Hollingbourne - Eyethorne

It is a pity that the two villages are so close to the roar of the M20 and the rush of trains from the Euro-star. If it wasn't for those two problems a walk around Hollingbourne and its precincts is most pleasant.

Cottages in Hollingbourne High Street - probably Eyehorne in fact but we call it Hollingbourne.

This ancient village set close to the river Len has a charm that unless you stop and look is easily missed. With three pubs serving food and a church that is open to the public Hollingbourne is a little gem. We parked outside the church knowing that we would probably be too late for lunch at any of the pubs and bought sandwiches to go from the Motorway services to eat somewhere in the hills.

Our route took us from the church through the village with a short excursion around the Millennium Park past the services and then on to Broad Street. Now this was a pleasant walk though green woods where we spied native orchids and a sign that informed us that wild boars could get quite upset if disturbed - panic! Fortunately despite the warnings we saw no boars and arrived at Broad Street unmolested by tusks and angry teeth. I thought fondly of roast boar.

The picture on the right is of a native orchid - a most lovely plant.

We climbed from Broad Street to Hucking House and walked through the beautiful woodlands back to Hollingbourne via the Pilgrim's Way. We ate our sandwiches on the Woodland Trust lands and watched a herd of well fed cattle wander on their own from one paddock to another ready to eat grass that was not only rich but plentiful. The Woodland Trust has some 135 Hectares of land most in woodlands and coppice and the rest in natural grasslands - hence the healthy looking cattle. You can get on to the estate from a pathway close to Hucking House and follow the tracks. We passed through.

But, for those wild boars and dreams of spit roast pig this was the notice we saw after we had passed through the woods where the wild boars were living. Note that the tree has no low branches and my sister and I being somewhat middle aged appreciated the difficulty of climbing said tree if attacked by one of the animals.

Hence the panic.

The Yew Tree Inn, Sandling

If there is a pleasure to be had in Kent that is to be enjoyed above all others then a pub meal after a walk has to come high on the list. Hence after the walk around Maidstone we decided to eat at the Yew Tree Inn just outside Maidstone not farfrom Peneden Heath and Sandling. The only drawback to the place is that it is now close to the busy M20 motorway which makes sitting outside a bit of a chore - noisy.

Nevertheless I can recommend the pub - what am I saying? It's a great little place and years ago when I was a callow youth my great friend and myself hied us to the place to sample its Shepheard and Neame Old Ale. The pub was typical of the sixties, two bars, a public and lounge bar but it had the attraction of a warm fire - this was a winter trip on our motorcycles - and sold beers and ales and fine spirits with the usual bar snacks of warmed up pies and scotch eggs etc.

It's dark interior and the quiet atmosphere was an attraction to us and I have fond memories of the occasional drink there. The feature of the place has always been the Yew tree and on occasion when I was first married my wife and I walked there for an evening drink at the weekend. Unfortunately the pubs then rarely sold meals and relied on the usual snacks being drinking places rather than restaurants.

Today it is different. The Yew Tree has a single bar with a resaurant and a comfortable seating area where you can drink or snack.

Why am I talking about the place?

Simply because this is the second time my sister and I have dined there and enjoyed our meals so much we can safely say that we would go there again. (Cripes - I even left a tip!)

The Fishereman's Pie is exquisite! Eat it! Enjoy and the Ommelette is delicious. Not over large portions but tasty and filling and worth the price. In fact I was so impressed that I asked for the pub website address and promised to post it on this site.

Here it is: http://www.yewtreesandling.co.uk/

A Walk beside the Medway

In the centre of the busy market town of Maidstone in Kent there is a tranquil summer walk; a place where once the solemnity and pomp of religious expression dominated. Today there is the Church of All Saints with its magnificent brass plaques and myriad ancient tombs covered by their incumbent's donated flagstones and its presence that seems to add peace to the busy scene around it.

A corner of the Bishop's Palace gardens

This of a Saturday and a reconnoitre of the area for a wedding in the Bishop's Palace, now owned and used by the Borough Council, to find suitable car parking for guests wanting to witness the ceremony in the registry office. We, my sister and I walked the walk to time the trek from the car parks to the office and also the time taken on a Saturday to get through town. This task done we took ourselves on a stroll around the old buildings.

