Category Archives: Phil

Various musings from Phil

Riverhill Himalayan Gardens

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We’ve been meaning to go to Riverhill Himalayan Gardens for a while now, and finally managed it today.

First task was to find a woodland path where Rocco could let off steam for a while:

It was quite a climb, but this eventually led to a viewpoint high on the hill:

After admiring The Weald for a while, we headed down to the maze:

It would have been too complicated to do this with Rocco, so we headed to the Azalia/Rhododendrum part of the garden:

Then into the walled garden, complete with water feature:

And the recently planted Wild Flower ‘Meadow’:

After a coffee break, I was amused by this sign outside the loo:

We then explored another woodland path on the way to the Fern Garden:

Where it was ferns everywhere – 200 species apparently, though most looked the same to me:

And an ancient Wisteria:

On the way back, we saw an unusual Monkey Puzzle Tree:

A nice morning out, followed by a giant lunch at the Five Bells, Chelsfield:

 

New River Path – Finsbury Park to Palmers Green

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Finally, after what seems like a long cold wet spring, the weather improved enough to do a serious walk. Walking the New River has been in my “queue” of things to do for a while.

The New River isn’t new and it isn’t a river. The New River is actually a water supply aqueduct built in 1613 to bring fresh drinking water from Hertfordshire to North London.

The day started with a fast train to London Bridge. We had 20 minutes before the next train, so had a chance to explore the station and surrounds:

I also found the Pipe Organ tucked away in the west side of the station, but didn’t try to play it:

We then got a busy Thameslink train to Finsbury Park. Rocco seemed to attract a lot of attention from everyone!

After crossing a road, we got to Finsbury Park itself, and Rocco was glad to be off the lead and have a run around.

We then had a bit of street walking to get to the New River itself. I was impressed with the cycle stores on many of the roads:

Finally we reached the river, which was as blue/green as it looks in the photo. Behind is West Reservoir, a popular boating lake:

The path continues through Woodbury Down:

This was starting to look very familiar, then I saw a signpost indicating the Capital Ring also follows this path. See Capital Ring Highgate to Hackney Wick for my 2018 walk.

After a few more detours, we reached the river again:

And past the Horsey Water Treatment works. You can see Alexandra Palace on the hill in the background:

After passing under the railway we reached Wood Green Common:

There was a dog friendly pub by Alexandra Palace station, so we popped in for a pint and large bowl of water for Rocco:

Suitably refreshed, we continued through Nightingale Gardens and Finsbury Gardens:

We then had the joy of crossing the North Circular road, then along a rather weedy stretch of the river:

We left the New River at Palmers Green and headed to the station for our first train home:

And after changing at Finsbury Park and London Bridge, we soon home.

An interesting walk, but an exhausting day with the heat!

 

Jubilee Greenway 7

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A very cold day today, but we were brave and decided to walk the last section of the Jubilee Greenway route. For various reasons, we ended up doing the last few sections out of order, but we did cover the entire route.

We caught a train to Lewisham, then the DLR to Cutty Sark. After some issues finding the lift (we had Rocco with us), we eventually escaped the station and headed for the river:

Nice to pass the Cutty Sark without hordes of tourists crowding the place! Rocco was soon off the lead as we headed along the Thames Path with the Greenwich Foot Tunnel entrance behind us:

There was an interesting information board about the long gone Greenwich Steam Ferry (forgottenhighway.co.uk/greenwich2.html) – you can see what remains of the ramp for the moving platform behind the railings:

A bit further on was a statue of Peter the Great:

There were several diversions “inland” from here, but eventually we reached some green at Sayes Court Park and Pepys Park before rejoining the Thames at Deptford Wharf:

There were light flurries of snow at this point! There were a series of docks to cross, thankfully all with bridges:

By this time, we needed a pub; the first one we passed wasn’t open, but the next one was not only open, but gave the dog the best welcome he has had for a while. Nice beer too:

Suitably refreshed, we headed on to Rotherhithe:

and stopped for lunch (and more beer!) at The Mayflower. It was quite busy, so we had to sit in a semi-outdoor terrace OVER the Thames (which you could see through the gaps in the floorboards). One of the few times we were grateful for patio heaters!


