While we were in the area, we visited Bodiam Castle (first time since 1985!):
A couple of the towers are climbable, from which you can see flooded fields by the River Rother:
A nice, picturesque castle!
A lovely sunny day today, so it’s off to the depths of East Sussex to visit Batemans, the National Trust owned home of Rudyard Kipling.
The volunteers have gone out of their way to decorate the rooms for both Diwali and Christmas:
The gardens are nice for the time of year:
We also wandered down to the water mill:
You can see the hydroelectric generator that Kipling installed to light the house:
And the mill pond:
A nice morning!
Incidentally, we were last there in 2005 with the children:
Another nice day today, though quite cold to start with. It’s been a while since I circumnavigated London on the trains, and I was keen to see the effect of the new names given to the various Overground lines.
First train was to Lewisham (delayed!) then the DLR to Poplar and Pudding Mill Lane. We’ve used this station in the past to get to the Olympic Park; it’s nice to see the area finished instead of being a building site:
It’s really close to the Olympic park and the area is a maze of railway lines, paths and canals/rivers:
Unfortunately, one of the paths I wanted to use was “closed for construction”, so I had a fairly boring walk to get to the River Lea:
It was a short walk from the river to Hackney Wick station and a train (on the newly named “Mildmay” line to Gospel Oak:
See tfl.gov.uk/modes/london-overground/overground-line-naming for more information on the new names. All of the audio announcements on the trains have been updated with the line names, though some of the gaps where they’ve been patched in are a bit obvious…
From Gospel Oak, it’s a short walk to Hampstead Heath past Parliament Hill Lido:
The view from the top of Parliament Hill (surprisingly crowded) is nice:
I then headed down past the ponds to Hampstead Heath station:
Next train was to Willesden Junction, again a hub of activity with railway lines everywhere, though not much activity outside the station itself:
Then another train to Imperial Wharf:
There is a fairly new development here (“Chelsea Harbour”) full of unaffordable hi-rise apartments on the banks of the Thames. This is Battersea Railway bridge, over which I shall travel later:
It’s nice to see so much freight slowly threading its way through London!
The local “Sensory Gardens” was a pleasent spot to stop for lunch:
Then on to Chelsea Harbour itself, complete with a strange sculpture and a lock gate:
Then back to the Thames Path to what used to be Lots Road Power station (see en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lots_Road_Power_Station), which supplied a lot of electricity for the tube network back in the day and is now yet more apartments:
From there it was back to Imperial Wharf station and a train to Clapham Junction, another to Denmark Hill (“Windrush Line”), a train to Shortlands and a final train to Orpington.
So around London without going anywhere near the main terminii!
The 3D printer I’ve been using to print kits for MERG was getting a bit unreliable (it has done over 4600 hours of printing) so I got agreement to buy a new one. A kit is £220 less than an assembled one, and it sounded like a fun project (think Lego with a few more bits).
The parts were nicely packaged in various cardboard boxes:
You’ll note the Gummy Bears – these are used as a “reward” for completing each section of the assembly!
First job was finding all the little packets of screws, nuts and fixings, then assembling the extruded aluminium supports to the steel frame:
The electronics box was next – note the cable ties that will be used later to secure all the wires:
Next was the motor that will drive the Y axis bed:
Many of the components are 3D printed, and have slots into which square nuts are placed to provide a strong fixing:
The X axis was next; note the linear bearings on the rods:
Next was finishing the basics of the X axis and mounting it on the Z axis:
The cables from the extruder and X axis motor are wrapped around a nylon core and routed to the electronics box:
Next was the extruder gearbox, which was a bit fiddly to assemble and mount on the X axis:
The power cables were added and the wiring in the electronics box tidied up:
Then the heatbed and Y axis needs assembling:
The Y axis, like the X axis, is driven via a toothed rubber belt. I was impressed with the fixing of this belt in a 3D printed part. You can just see a screw at the bottom that “locks” the belt into the fixing:
This is the completed Y axis drive:
The WiFi module is mounted in a plastic case outside the metal electronics box. You can just see the WiFi symbol on the left. There is also an Ethernet connector:
The heatbed was then installed on the Y axis:
The NFC module and a cover was added to the electronics box:
And that’s it. The software in the unit automatically tests each part and does internal calibration:
And pleasingly, it all worked!
