In search of Sevilles

I have spent the past few days looking for the Seville oranges that are in season at this time of year and bring brightness to dull January days.  However, Lidl never sells them, Sainsbury's in Clapham didn't have any and nor did Tesco in Brixton or in Streatham (the Swan Whisperer very kindly looked after skating).  I had thought of going to Tulse Hill Sainsbury's, but they probably wouldn't have had them.  

I thought that, if anywhere would have them, it would be the massive Sainsbury's in Nine Elms, but it is a serious trek to get there.  However, one could make a proper Expotition of it.  I thought at first I'd go up there on the 196, then take the Tube from Nine Elms Station to Battersea Power Station Station and the P5 home, but it is rather minor roads between Battersea Power Station Station and the P5 terminus, and it would be dark by the time I got there (I'd been watching the Men's Short at the Europeans, so hadn't been out earlier).  So I thought I'd postpone the excursion to tomorrow, and just pop out to Lidl for today's necessities.  But just as I got to the bus stop, there was a P5, so I thought I'd do the trip the other way round.  

So first I got the P5 to Thessaly Road, and walked under the eponymous bridge (which calls itself Thessaly Road Bridge, but as it is patently a railway bridge, that is a bit of a misnomer) to Battersea Power Station Station.

The trains aren't very frequent from there, so I had to wait 6 minutes, but of course the train was in the station so I could sit down, very comfortable.  It is only a couple of minutes to Nine Elms, which I'd been through before, but never got in or out at.  I love the inside-out "Underground" logo that you see as you approach the exit:

Sainsbury's is just next door

and I was delighted to find they did have the Sevilles in stock, so from that point of view it was a most successful Expotition.  

On the way back, I decided to change buses at Stockwell Bus Garage, catching a 196 from opposite Sainsbury's and changing to a P5.  Big mistake - normally, when I do that, both buses arrive at the stop within seconds of each other, but this time I must have just missed the P5 and had to wait for a quarter of an hour for the next one - which was just in front of the next 196!  Ah well, I got home at last, in time for a much-needed cup of tea - as I hadn't expected to be out for more than a few minutes, I hadn't bothered to bring my water with me, and missed it rather badly!

RAF Hendon, revisited

I was meeting my friend MrsRev for lunch today, and suggested the RAF Museum at Hendon as being the sort of place we both like, and quite near where she needed to be before and after.  We spent most of the time in the restaurant putting the world to rights and catching up with each other's gossip.  I had the salad plate again, but although I ordered a small plate, it was far too much and I was nowhere near finishing it.  With hindsight, I'd have done better with a jacket potato with beans.... ah well. 

Anyway, after MrsRev had gone, I went round to the hangars that I hadn't been able to see last time when I had Boy 2 in tow.  I was glad I did - loads of 2nd World War planes, Spitfires and Hurricanes and so on, and you got the feeling of the size of them. 

There were a lot more than that, but those were the only decent photos I took!  There was also a film about the Battle of Britain - Germany would probably have won if they hadn't kept changing their minds about what to target - first, the radar network.  This could have been disastrous, but then they decided to go after the various RAF airfields instead - and then a bomb fell on Berlin which destroyed a garden shed and injured two people, and Hitler was furious so unleashed the Blitz in all its fury.  But that gave the RAF time to breathe and recoup, and so the Battle of Britain was finally won and there was no invasion.

Then there was another film about the Dam Busters, which I rather wanted to see as we had seen the dams just a couple of months ago.   Unfortunately, I fell asleep during it, and didn't quite like to put it on again when it had finished, as there was someone else there!  Oh well.

Then I came away, and found out the hard way that if you want to change at Euston, you need to be on the Bank branch of the Northern Line, which is a cross-platform change.  It's not miles if you're on the Charing Cross branch, which I was, but it's not cross-platform!  But I would have had to have waited for several trains at Colindale before there was a Bank branch one, so swings and roundabouts....

Geekery gone wrong

So yesterday, after grandmother duty, I decided to be a total geek and go home by bus, as the 48 was being withdrawn from service. They have already removed the numbers from the bus stops.

With hindsight, I should have decided honour had been satisfied when we got to Hackney, and got on the Overground to Highbury and Islington and then the Victoria Line home. 

However, I didn't. And I don't know what went wrong but the bus suddenly decided to terminate at Shoreditch. And, of course, I don't know where the bus stops are there

Again, I could have got the Overground but I couldn't see the station. I eventually found the bus stop, but the 35 didn't come and didn't come and didn't come. Eventually a 26 came, who said he was going to Waterloo, but was not stopping at Liverpool Street but was going straight to Bank. 

 So I thought better than nothing and got on. Soon enough I saw Aldgate East Station and decided to get the District Line to Victoria and then the Victoria Line home. This was a big mistake as the heavens opened just as I got off the bus and although it was only about 25 yards to the entrance, I was soaked!

And what have they done at Victoria? Instead of a short flight of stairs, a very short corridor and an escalator to change lines, you now have to walk about a mile along corridors you have no idea where they are going. Okay, they now have lifts, but what's the point if you have to walk miles to find them? I was not impressed. 

