Little hills and a faded sign

Though London is pretty flat by many cities' standards, there are still some pretty short sharp climbs in south east London to get the muscles working.  Covering the southern end of Brockley as part of my radial route routine, I found myself climbing over Blythe Hill from various angles.  Though it only reaches a height of about 200 feet a couple of ascents were enough to see me staggering to a park bench at the top, where a passing young woman gave me a wry you-must-be-mad grin.  Though, as she must have also walked over the top voluntarily, maybe it was a look of complicit understanding.

Anyhow as I waited for the rest of my thigh muscles to follow the rest of my body up the hill I was treated to the sight of 3 long-tailed tits hovering like humming birds, with their tails pointed vertically downwards, like makeshift airbrakes, around a flowering bush.  Just too far away to get a picture of them - besides, they'd flitted off to another part of the park by the time I'd dug my camera out - but here's a view looking south from the top of Blythe Hill.  It looks curiously unlondonlike yet it's only a couple of miles from Deptford.

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And then on way back to Deptford I noticed this sign alongside Brockley Road at the end of Whatman Road.  I suppose I'd always been watching the traffic whenever I'd passed before.

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Consolations of insomnia.  Looking west from my balcony on Crossfields, the Greenwich Novotel turns to gold in the early morning sun.