It was a pleasant, warm June day so we took a stroll along what was once the tow-path along the Medway watching the ducks and geese enjoying the water. The Lockmeadow shopping complex loomed up but within a less than a hundred metres this was hidden by green clad trees and the sight of recently built riverside apartments, some pleasing to the eye and others in need of some trees to break up their harsh, utilitarian lines. The contrast was the 'posh' homes across the river with their boat landing ramps, and landscaped gardens.

But I digress for on the town side of the river the council has created an amphitheatre that is, or should be a candidate for pride of place. Quiet and remote from the snarl of traffic that clogs the roads just a few hundred metres away this is a little riverside gem. To us, so familiar with our county town, the revelation was that we had never explored the area around the Palace enough and we were pleasantly surprised.

The Amphitheatre

Of course if you wish you can take a ride down the Medway to Allington Lock and visit the Kent Life Museum but I recommend instead you take the effort to follow the river as far as you can and enjoy the pleasures of the towpath. Our only regret was that we had to return to avoid getting the car wheels clamped or a fine, but then if you are willing to pay a little more for parking and stroll further then you are in for a summer treat.

A View from the tow-path

A vist to Penshurst Place

A curse on the fickle English weather that drowns a holiday weekend, inundates the greedy land hides the sun with cloud, yet promising bright light scurrilously withdraws its favors. Ah, yes, a trip that brought me to Penshurst Place Gardens, the home of one of my favourite character in history, Sir Phillip Sidney, poet and all round useful bloke.

Penshurst Place was finished in1341 beginning with the huge Baronial Hall and in later years added to as a residence which, I am pleased to say, is still in use today. Surrounded by farm lands and the lovely Penshurst village in what I call ‘Posh’ Kent, the building is imposing and worth a visit.

However, although many visitors want to see the house it is the gardens that are the attraction. Started when the original building was built the gardens have remained, if not exactly the same, more or less original with themes adapted to the times. The attraction is that it was untouched by Victorian cultural vandals and as a result we can enjoy a garden that like any gardener tending an original garden has developed with the gardener and not subjected to the fickleness of newcomers.

For me the highlights of the gardens are the Rose Garden, the unique Union Flag Garden and the Peony Beds. Which is why I am moaning about the weather. I wanted to take pictures of the peonies in full sunlight but, fickle the weather was and fickle it stayed, defying me to grant me one small burst of sunshine, and one I missed because I was inside the house at the time. Bah! Humbug!

One pleasure, out of many, was talking to a Dutch visitor, one of a party, who were visiting gardens by the coach load, and enjoying the conversation beside the peony beds.

I note that for the garden watcher a season ticket is the answer because like many such gardens they need to be seen at all seasons to appreciate their special beauty. A few years ago I was at Penshurst in high summer. In contrast my recent visit gave me a taste of what was to come – a garden that is so vibrant with summer colors that it takes your breath away.

Comments On A New Zealand Summer

The Pohutukawa tree is New Zealand's most beautiful Summer sight. These two are in full bloom and shelter a picnic site in Auckland's Cornwallis Park.

In the last post I mentioned a friend from New Zealand who visited Sissinghurst Castle during one of our Summers so I chose this picture as reminder of a summer down under and of her visit. The view is of the Cottage Garden at Sissinghurst with Pat preparing to take a picture. This was toward the end of July when the famous white garden was at its end.

When I first went to live in NZ I was told that the place is a "just like England" and I was told I would settle in fine. It was true, I did settle in fine but the land nothing like England. There were sheep and cattle, English cars, English language and English goods and English migrants. Apart from that NZ was a place with its own character and the longer I lived there the more I came to appreciate what it was. NZ is a multicultural land with two main languages, Maori and English; it has a Polynesian flavor and has been influenced by early Australian colonial styles. It has developed its own identity and in particular since the nineteen seventies has had to depend upon its own development and trading preferences. In 1984 NZ was declared a Nuclear Free nation that upset the rampant Australians and annoyed the Americans. It also cheesed off ( or should that be fromaged ) the French who sent a couple of spies to damage the Rainbow Warrior.

Although NZ still has ties to the Mother Country it has its own way of government and identifies more with Australasia and the Pacific Rim nations and trades with Japan, China, India and the USA as well as keeping up trade with Europe. The need was generated when the EU refused to allow Britain to keep Australia and NZ as preferred trading nations and thus giving them an unfair lead into the EU. The result is that although the ties are maintained NZ, and likewise Australia, have developed separately even to the point of requiring would be emigrants from the UK to prove their place and gain points. I went over as "Ten pound Pom" which was actually twenty-five pounds with a trade. Today you have to fill a requirement for your services and can qualify from most places.

