Is all of this really in Croydon?

After nearly two weeks of September nip-in-the-air mornings, yesterday felt as if we were still in the middle of summer! The beautiful blue sky was criss crossed with vapour trails. My neighbour and I set off for a local walk. 

I was fascinated by the patterns created by the intersection of the soft spreading trails and the dark pylon wires. 

While walking up the road beside Littleheath Woods we found that we could get a closer look at the water tower and mobile phone masts.

We can see the masts in the distance from our houses. One is an ordinary mast and the other is a fake pine tree mast. (They could have made the fake one more natural by adding branches lower down.)

Bright berries. 

Sweet chestnuts.

The duck house in Heathfield Gardens. I like the reflections.

Sitting on a low wall for a moment - enjoying the view. 

Tractors in Croydon?

A field of horses. 

Positively tropical! 

Palm seeds. 

There used to be pick your own strawberries around here, and sheep during last winter/spring.We wondered what the ground was being prepared for.

Bright borders. 

Cyclamen lighting up a dark corner. 

Tiny bright orange and yellow flowers. 

Agapanthus seeds. 

A cluster of bulging winged seeds.

Shirley Hills water tower. (It seems to have had a name change, Addington Hills water tower - but I object to calling it Addington Hills - it was Shirley Hills to us when we were growing up - Shirley Hills Road runs alongside it!)

From there we walked back down the road to the left of Gravel Hill and came across a tree stump with what looked like an anaemic stale bread roll on it. It's a fungus!

White berries.

We crossed Gravel Hill and went up a pathway that felt very steep after our long walk, eventually joining the main road for a short while before turning off down the side roads and alleyways to get home. What a fabulous walk - we were out for 2 and three quarter hours including a 10-15 minute rest on a bench in Heathfield Gardens watching the tractors and horses.

This morning, thanks to Google, I have discovered that there really is a British Watertower Appreciation Society! And people have put photos of "breadroll fungus" online.

Thank you very much for joining me.