Some Historic Kent

And so where today?

Off to Hever Castle for a bit of History. Hever was the home of Anne Boleyn but much of what you see today is the American ideal of a Tudor House as restored by William Waldorf Astor.









The inner courtyard.



Obviously Hever makes alot of its Boleyn connections. It has for instance Boleyn's book of hours.

Look what was on the moat!









I ought to point out that the "Tudor" village you can see was built by Waldorf.



So lets have a look at the gardens, which incidentally got the top ** in the Good Gardens Guide.


























Hever is a great day out although perhaps better when its not a bank holiday.

So it was starting to get busy so what to do? There was a church that was on the way back that was also next to a house I had yet to visit. Both Church and House received *** in the respective Jenkins.

Lullingstone Castle is the subject of a TV series. It is a tudor house converted to be a Queen Anne Mansion. The setting of lake, gatehouse, mansion and church is quintessentially English.






For those used to the Corporate nature of the National Trust or of a fine private house like the earlier visited Hever this is a bit of a surprise. The house is indeed of restoration, and what is open is limited.

The grounds don't seem to be prepared to expect visitors. It all seems a bit amateurish. The World Garden may be a wonderful idea but I would leave it a good few years to let the planting establish.

The church though is very fine. It contains a dinky font in a cupboard and some excellent memorial tombs.










I was a little disappointed still it is a member of the HHA so didn't cost me a penny.

Playing with a camera

I picked Nic up at 8 (and she would like it noted she was early!) and off we headed to the Lodge. It was very quiet (people wise) but the birds were singing. The normal park and garden birds, a few rabbits and lots of squirrels!











A stroll around the garden also through up the first butterfly of the day.








And so to Wimpole Hall. It was packed, we decided to beat the rush and have an early lunch. The weather was stunning, will someone confirm that this is a bank holiday in England?






The Wimpole cat.































Other butterflies seen were a white, Brimstone and an Orange Tip. Lots of Chiffchaff singing.

As the resaurant was full we passed on a cup of tea and indulged in an Ice Cream. Lovely day and lovely company. Even if she did drag me to the dSLR shop opposite her house :(

Oh dear oh dear oh dear.

Torre churchyard was once a derelict place fulls of weeds and an attractive spot for alcholics and drug users.

The Friends of the Churchyard began to renovate. They were awarded £300 to buy more plants after a visit by Council workers in November.

School children planted greater knapweed, lesser spearwort, meadow buttercup, musk mallow, primrose and wild grasses — 20 species of plant were sown in 450 plugs in the shadow of St Andrew’s Greek Orthodox Church. The garden won a special award for community projects and helped Torquay to achieve the South West in Bloom Gold Award.

It was to be the centre piece of the towns bid for Britain in Bloom. The mayor and officers from the regeneration deparmtent were impressed UNFORTUNATELY the officers responsible for the maintenance of parks and football pitches were not. They thought it looked unkempt and guess what? The council came along with a nice motor mow and cut it!!

A spokesman for the council said “Unfortunately the wildflower meadow was included in the first round of grass cutting for the year. We are deeply sorry for the upset it may have caused.”

Margaret Forbes Hamilton, chairman of the Friends of the Churchyard group, was incandescent. “We had just had two or three months of really good growth because of the weather,” she said. “It’s a typical case of the left hand not knowing what the right hand’s doing at the council.”

She once had high hopes for the Britain in Bloom awards. “Now what do we have?” she asked. “A nice patch of mown lawn. We still intend to enter and will tell them exactly what the council has done.”

It's Easter!!

It is a lovely day and I've just looked at the weather forecast looks fine for all four days!!

I know what I'm doing tomorow but I am still undecided about the other 3 days!! I'm taking my parents out Sunday but not sure where yet. And will I do any birding?

Possibilities are Hever Castle, Penshurst Place, Igtham Mote, Emmetts Garden and Lullingstone Castle.

Expect lots of photos!