A nice view of the Thames from the pub:

After lunch, we followed the river towards Tower Bridge:


This is the official end of Section 7; from there it was a short walk to London Bridge station and a train home. A nice day!

South London Exploration

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It’s been a (long) while since I had a “play” on the trains, so set off explore Surbiton Station – a classic “art deco” style station. With a fast train to Waterloo and a fast to Surbiton, I was there within an hour of leaving home!



From there I caught a local train to Hampton Court:

and walked across the River Thames through Bushy Park:

Not really a good choice as there was a biting wind in my face the whole time!

From the northerly entrance, it was a short walk through suburban streets to Teddington Station:

A very posh entrance.

From Teddington, I caught a train to Clapham Junction (via Richmond), then an overground service to Canada Water.

I’m not sure what I expected there, but again a biting wind and a bit of a building site:

From there, it was a tube to London Bridge and a fast train home.

Lunch at Downe

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It’s quite a while since we’ve managed a day out, and with good weather forecast, we decided to repeat a walk we did back in July (see Lunch at Downe) though in the other direction.

We caught an R11 bus from Orpington High Street (having just missed one, of course) to Green St Green. After negotiating the busy A21 roundabout, we were soon away from roads:

Rocco appreciated being able to run around and chew sticks:

Soon we were in High Elms, gently climbing through the autumn leaves:

We needed to cross High Elms Road at Sparrow Wood Car Park:

and then followed the permissive footpath into Downe village:

And then to the Queens Head for lunch, washed down with Timothy Taylors Landlord Dark – an excellent beer we both enjoyed.

After lunch, we had a bit of road walking, then escaped across the fields by Farthing Street:

Then back into the woods:

and across Farnborough Fields to Farnborough Village, where (again) we just missed a 358 bus back to Orpington. Not long to wait for another one though!

Packing 3D Printed Kits

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For the last year, I’ve expanded my voluntary work for the Model Railway Electronics group to pack 3D printed kits. I was given two more 3D printers to do the actual printing:

The one on the right was very old and had many problems, so I’ve passed that on for spares. The one on the left spends many hours printing parts for these kits:

This is one of the finished prints:

The kit also contains lengths of piano wire. I buy this in 36″ lengths (914mm); each length needs to be cut into to six 150mm lengths. I made a jig to do measure the right length, and used an old pair of bolt cutters to do the cutting:

This will cut around 10 lengths at a time. You do need to hold the cut pieces otherwise they fly everywhere!

Gloves are essential as the wire is a bit greasy and the ends can be quite sharp. Half an hour later, I’ve a bundle of wire of the correct length:

The kit also contains various fixings, which need counting and putting into little bags:

I count the various screws and nuts into the tray, put them in a small bag, then once I have 10 bags, weigh each on the “drug dealer” scales you can see on the left – this is a useful check that there is the right number of each in the bag.

Finally, a front card and instructions need to be printed out:

Then all the bits can be assembled into a kit. There are two little tabs at the end of each 3D print. These are broken off and pushed into the print to hold the servo wire and little bag of fixings to the 3D print:

The front label and instructions are put in a bag, followed by the 3D print and fixings:

I pack around 400 of these kits a year, and 150 of a similar (but simpler) kit:

The main kit makes 6 mounts for Servo Motors to drive the points on a model railway layout. The servo moves the white arm at the front, with the piano wire connecting the arm to the point:

 

Robinswood Hill

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The roads are nice and quiet on a Sunday Morning, so it’s an ideal time to drive to Robinswood Hill Country Park for a walk. A bit cold to start with, but after a few uphill bits, we soon got warm. And of course Rocco was constantly running around with a stick.

Eventually the top came in view, but for us there was still a way to go as we took the gentle route up.

But nice to get to the top. Still a bit murky in the early morning mist, and quite breezy at the top as they’d removed some trees to (presumably) improve the view.

A nice walk!