Once connected to the network, various software can transfer files to the printer via the network, and control the printer from a web page:
This is one set of the MERG parts printed on the new (top) and old printer:
And this is a video of the printer printing a “Temperature Tower”. This is used to see how the filament prints at different temperatures:
The weather is too cold and dull at the moment to go out walking for the day, so it seemed an ideal opportunity to explore some of the bits of the underground network I’d not visited.
First off was part of the Bakerloo line in North West London. This is Kenton station, right by the West Coast Main Line:
This route is shared between deep level tube trains and Overground trains; the tube doors are well below the platform level and you have to step down into the train:
Then on to Euston Square and a walk to Euston Station:
From there I took the Victoria Line all the way to Brixton:
I walked from there to Stockwell station to pick up the Northern Line to the terminus at Morden (the only bit south of the river that’s not underground):
From there it was a short walk to Morden Hall Park:
and the journey home…
Good weather forecast today (made a change!) so it’s off on the train to London.
Yet again, we started from Battersea Park station and walked through the streets to Battersea Park, where Rocco was glad to be off the lead:
We soon reached the river and our continuation of the Thames Path:
By then, it was time for a coffee in the park:
Then the Peace Pagoda and a nice walk along the embankment to Albert Bridge:
Further west, there are many houseboats on the river:
And a nice church, making a change from the modern architecture:
Then under Battersea Railway Bridge, used by the Overground line from Clapham Junction to Willesden:
We then had our first major diversion away from the river viewing the delights of London Heliport:
But we were soon back by the river:
It seemed a shame not to stop at a riverside pub, “The Waterfront”:
Next was Wandsworth Bridge and Nickols Walk:
and time to stop for lunch:
A bridge crosses the River Wandle where it meets The Thames:
Then yet more houseboats:
and finally, some grass in Wandsworth Park:
We stopped for another beer at “The Boathouse”:
and then is was back to the hustle and bustle of Putney High Street – this reminded us how quiet most of the walk had been:
We caught a train to Waterloo, and unusually, arrived in the “international” platforms that were used by Eurostar before the move to St Pancras:
Finally, a fast train home. A lovely day out!
The rain eventually passed so I took the opportunity to take Rocco on a final walk through the Polstead footpaths this afternoon.
Dollops Wood was its usual lovely self:
The on to Polstead village and the pond:
And past the church on the hill:
And then reached the path along the River Box valley, with the classic trees along the riverbank:
We then crossed over the river and Rocco had a chance to have a swim. Then it was the climb back up the hill following a really nice footpath that I don’t think I’d used before:
The next footpath crossed a ploughed field, and unusually I had to use the compass on the phone to find the correct direction as no one had walked it since!
Then through the lovely woods above Scotland Place:
A lovely walk, mostly in the sunshine!
It’s been a while since we visited High Woods Country Park, so we took advantage of a break in the weather today.
The visitor centre isn’t as interesting as it used to be – really just a shop now.
We followed the 3 mile “Yellow Route” around the park; quite a nice mixture of woodland and open walking:
Rocco enjoyed his sticks of course.
We stopped off in Kersey on the way back today. It’s a pretty village with a ford running through the middle of it:
We wandered up the hill to the church:
and were rewarded with a nice view of the village:
The church was surprisingly interesting inside; obviously as much a community centre as a place of worship:
We had a day out in Hadleigh today. First stop was The Cock, a pub in the backstreets with lots of beer but no food. Next stop The George; fewer beers but the kitchen was closed.
Third time lucky was The Kings Head, only 3 beers but did food! A nice pub and very dog friendly.
After lunch, we had a stroll through the town and along the Hadleigh Riverside Walk:
A lovely day!