last days of summer

No, summer is not over! NO NO NO. And I can say this confidently because Stuart has NOT ALLOWED it. There have to be some perks to your job when you work for the government.

So we spent today’s late-summer day hiking a leg of the London Outer Orbital Path (or London LOOP), from Bexley to Petts Wood. Stuart was keen to have me come along because he grew up in Petts Wood and we’d somehow still never managed to visit it in all the time I’ve lived in this country.

I spent a bit too much time fiddling around with my shiny new telephone that also has a camera in it. You can make your photos look like you took them on a cheap camera, accidentally left them in the sun and then they got rained on. Modern technology, eh?

Two slightly altered views of Five Arch Bridge over the River Cray.

We found this very odd ruin of a 13th-century manor house of the de Scathebury family, then the Walsinghams, rebuilt to look even more ruin-ish over various centuries, but surrounded by a moat which we were unable to jump (due to not wanting to dampen my telephone, drat it).

Coronation chicken and tea for lunch. Here’s the guidebook we were using, The London Loop by David Sharp. Mr Sharp makes me laugh with his thorough notes that have touches of editorial flair, such as:
Ahead, we have to negotiate a complex two-level junction where the A20 mets the A222, but, fear not, our need has been provided for. Beyond the bus stops, a cycle and pedestrian route drops down to turn right and duck under the first road, then loops up, with steps for a short cut, to cross over the central road traffic. Then it dives down again for a repeat performance before our route goes under a final carriageway and you turn left up to road level again, bewildered but unharmed. On surfacing, keep ahead beside the road for a few paces, then right through a gate with a deep sense of relief, into the greenery of Scadbury Park.

A luverly old house with a nice smelling herb garden (That’s Sidcup Place and it is now a pub, says Mr Sharp.)

It was fun crunching our way through all the acorns on the ground, and here is a very large oak that my inner-hippie told me needed a hug. (No, I did not draw those blue lines on it.)

Look, fuzzy noses! Fuzzy noses are the best things ever.

This clocktower inscription made me laugh: While ye have light believe. Doesn’t it immediately make you think, because when it’s dark, that’s when THE CREATURES come out? Foot’s Cray should have its own annual Thriller Night.

Then Stuart and I crossed this old railway bridge and had fun taking photos of each other on it. This one has a Russian LOMO camera filter on it. I love how it came out.

At the end of the walk, I bought a rather fabulous spring jacket in a vintage shop in Petts Wood for £4.50, which pleased me to no end. (Seasonality is all in the mind, right?)