Today marks the end of the sunshine for some time. To mark the occasion the sky should be very clear, and the sunshine non stop until sunset. Like yesterday the temperature will only rise to 12° C for a couple of hours in the afternoon. After that it will slowly fall, and like this morning, tomorrow morning may be a rather cool 7° C. It may warm up to 13° C tomorrow, but the whole days, apart from some brief sunny spells at 1pm, will be rather dull. Of course the reality will almost certainly be a lot different to what is currently forecast for tomorrow (and today !).

The early morning sunshine meant that I didn't need to force myself to go out for a walk yesterday. I was feeling quite good for a change, and looking forward to doing what I had set out to do near the beginning of the month. That was my idea of getting the train to Clock House station, and walking home from there. In particular I wanted to follow a footpath that I only discovered on a walk in the spring or summer. That footpath, plus a little bit along roads, lead from Clock House station to Cator Park. From there it was just a matter of following the Waterlink Way to home. That was a familiar walk.

  I don't think I realised how early I left home to go on this walk. According to the tracking app on my phone it was only 10.57am when I got off the train at Clock House station. When I left the station I noticed a footpath that I don't think was marked on the map I was using. It starts with a small staircase right next to the railway bridge over the road. It lead down to the road that I thought I would be starting from.

  From there I found the path that ducks under two railway lines before ending the other side of the road to an entrance to Cator Park. It was a very smooth walk that was only spoiled by two things. The first was that my Nikon D80 camera is still consistently under exposing pictures, and the second is that I developed a nasty stitch under my right breast that caused a fair bit of discomfort for the last half mile or so.
  This was the first point of interest of the new path I was following. It is a tunnel, or subway beneath the Tramlink lines and also the railway from Beckenham Junction to Birkbeck station. On one map it almost looked like it was a pedestrian level crossing over the railway, and that could have been possible if it were only Tramlink being crossed. There are plenty of them on the Tramlink system, but such a thing is not allowed for a heavy rail line despite the trains going no faster, and much less frequently than trams.
  After going through the tunnel/subway above, the path continues down the middle of an extensive area of allotments. I noticed this cute little shed/house through the fence.
  The allotments are bordered by allotments on the (approx) north and south borders. The path continues under the main railway line between Kent House station and Beckenham Junction. This subway is square rather than arched, and a bit longer because it passes under 4 tracks. At the other end you can see directly into Cator Park, but you need to cross a road to get to it.
  I was hoping that Cator Park would have some brilliantly coloured trees or shrubs in their autumn colours, but like most of the parks I frequent there are just a few here and there. This brilliant red leafed tree (or shrub) was all alone, and apart from one other little patch of a red leafed shrub near the bas of a tree, it was the only red colour I spotted in there.
  The cycle and foot path between Lower Sydenham station and Bell Green has a long wall/fence on one side, and it is a magnet for graffiti, but it now has this colourful mural that has been painted over the sill scrawls and other unpleasant mess. It looks much nicer, and makes the path look more inviting.
  It is my estimation that Heathrow airport is somewhere in the distance in a direction just left of centre of this photo. Like all the pictures it was originally under exposed, and needed a fair bit of brightening, but it still lacks the punch of the view as seen by my eyes.
  Some nice person has hung a feeder from one of the trees in the Linear Park. I caught this blue tit having a peck at a fat ball. I really wish I had taken a better camera to get this picture. At some point in the future I may even lug a tripod to the park to see if I can get some far better pictures. I'll probably take some peanuts as well to top the feeder up.
  The last time I was in the park, near the beginning of the month I think, I noticed that The Friends Of The River Pool had started to clean up a new bit of the river bank. I speculated that they would be adding steps down to the water, and indeed that have almost done so. There is still about a 3ft drop to the water level at the bottom of the steps, but it looks like there is a very short path to the right at the bottom, and maybe there will be a slope down to the water from there. On the other side of the woven branches on the left is a deep drop to where a culvert emerges to join the river. On a warm dry daay I must get down there to investigate further.
  When I got back as far as Catford Bridge station the stitch under my right breast was getting annoying. With a train due in a few minutes, it seemed like a good place to take a breather for a few minutes. That allowed the pain to fade away, and I got lucky getting a picture of one of Southeastern's new (SWT hand me downs) class 707 trains. It was 707001 - the first in it's class !

  If it were not for that stitch, and the poor results I was getting from my Nikon D80 camera, I would have described it as an excellent walk. One thing about it was it was mostly downhill as I followed the course of The River Pool for most of the way. The only place it wasn't down hill was Lower Sydenham. The river does a large curve there around a small hill, but there is no path along the river at that point, and I had to walk along the road up the hill.

 Nevertheless, I was very happy with how my legs and feet were feeling when I got home. 3.365 miles, and I guess there was also a near half mile walk from home to where I got on the train at Catford Bridge station, was the longest walk I have done for several months (since July I think), and my legs and feet felt good for at least another mile, and possibly more. I did feel generally tired though.

  I spent the afternoon having a couple of bowls of instant noodles, having a snooze, and selecting and editing photos. After that it was time for dinner. I had a sausage and sprouts for dinner. The I had precooked the sprouts the day before, and the sausage was actually "sausage squares". They seem to appear at this time of year in preparation for people using them to make stuff for Turkey. I just don't see the point of using a meat, turkey meat, that is so bland that it needed loads of sausage meat stuffing, and sauces and stuff to make it edible. Why not have a nice chicken, and use the turkeys for cat and dog food ? Anyway, the sausage and sprouts was far nicer than my bacon and sprouts I had the previous day.

  I thought I would be getting to sleep really early after all that fresh air and walking, but while it was earlier than the previous night, it was still not that early when I went to sleep. Maybe it was around 10pm. I seemed to sleep well, and maybe that is indicated by the fact that I barely remember dreaming. All I do remember was waking up with the idea that I had been dreaming about buying some Wellington boots, or maybe some leather boots. I think I was probably thinking about using them to wade in the shallower parts of the river, and as such Wellington boots would probably be the better choice.

  This morning my blood glucose was down to 8.8mmol/l. I was hoping it might have been lower. It is feeling like whatever magic it was that was giving me lower reading for a few weeks has now worn off, and I need to get back to being very careful about what I am eating. I do wonder if some of that magic might have been eating some bread now and then. I would expect the opposite, but I may invest in another nice crusty loaf sometime soon.

  My main plan today is to hope to meet Angela for a lunchtime drink. If I can get myself ready in time, I need a shave, shampoo and shower first, I might go out early and try and get a couple of miles of walking in before heading for the pub. If the promised full on sunshine does happen it could be nice out there. At the moment the sunshine is a bit hazy, and there are quite a few patches of thin, semi transparent cloud still in the sky.