the park where the bridge can be seen, but it is not a clear view, although it could be called the clearest view.
  I had hoped to get onto the platform of Catford Bridge station because there is a relatively clear view up the line to the bridge, but while the door to the ticket office was open, the entrances onto the platform were all closed. This board outside the ticket office gives details of rail replacement trains. There was a neater, printed version on the door as well.
  This is the best view possible from inside the park. It shows the new bridge in place, but still supported by a huge hydraulic jack mounted on a trailer that seems to have more wheels on it than I have ever seen before ! If I had gone out the day before yesterday, and at the right time, I might have seen the old bridge being yanked out by gigantic crane. Maybe if I had gone out a lot earlier yesterday I may have seen the new bridge being dropped into place by the same crane.
  What I had hoped would be the clearest view was from the road bridge over the railway, and looking down the line with a telephoto lens, but the trees were just too thick, particularly on the left, to see the bridge abutments. I took this picture on the return leg of my walk. A picture taken from the same vantage point on the outward leg of my walk showed the bridge still covered in a tarpaulin. I think I may have missed it being lowered into place by quite a short period of time.
  For better pictures of the bridge I took my Nikon D3200 DSLR camera with me. It enabled me to get a couple of shots that my pocket camera just could not manage. Whenever I attempted shots like this my little camera would always want to focus on the background, but the Nikon could easily be set to focus on these teasels, and more importantly, could do it from 15ft away from them !
  Another close up shot. This time an almost fully ripe blackberry. A lack of rain earlier seems to have left most of the blackberries looking rather small this year.
  One notable feature yesterday morning (maybe around 10.30am) was how busy the traffic was on the south circular raod through Catford in a westbound direction. It looked like morning rush hour, but on a Sunday morning ! There was a sign up warning of gas works in the Forest Hill area, but I find it incredulous that the tailback could be originating a few miles way, but I guess that is what it may have been.

  Once I got home I had a few hours to kill before going out again. After my (almost) 3 mile walk I fancied a bit of breakfast, but with another walk coming up I didn't fancy eating too much. I just had some rice crackers, and some peanuts. I rested for a while by laying on my bed reading, and I did try and have a snooze, but my back was killing me no matter how I tried to position myself on my bed.


   My afternoon entertainment was a "street gig" in Hither Green. It meant walking another couple of miles. In fact it was 2.67 miles there and back. It added up to 5.635 miles of exercise yesterday !

  The gig didn't feature a named band. It was just a few friends of Richard Tokarski, otherwise known as Dik, a musician friend of mine, playing in the front garden of a house in Hither Green.

 Dik played guitar, and looper pedal (look it up if you don't know what one is). Steve Cox, one time bass player for The Bluesicians (who became Chain) was on bass, and vocals were sung by Francesca Payne (from somewhere in Catford), and Abby Harte who lives near Steve Cox whose house they were playing outside. I had first met Abby at the Sunday night open mic nights in the The Catford Ram. At the time she would sing, and occasionally play guitar. She told ne she has given up guitar now.