Walking Around in Kent

We've been doing some walking around in Kent the past few days trying to dodge the rain showers and making an effort to get out and about. Because, after all, school is back next week and we won't be quite as flexible with our time. So we hope to do some pickin' of the above Blackberries this week. They are just about ready but methinks they need a wee bit of sun and warmth to spur them on for ready for a pie. We see lots of these on our walks.


Saw the Blackberries above while walking near Worth, near Sandwich (the home of the Royal St. George's Golf Club, where the Brit Open has been played a few times, last in 2003). And we saw this nice Lizard (called Lizard in England, - that's its name - not English Lizard, or Shiny Lizard just Lizard!) warming itself on a tire, and a nice Mushroom that DB says are good for harvesting - just fry 'em up!

On Friday we took a walk near and through Chilham. We used the "Best Tea Shop Walks in Kent" book to help us along. Naturally, we got lost, a lot, but had a nice time and the weather held out. And we didn't get so lost that we missed tea time at the Brass Kettle in Chilham. The photo on the book link above shows a piccy of the Brass Kettle. Tons of history in Chilham. More recently it is overrun with tourists coming to look at the Tudor and Jacobean shops and buildings. The castle grounds were

apparently laid out by Capability Brown. Why Capability? Read on... St. Mary's Church was mentioned in the Domesday Book in 1086. if you go up the tower (which we didn't) you can see Canterbury, 6 miles away.

We had a few curious horses follow us, we walked through some burnt out fields (what's with that?), and poor J-Rock kept getting 'Stinging Nettled', and Sheep Dung was in good supply in the fields we walked through! But on we walked. Auctually, it was great because we got there by train and the town was 1/4 mile away from the town center. With our Rail Pass it was quite a cheap day out. On our return train journey it was quite noisy from people people talking on mobiles (cell phones) -- "Hi, where are you?", "What are you doing", etc etc and with one yobbo watching a mobile video player volume turned WAY up. gee whiz.

On Saturday we took a walk around Worth and Sandwich and saw some shorebirds on the newly created scrape on the Bird Reserve. Wood Sandpiper and Green Sandpiper were highlights at close range. There's a big open day there today which we are about to go to. Kids activities, walks of all sorts and refreshments and food. I need to walk off my weekend of Ginger Cakes, Crisps and Lemon Slices. Good thing I'm running again - up to 40 minutes aiming for a 10K or half-marathon in the late fall.

One observation not related to anything else - people drive over here on the left. OK. So why does that mean people also seem to walk down sidewalks on the left as well? I keep bumping into people or saying sorry cuz I have veered in the wrong direction.