nature
-
I have always been very attached to Ramsgate, maybe because it is somehow rooted in my DNA. My maternal great grandparents used to holiday in the town every summer, travelling from their Lambeth home with their six sons (one of whom was my grandfather), on the steamer from London Bridge. The steamer would stop at… Read more
-
During their very short blooming season, I like to take every opportunity I can to walk where there are bluebells. I can’t get enough of them, and a swathe of that glorious bluey/violet makes me quite giddy with happiness. This year, my son and daughter in law took me on a trip to Hole Park… Read more
-
Bluebells are my absolute favourite flower. I would even go so far as to say that I am obsessed with them. We have a few glades of bluebells near us that I try and visit as often as possible during the short bluebell season, but after discovering several years ago that Hamstreet Woods has some… Read more
-
I caught the train back to Thanet Parkway to finish off what, in ideal circumstances I should have managed to achieve in one go. I was the only person alighting, and in about 15 minutes, I was back on the coast. The first thing that I saw was the sand banks at the mouth of… Read more
-
This is the part of the Kent Coast Walk that I have been dreading, knowing as I do that it involves not just a significant amount of rood walking that’s well away from the coast (because of a river and a nature reserve), but also a section along a very busy road. I was keen… Read more
-
(A long overdue post for a walk completed last summer!) I’d been putting off this walk as, according to my Kent Ramblers Guide, it came in at 11 miles, and since my last big CFS relapse in early 2025, I had only managed to build back up to about 5. After looking at the map… Read more
-
My daughter and I love Midsomer Murders, especially the older episodes with John Nettles as DCI Tom Barnaby, so back in the summer when I saw that there was going to be a touring production of The Killings at Badgers Drift (the very first episode), with Daniel Casey who was the original sidekick (Sergeant Troy)… Read more
-
Living in the part of Kent that we do, we are surrounded by orchards – mostly apples, but pears and cherries too – and many of our local walks take us through them. I think I like them most in the spring when the trees are smothered with delicate pink blossoms, but there is something… Read more
-
In the summer of 2023, my younger son passed his driving test, the first of my children to do so, and for my birthday that year, he made me a voucher for two trips to anywhere in Kent that I wanted to go. I was absolutely delighted, but such was my desire to pick the… Read more
-
Wingham is a village half way between Canterbury and Sandwich, and being on the main bus route between the two, is a perfect place for exploring the surrounding countryside. The first of the walks that we did this summer was from the ‘Kent Year Round Walks’ book, which we have had for a little while… Read more
A Little Kentish Magic 