travel
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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
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May festivities were first recorded during the Roman period, when the Festival of Flora (the goddess of flowers, fertility and spring) took place. Later, in the Gaelic world, a Pagan festival known as Beltane was held on 1st May, and people would light bonfires and decorate their houses with flowers, and later still, May Day… Read more
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Despite being a neighbouring county that you can see from Whitstable on a clear day, and despite the fact that I actually spent three years of higher education living in Chelmsford (though I hated every minute and came home almost every weekend, leaving no time for exploration), Essex is not a county that I am… Read more
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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
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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
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This is the first year in a decade when I haven’t been suffering from a CFS relapse, or struggling to stop myself slipping into one, and to celebrate this fact, my daughter decided to take me on a Mother’s Day mystery day out. She co-opted one of her brothers to accompany us (with the advantage… Read more
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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
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I have finally accepted that January is my lowest energy month, and instead of fighting it, have tried to embrace it by giving myself permission to stay inside in the warm and pursuing my more sedentary hobbies. As February progressed however, I was ready to slowly start coming out of hibernation mode, although the month… Read more
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My health has been suffering again over the last few months. Breaking my collarbone seemed to trigger a mini CFS relapse, which is apparently to do with the energy demands that your body needs to repair the injury affecting my already depleted energy supplies. I would normally spend December gadding about, visiting as many Christmas… Read more
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(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
A Little Kentish Magic 