However , getting back to my cultural exchange; my friend who is an elderly but sprightly globe trotter, enjoyed the trip and today after some six or seven years have passed, I remembered the Pohutukawa tree. I remember too the Pacific sky, clear and bright, the hot summers, queuing in the line at Uni to enroll with the sun baking us in February; the Cicadas chattering, the Tui piping loudly, the Fantail flitting in the Manuka; Maori spoken in the streets; bright Polynesian clothes and the brightly decorated stations wagons filled with a whole family. I have the body memory of a motorcycle under my butt as I ride through the twisties on the back roads, the dusty unsealed roads firt only for four-wheel drives, tractors and off road cycles; the sudden tropical rainstorms and steep tree clad hills.

And here in England?

I learned to appreciate our gentle hills and the organised landscape; the woodlands, the villages and the stately homes and gardens and understand that although I long for the freedom of NZ and Australia, there is a special joy in discovering the paths and bridle-ways of rural England. So this year, armed with a digital camera, I will blog my way around south east England.

Pat in Rye, Sussex.

Sissinghurst Castle and Gardens

The entrance to Sissinghurst gardens and castle on a busy May weekend.

In this enclosed section of the gardens between the old gate and the tower the climbing roses on the wall are at their youthful best and as an introduction to the gardens is one that grows on you during the season. Famed for its white garden and spring avenue Sissinghurst has much else to offer. Set in the Kent countryside close to Biddenden, Goudhurst and Tenterden in the weald there are woodland walks as well as the splendid gardens that can be taken from the estate itself.

Below is a picture from the rose garden showing the tower.

This year my sister and I missed the spring display of bulbs and the day of our visit saw the way the season was developing from spring to early summer as bulbs, already dying down, alowed the new spring growth to take over. Fresh green nut leaves, fruit tree leaves, budding summer roses, the established glory of azaleas and the pungeant aroma of wisteria took centre stage as newly planted sunflowers and the promise of sun drenched herbs prepared for the hot summer sun. As if to deny the summer its entrance the Magnolias displayed their last blooms and under the trees bluebells blossom.

We did not walk the cool woods but enjoyed the stroll around the lake wishing for more time on the day for a lengthy exploration.

Opposite: Azaleas at Sissinghurst

Okay, so too much purple prose?

But that is how spring in a well laid out garden grabs you.

There is something else as well. That is language. The first is the language of the wild life; the bees kept in the grounds, the song of birds feeding their young, the buzz of insects, the soft gabble of ducks and the unseen creatures rusting in the undergrowth. The next is the calling of children as they are introduced to their heritage. And then comes the languages spoken by the visitors; German, Dutch, French and Chinese to name a few creating a song that brings Sissinghurst alive.

I have a friend in New Zealand who loved Sissinghurst and she, like many others in the antipodes know of the gardens and know of the white garden and its one central rose bush. She, like many others, travel from all parts of the world to see it.

And I, like these visitors, am also glad .

Me trying desperately trying to look as if I am enjoying myself under a wisteria just outside the herb garden

Publishing a book

As the author of a self published book entitled Star Reach a sci-fi novel using Lulu I had to edit my tale and present it for publication without the aid of an editor. The value of an independent examination of your work is not only a necessity but is so highly useful that any mistakes you make in the content, style and layout can be corrected professionally and objectively. With the self publishing route the writer needs to look for aids to help him or her get it right. So when I found Writer's Helper website I decided to check it out. Here are a couple of quotes from their site to help out.

If you want to sell your work to a traditional publisher...You probably know that only one in ten submitted manuscripts gets even a first read at a publishing house. That manuscript is error-free and written in a compelling style.

If you want to self-publish...You face an uphill battle against the idea that all self-published material is second-rate. The idea has a solid foundation in reality. To overcome the prejudice, self-publishers who want sales must be better than the rest.

The above two pieces of advice hit home and highlight the struggle many writers have reaching that quality, unique selling point they search for. Luck, or being in the right place at the right time is not always a substitute for good writing and as one of my mentors always drummed into my mind was the phrase "The art of good writing is re-writing" . The art of editing is to know what to re-write and how.

As a tool to help the budding author to publish a good, readable and interesting book whether it be fiction or fact Writer's Helper might be the answer. Click the link at the top of the page and afterwards tell me what you think.