I hope you all have a lovely Easter and eat lots of Chocolate

Oh come all ye faithful

Apparently the majority of us (the British) believe in God, even if we don't attend churh, well so says the findings of a report by Christian Research. I was surprised to read 7.6 million people go to church at least once a month and 12 million once a year. A further 3 million would go if asked.

Even allowing for that 3 million, a large number of the 26 million adults claiming to be Christian don't go to church.

I wonder how many of the people claiming to be Christians, who don't attend a church, have ever read the Bible or just the new testament? I suspect they buy into the "niceness" of the Christian Church, the meek shall inherit the earth, do unto others as you have done unto to you. They think of all the "nasty" stuff as old testament.

Of course if you've read the new testament you will realise that there is some tough stuff in it. A few years ago I picked up a Gideon Bible whilst staying in a hotel.

What God has joined together, let not man separate. (The Bible, Mark chapter 10 verse 9).

Whoever divorces his wife and marries someone else commits adultery against her. And if a woman divorces her husband and remarries, she commits adultery. (The Bible, Mark chapter 10 verses 11 - 12)

A man who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery - unless his wife has been unfaithful. (The Bible, Matthew chapter 19 verse 9)

I use those as examples. I once commented on this to an ex-colleague who was a methodist (or was it a baptistst?) and she said she had sat in church with divorced members of her congregation and heard the above quotes and wondered what they felt.

I am not certain what, if any, faith I have. I suppose I try to live a decent live (and we all get it wrong). I wonder though if the churches flexibility to the modern world is right. Its all very well people saying that the church has to adapt but if you move away from your basic teachings...... Basic teachings is not the ordination of woman its about what is in the scripture. Scripture says nothing about Woman priests.

We are in a difficult age for the church. Human Rights legislation seems at cross purposes to some basic tenets of faith and I don't how individuals or the church squares that. The church is apparently no longer allowed to discriminate in the same way that business can.

But to me here is the rub, faith is different to a job. If you believe in God there is no higher authority and has the government got the right to decide what we believe? I don't care what people believe as long as they treat me respectfully in my business and professional life.

One for you garden watchers

The Bumblebee Conservation Trust is inviting people to send in records of what Bumblebees are seen in there gardens.

Dave Goulson, of the trust, said people would get help identifying the different species.

He said: "People with digital cameras or a camera on their mobile phones can send us pictures of the bumblebees in their garden and we will send them back an identification.

"If people send us the date and a postcode of where the bumblebee was seen then we will be able put together a national map."

The trust will announce a date for the garden watch later this year.

If anyone is after an id guide there is an article in the latest bird table (the journal of the BTO garden birdwatch scheme) or you could purchase the field guide to the Bumblebees of Great Britain and Ireland.

This maybe particularly prescient as the Daily Telegraph is reporting that honeybees colonies are being devastated this winter.

This and that

I got in this morning and quickly double and triple checked everything. All seems ok. Hopefully my tension levels will fall. It happens every year at this time.

Twice on the way to work I saw male Chaffinches giving it what for! Think the weather has perked them up.

Some of you may be interested in this post on my wildlife blog about Magnolias under threat.

and may I point you to this article about those nasty Canadians (of course not you OC) who will be shortly killing seal pups.

April starts

Met up with Dave and Joy and we were after Goshawk. Lots of stuff flitting about. Came across some Crossbill also woodlark, skylark, yellowhammer and Coal Tit. Eventually was able to get on a male Goshawk as it was being harrassed by a crow. First Comma of the year.

We went on to Lynford Arboretum, we were unable to find a Firecrest but did find Goldcrest, Treecreeper, Siskin and Redpoll. Loads of Brimstone butterflies.

The Plan was to stop for lunch at the Crown at Mundford but it had been invaded by bikers. As were unlikely to get served we went on and arrived at the West End Feltwell. Expectations weren't high but the carvery was very pleasant.

Stopped in at Welney where water levels had gone down a lot. Waders included Avocet, Redshank, Ruff, Ringed Plover and Black Tailed Godwit, the latter being spooked by a Peregrine. Ducks included Pintail.

Very pleasant day in excellent weather.