Clematis

My wife is a keen gardner, and rabbit is a keen garden wrecker but he has trouble getting at my wife's Clematis. This year it is superb.

Things Wot I Grow In My Garden

Something to fry for lunch?

Whitstable

This week is the occasion of my birthday so Mrs John and I decamped down the M2 to Whistable to lunch at the Elizabethan Tea Rooms. These were the favoured haunt of Peter Cushing, actor and wargamer. Whitstable is only 90 minutes down the line from London so is a favourite of the theatrical profession. We once bumped into Allan Davies, Jonathan Creek, there. Davies had his first gig as a stand up comedian in the cafe underneath the railway arches at Whitstable. Funnily enough there is a windmill converted to a home on the hill above Whitstable.

The town is a retirement place, seaside tourist town and is famous back to Roman times for its oysters. The pic above shows the oyster fishery harbour.


The channel was a bit wind tossed.


Seafront huts on the seawall.

And me eating an oversized ice cream - a rare treat. I paid for it by having indigestion all night.

The wooden object behind me is a memorial chair to Peter Cushing.

Pot of Gold

Somewhere in the Romney Marsh is a pot of gold. No point looking though, it is bound to be Fairy Gold which turns into a sub-prime mortgage at daybreak.

1066 and all that

As every phule kno, the Battle of Hastings did not occur at Hastings but further up the Roman road at what is now Battle. The photo shows the battlefield from the point of view of the Saxon defensive line. The Normans attacked up the hill behind David Drake, the famous SF&F author.

Dave and I tend to agree that Fuller was quite wrong in that there is no such thing as a decisive battle. But I sometimes wonder whether Hastings might be the exception. The creation of England can be dated to various events: (1) Cerdic the first King of Wessex (app. 520AD), who has a Celtic name, incidentally; Alfred The Great (871 AD, the only English King to bear that title) who united the Anglo-Saxons; or Edward (899AD), who was the first King of England. However, you can make a case for William the Conqueror, who created Anglo-Norman England.

No Hastings, no King William, no Anglo-Normon England. Would Saxon England have achieved what Anglo-Norman England achieved? Who can say?


This picture shows David standing at the monument on the top of the Senlac Ridge where Harold was cut down (or shot by an arrow - take your pick).


Nearbye is a monument to Harold erected by the French (of all people). Harold may be buried at Bosham where he was born. An Anglo-Saxon coffin in the church was discovered in 1954. The incumbent was an elderly man lacking a head, leg, and second lower leg.

Dave and I are in the photo: I'm the short fat one with the short fat hairy legs.

Thames Barge

I drove down to Oare Marshes with my wife so she could observe the godwits, apparently one of our feathered friends with a beak like a sculpting tool. I wandered down to Harty Ferry to have a look at Swale Creek. There was a Thames Barge moored offshore. You are looking north into the mouth of the Thames. The Essex coast is just over the horizon.

Traditional English Llama Farm

"Catch that pigeon"

Bank Holiday Monday, Mount Ephraim, Kent.

Another beautiful day in Kent - Chilham

Chilham Castle: the front of the house.




The wilderness garden.


The house from the main drive. The vista runs down for about a quarter of a mile to the ornamental lakes. To the left are the remains of the original castle. It was dismantled to build a new mansion on the Isle of Sheppey for Henry VIII who used it as a love nest to meet Anne Boleyn.

The vista from the house garden.

Wild spring flowers. The purple flowers are a non-native import that was fashioable a few years ago.



One of the ornamental lakes. It was dug out using elephants in the late 19th Century.


The woodland walk.

A Beautiful Day in Kent

Today was warm and sunny so we went to Hole House to see the gardens. It is a little early for the full bloom of flowers but nevertheless the gardens were wonderful. A few pics below.

Marle Place

We are enjoying the good weather while it lasts. According to the weather reports, the end of August will be stormy.

Anyway here is Marle Place. the house is now the offices for a chemical company.

John

Doddington Garden

Doddington Gardens is one of my most favourite afternoon walks. It is a spring woodland garden but is still worth a visit even in summer. Doddington is one of Kent's smaller and less well known houses that was built in the 19thC. It has been owned by the Oldfield family for the last hundred years. The current owner is also High Sheriff of Kent.


It is still recovering from the Great Storm of '87, which wiped out a large chunk of the tree population of Kent.

John


PS Note the redwood trees

Knole House

The gardens at Knole House were open for the day so the ole ball and chain and I decided to go rond the house, the gardens and (a bit of) the deer park.

Knole House in west Kent has an interesting history. It was built by the Archbishop of Canterbury between 1456 and 1486 as a palace in the archbishophric. In 1538, Henry VIII took it off Thomas Cranmer.

In 1566, Elizabeth gave it to the Sackville family, the Earls and Dukes of Dorset, and they have lived there to this day. Vita Sackville-West was born there and her friend, and lover, Virginia Woolf, wrote 'Orlando' about the house and family.

The pictures and fittings inside are marvelous and include portraits of many of the central players in the Tudor period as well as paintings by Van Dyck and Gainsborough.

A great day out.

John

Belmont House Gardens

The English summer is well under way in Kent with temperatures in the afternoon reaching a blistering 21C.

Kent is known as the garden of England and the fruit crops are blooming. Kent strawberries are the best in the world. We also have more stately homes than you can shake a stick at.

This weekend, the mem'sahib decided that we were going to Belmont for the afternoon. It took an inordinate amount of time to find the honesty box to pay the admission fee - it was in the tackle room. They had laid out tea and home made cakes in the old horse stables, which could be had for a donation in another honesty box.

It was a glorious day.

Gardens

The mem'sahab announced that she wanted to go to Godinton House to see the daffodils. We were a little early but, well, here are some pics. Its a Kent 15C manor house with many bits added at various times.