I reached the woods today at about 11 a.m. and met Inge on her way out. She said that none of the regulars were in. She reckoned they must be coming in the woods earlier to avoid the heat.

A few yards further on I ran into John and his rough collie Jed. Rough Collies are Scottish sheep dogs. John mentioned that they were true Scots in that they took care of business by never attacking the sheep. His words (approximately) not mine!

But Jed would go straight after any fox that he sighted. John had recently met a lady whose dog (not a rough collie) had killed two fox cubs. There is natural enmity between foxes and dogs.

I took the short walk again yesterday on Monday July 24th. Few people were about. I took some photographs of the woods and the Edelmann Memorial in the bright sunlight but my batteries ran out as I approached Soldiering Field

Two cyclists came towards me. They were not supposed to be on the path but I just said hullo as they went past. One of the benefits of being a retired teacher is that you no longer have to enforce the rules.

This is a pleasure I too often take for granted. Most people, including me, have enough problems keeping their own rules let alone worrying about the rules that other people are supposed to follow.

I did once tell two young men not to light a fire for their supper next to the Edelmann memorial. Normally, I would not have bothered but I was angry at the lack of respect for the people who had donated the wood to the public.

They immediately moved the fire. They had just been a little thoughtless and were basically nice people. If I had been a keen rule enforcer, I would have told them to put the fire out completely since fires are not allowed in the woods. Vandals have been known to set fire to the woods just for fun.

I walked on past the Willett Memorial. A man was sitting on the ground on one side of the Memorial. The Memorial had been vandalised recently but it was now repaired. I didn’t tell him to move! He was doing no harm.

Today, Tuesday 25th June, I did my walking in London en route to the dentist in Wimpole Street. I walked all the way there from Charing Cross Railway Station.

A Marks and Spencer Food store had replaced the W.H. Smith bookshop at the station. I was disappointed. I walked up Charing Cross Road behind the National Gallery and turned left into Oxford Street.

Waterstones was cool and inviting on my left and I found a great book in there on the mind games behind different sports. I walked on along Oxford Street to Oxford Circus Underground. I turned right up Regent Street towards All Souls Langham Place. My aunt Beryl used to attend there regularly.

I turned left towards New Cavendish Square and soon arrived at Wimpole Street.

I had a great session with the dental surgeon who is a master and returned home in a relaxed state of mind.

It was very hot and many people were making cash selling iced water. I bought iced water and a cold tin of coca cola. It tasted great in the hot sun.

People of all shapes and sizes were moving along Oxford Street. It was surprising that no one bumped into any one else. A new water pistol game from the US has reached London but no one rushed up to squirt water over me. I might have appreciated it if they had.

I stopped off at one or two more bookshops including another visit to Waterstones.

One of my favourite shops had closed down near Blackwell’s. I sat outside the closed shop with a Mexican beer and then moved on to the Shaolin Way martial arts shop. My luck was in – there was a huge sale of Paul Vunak videos at £5 each – a huge bargain.

I headed for the station again and eventually arrived home. I felt like I had been on a short summer holiday.

Keep some souvenirs of your past, or how will you ever prove it wasn’t all a dream? – Ashleigh Brilliant, English-born Author and Cartoonist

One souvenir of my past is this blog and the photographs that accompany it.
The magnificent header to the blog shows the Willett Memorial, a pilchard lugger at sea and an avenue of trees not far from one entrance to the wood (opposite Marlings Park Avenue, the road I live in).

I took the photographs in the header and my excellent web designer Gerard Evans ( (http://www.abisti.co.uk) put them together in the dreamlike sequence which you can see.

William Willett was the founder of British Summer time. The pilchard lugger was painted in Cornwall by my great grand-dad, John Brett, a pre-Raphaelite from the Victorian age. The avenue of trees is from a photograph I took two or three years ago.

The header reminds me of ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ and we are indisputably right in the middle of a very hot midsummer in the UK .

Life is indeed very short and like a dream. It is worth writing a blog of your own if you have not started one yet to capture your life and thoughts for your children and/or friends to read when you are gone.

Today, I again avoided the midday sun and stayed home catching up with emails and posting articles and sleeping!

I again visited the dentist in Chislehurst. When I emerged it was too hot to walk around Chislehurst without tree cover.

Instead I headed for Petts Wood and the shade of the trees. I met one man who had been at a golf tournament yesterday. Golf courses and trees do not mix too well. Several people collapsed in the heat.

I met J and JJ who were heading to Flushers Pond so that JJ could dive in at her favourite diving spot.

J remembers a time 40 years ago when the pond was just a big mud puddle with loads of frogs and toads mating freely.

Some boys from Eltham College decided to clear the pond and the ditches leading into it. They did so over a periof of 8 years and the pond has been filled with water ever since – a good job begun and completed no matter how long it took .

Many dogs, ducks, fish and even a heron now enjoy the pond.

Previous life lessons in the woods are still available at

http://www.motivationtoday.com/walking_in_petts_wood.php

All future life lessons will appear on this blog (blogwood) first. Whenever I go into the woods or walk anywhere and have something worth saying about the walk, I will describe it in this blog.

The blog may expand to include any topic of interest worth mentioning even if no walk is involved.

Today may well be one of the hottest days in England since 1911 – the figures have not come through yet so I had a siesta instead of walking. Otherwise it would have been a case of ‘mad dogs and Englishmen out in the midday sun.’

The official figures have now come through at 5.30 p.m. It is now official. The temperature has gone up to 36.5 degrees celsius. This is just under 37 degrees celsius which is 100 degrees fahrenheit. Today is the hottest July day on record and the hottest day in 95 years in the UK.

Roads are melting and the tube was described by one commuter as a ‘moving sauna’. Dozens of schools have closed and the weather in Bournemouth is hotter than the weather in Bermuda.

One way to keep cool is to jump in and out of a swimming pool. This is a powerful motivation for me to earn enough money to buy a house with an indoor swimming pool. I am trying to visualise such a house right now!

Spare a thought for the cooks who are working in temperatures of 50 degrees.
The minimum work temperature is 16 degrees but there is no maximum temperature. The World Health Organisation has recommended 24 degrees as a maximum.

I am due to visit a dentist in Wimpole street in London but am hoping to delay my visit till the weather cools.

We are feeling sorry for ourselves in the UK because of the heat unless we are enjoying a holiday by a beach. Meanwhile in Lebanon and Israel people are being killed and wounded. There is always someone worse off.

Today, two Israeli soldiers have been killed in a fire fight on the border between Israel and the Lebanon and two Arab-Israeli children and one adult have been killed by rockets landing in Nazareth the home town of one who preached love and peace.