I hadn't got very far when I found something interesting to take a picture of (maybe only to certain limits of interesting). At first I thought it was one display for each platform, but in fact one display was for Catford Station, and one display for Catford Bridge station. For local people who are familiar with the two stations it could be useful, but for visitors it could be confusing if they didn't realise Catford Bridge was a completely separate station that is a a few hundred feet to the right of the signs.
  I don't usually have much luck taking photos of butterflies (and small birds) unless they stay still and pose for me. That is exactly what this butterfly did, but only for a second or two, but that was enough to get this snap.
  Like many small flying things, dragonflies, or damselflies, as these may be, don't tend to stay still for very long. To make things more interesting I had to take this picture across the top of chest high stinging nettles, and across the river. At that range there was no possibility of getting a good sharp shot of one of these damselflies, but their bright blue colour can easily be seen,
  There are many of these land drainage pipes alongside the part of the river that is enclosed between concrete walls. I thought that would be where rats would live, but this duckling seems quite happy to sit at the end of a pipe sunning itself.
  This duck looks too big to be a duckling, but maybe still a youngster. On the other hand it could be the mum of the duckling in the picture above this one. What is definite is that it is sitting on the edge of the concrete of the river channel, and maybe a couple of feet above water level. I can imagine that concrete felt very warm in the sunshine.
  Beyond the end of the park, near the main road at Lower Sydenham, is an area of rough land, and in the middle of it are these beehives. The first time I saw them there were just 3 hives, if I recall correctly. Now there are 8 hives. You can see all the bees (albeit as unfocussed blobs) flying around near the hive entrances. I did go in a lot closer, but with so many flowers out now, the bees were too busy to pose, and completely ignored me.
  There are several apple trees near Lower Sydenham station, and they are all behind security fencing. This one is by the footbridge, and there are a lack of apples within reaching distance of the bridge. Higher up, or further away from the bridge there ill probably be a good crop of apples fallen off, and just rotting under the tree in Autumn.
  This was another butterfly that posed for me, but wouldn't open it's wings for a better photo. It was on a wall, that is a sort of secondary containment for the river for when the river is exceptionally high. It was also right by a lady and her dog.

  I didn't recognise the lady or her dog when I passed by on the other side of the river earlier, although I realise now that she recognised me. She was the lady who I used to speak to every now and then in the winter and spring when she was out dog walking. Of course at those times she was wrapped up in a long coat and hat, and she usually had a couple of dogs with her. After walking to Lower Sydenham station I came back and passed her on the same side of the river.

  I stopped to say hello to her dog, who was in the middle of the path, and potentially blocking my way. The lady, whose name I discovered is called Mouse, started telling me that the dog was poorly, and also mentioned that he was a rescue dog from the mountains of Spain. At that moment I clicked, and said that's Freya, and indeed it was. Mouse, who was dangling her feet in the river, turned towards me, and said "you don't recognise me without all my dog walking gear".

  I didn't, but I did recognise her dog ! We ended up having quite a long chat, and it was a sad one. Her dog, a beautiful all white dog, has been diagnosed with cancer. This is why I haven't seen them for a long time. It seems he is probably in the last few weeks of his life, and maybe even less. I also heard more about her own life. That is going through a bad spell as well. It seems she found me easy to talk to, and I was happy to listen. I think I'll be walking in the park a bit more often now to keep an eye on her.
  Things have got a little out of sequence here because I took this photo on the walk from Lower Sydenham station to where I let the lady and her dog. The reason it is out of sequence is because I used my mobile phone to take this picture. It is far better for extreme close-ups than the Nikon P500 camera I used for all the other pictures. It is a shame I couldn't seem to get the angle right, and the image centred in the frame, because I thought I had take a good picture of the sort of thistle as used on Scottish icons, but I obviously moved the phone as I touched the shutter button, or maybe before the picture had been taken. It ended up with half the thistle disappearing off the top of the picture. Useless !

  It felt like I was pushing it to walk 4.5 miles yesterday. (I forgot to pause the GPS tracking when I went into a shop, and the resultant errors must have added at least 0.1 miles to the total, and so I only claim 4.5 miles, and not the 4.6 miles in the picture near the top of this page). It seemed like it was hard work walking towards home while I was still a mile away, but curiously it didn't seem to get worse. On top of the aches from my knees and leg muscles, my feet were feeling rather sore at the end.

  On the way I called into the Sainsbury's Local store by Catford station. I bought three of their rather nice "Mediterranean style" salads - and nothing else. I did succumb and eat an Aldi "peppery leaf" salad maybe half an hour after I got home, but I resisted the temptation to add other stuff to it. I spent the rest of the few hours before dinner time having a snooze, and editing photos.

  I had a two part dinner. Part one was one of the salads I had bought from Sainsbury's, and part two was a heap of grilled bacon. It should have been a mostly healthy dinner, although maybe only when judged by it's sugar content. Before dinner I checked my blood glucose level, and it hadn't dropped as low as I hoped, although I did have a sort of breakfast of a few bits or this and that. Then again I didn't think anything I ate yesterday was particularly contentious.

  It was most definitely hot last night, and it was my hope that I would get to sleep early, and sleep through some of the discomfort. That was actually a stupid idea. One trouble was my legs. A bit of very light sunburn probably didn't help the more major problem I had. On my walk I was brave, or stupid enough to walk along nearly all the river path in shorts. My bare legs came in contact with a multitude of stinging nettles. It was obviously quite painful, but my last experience suggested the pain would fade before I had finished my walk. Not this time !

  Most of the time I barely noticed those nettle stings from the time I left the park until I went to bed. Any pressure, either from the just the sheet below my legs, or from the other leg, would make the pain roar up again. I decided to see what some Aloe Vera moisturising cream would do if I rubbed it on my legs. At first it just made things worse, but after while (maybe as little as a very long feeling 10 minutes) the pain starting fading away. It didn't go completely, but it was enough to be able to catch a bit of sleep.

   It didn't feel like I slept well at all last night. It was definitely a very hot and sticky night. I probably slept better in the last few hours of this morning. In fact I think I got 3 or even possibly 4 hours of solid sleep before waking at 7am. It still didn't feel like it was good sleep, but for 3 or 4 hours to pass by in what seemed like a few seconds, I am guessing I was sleeping very deeply.

  This morning my blood glucose is up to 9.2mmol/l. That is very high considering I don't think I ate anything that had any significant sugar in it yesterday, and after doing a 4.5 mile walk (which might have even burnt off 600+ calories). I can only assuming that after a hot sticky night I was rather dehydrated this morning. Judging by the colour of my urine this theory is probably correct. The good news is that my legs seem OK, and didn't complain when having a hot shower (although the top of my head did feel like it was probably sunburnt).

  I was thinking that maybe I would take a short walk in the park just after midday to see if Mouse is in there with her dog, and it is possible I still might, but things are a bit busy today. I have already had a shower, and fed the birds, but the next thing I need to do is to wash just three things, and get them on the line to dry in the hot sunshine. Those items are a hand towel, a small, and thin bath towel, and the white t-shirt I was wearing yesterday. Doing that is going to get me very hot and sticky. Later on this afternoon Jodie will be arriving for another beer drinking session. Maybe I'll have time for that walk, or maybe not.