I didn't quite like to ask the driver of the 35 that met me at Brixton where he had started from - I bet it wasn't Shoreditch, though.

 

And now we are off again, to Italy this time. Only as far as Watten tonight, so I'll start that blog properly tomorrow. 

... And yet another aviation museum

Two years ago, we spent the weekend in Scotland for me to attend the AGMT of the NCC.  Last year it was a one-day affair in London, but this year it was again a weekend event.  This time, in Croydon.  I could have gone as a "day girl" (and frankly, given the hotel, I rather wished I had), but it's nice to have a weekend away with good friends.  The Friday evening is devoted to socialising, and the Sunday to business and a book sale, but the Saturday is always a "day out".

This year, we started off at the cemetery in Redhill for a short service to mark the 50th anniversary of  EBD's death, and a wreath was laid.

Fortunately, the weather was wonderful, as you can see from the shadows in the picture.  We then returned to the coaches and were driven to East Grinstead, just in time to take the Bluebell Railway down to Sheffield Park. That, of course, was as lovely and relaxing as a ride on a steam railway always is, and then when we arrived at Sheffield Park station there was a choice of activities.  First port of call was lunch in the pub on the station, which was extremely good.  I had a potato and broccoli bake, which was delicious, with peas.  And later an ice-cream from the kiosk.  But between the two courses, I wandered round the station, looking at their engine shed, which was open to the public,

and then crossing the footbridge to go the small museum on the other platform.

Those of the party who had elected to visit Sheffield Park and Garden came back rather cross and footsore as apparently it had been a lot further away than they had anticipated.  "They said it was only a few minutes' walk.  They lied!" said someone.

Back into the coaches, and most of us dozed our way to our final stop of the day, the Gatwick Aviation Museum.   Frankly, after RAFs Hendon and Cosford, I was rather underwhelmed.  I'd hoped that there would be more of the history of civil aviation, and perhaps some examples of civilian aircraft,  But it appeared to be a display of fighter aircraft again, and endless engines - frankly, one aircraft engine seems to look very much like another!  Most of us were flagging quite badly by then, so we sat and ate ice cream until it was time to return to the buses, and back to our hotel for the evening's entertainment.

Going bats

Windmill Gardens is only ten minutes' walk from where I live, but it really isn't somewhere I go very often, these days.  Last time I went was to the Bread and Beer festival in May 2018.  But tonight there was a bat walk!

It's been on my bucket list for years, doing a bat walk, but somehow I never seem to be in the right place at the right time.  I've missed a couple in Windmill Gardens simply because we were away when they happened.  There was a last-minute panic when I was asked to do grandmother duty today instead of tomorrow (which I couldn't have done anyway, but the Swan Whisperer would have done it), but luckily the Boy had football training at 17:30, which meant I was able to be home by 18:15 in time to have a snack and go straight out again.

There were already a dozen or so people gathered in the Gardens when I arrived - it is only a very small park - but more arrived as time went on, and I think there were probably 40 people or so when the evening commenced.  Three of them were children, about the age of our grandsons, but these ones were all girls. The Swan Whisperer was there for the talk, but he had a meeting so couldn't stay.  It began with a talk by Dr Iain Boulton, who is Lambeth's Environmental Compliance Officer, which basically means he is responsible for knowing what wildlife exists in Lambeth, and making sure it is encouraged to stay there (I did want to ask him whether he could help with the foxes creating unwanted havoc in the garden here, but didn't get a chance).  He explained about bats.  Bats, of course, are the only truly flying mammal, with their hands adapted to make wings.  But they are really mammals - warm-blooded, and give birth to live young, which they suckle.  There are many species of bats in this country, but the ones they'd expected to see most often in Windmill Gardens are pipistrelles.  All British bats are insectivores, and they hibernate in winter.  September is a brilliant time to see them, since they are active at sunset and sunrise, rather than in the depths of the night.  Each bat eats about 1,000 insects a night, so a healthy bat population means a healthy insect population.

Dr Boulton then handed out bat detectors, and explained how to use them.  You pointed them at trees rather than into the sky or towards the ground.   All this time, the sun was setting, and although at first we pointed our detectors in vain, after about 5 minutes they burst into a cacophony of clicks and, when you knew where to look, you could follow the bats swooping round the park, between the trees.  As the evening wore on, they came more and more out into the open - I could swear one passed within inches of my face.  I've seen bats before, of course - they come over the lake in Sussex, and I've seen them around Villard-de-Lans - but in inner London?  I really hadn't expected we'd see so many, and of course it's not possible to tell whether these were the same  bats doing the rounds or several different ones, but there must have been a minimum of four or five. 

We are now wondering whether we can borrow a detector to see if there are any in the church gardens - bet there are! 

I didn't take any photos - the light was too poor, and anyway, the bats moved too fast - so here's a photo of the Oaks Bottom in Sussex, where we had tea yesterday.  Bet they have lots of bats there.....