Tuesday 12th August 2025

For "reasons", we were at Walmer castle tis afternoon.

It was beyond hot.

And then I realised its about 15 years since we were last here, at the seat of the Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports, so chance before the reason, to wander about and take shots.

Did I mention it was hot?

Walmer castle has been converted from a place of defence into the residence of the Lord Warden, a converted Tudor castle, similar to Deal and Winchelsea, though decked out as expected for Wardens such as The Duke of Wellington (he died here), and Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother.

Before going to Walmer, there was the morning to fill.

No gym for us, so we could lay until seven until the water boiler fired up, that usually wakes me, though Jools had been up an hour by then.

We watered some of the thirstier plants, then sat on the patio until the fierce heat that was too strong for more than a few minutes at nine, made us seek cool shelter back inside.

The cats too take shelter from the heat, when we can stand it we watch wasps stopping to take drinks from the bowl we put out.

Lunch is rolls with either corned beef of roast beef, pickles, and being British, crisps to add the crunch, though from a break with tradition, paprika flavour rather than cheese and onion.

They filled us up, so we retired to the patio, as after lunch the shadows cover the seats, though as the sun doesn't get as high in the sky now, it shines longer under the umbrella.

Just before two we leave for the Castle.

Did I mention it was hot?

It was hot..

A short drive into Walmer, then out through to the coast road, parking near the beach opposite the entrance.

We are members, but would have got in free, as we were here to attend a meeting of U2A, and for me to meet some of my churchcrawling group.

Not sure if I wrote about this, but from the end of September, every two weeks, ten of us will visit a church, and I will struggle to answer questions.

The new group went "live" in the system last Sunday, and in under an hour I had received thirty requests to join. The first ten got in, so we will see how that goes.

Walmer Castle has splendid grounds, lots of plants, especially in the kitchen garden, and being school holidays, there were a few families around, but it wasn't crowded. Photography is still banned inside, so we skipped the castle tour and went straight outside.

There was a couple of shots I wanted, which I got, but really, it was just too hot to be wandering too far out of the shade.

We took shelter on a bench in the shadow of a hedge beside the pond in the Queen Mother's garden, and sat there cooling down until it was time to go into the meeting.

The meeting went on for an hour, in a room with lots of glass, no air conditioning, and with every chair taken, it was humid.

But in the end, we had all introduced ourselves, heard about the organisation, again., we could go and me find Jools.

Who was waiting outside.

Quarter past four, not quite so hot, but hot enough so that we didn't want to do any more walking round the gardens.

We went back to the car, taking the shortcut accessible exit, over the road and then home.

The vet called with news.

Due to us pressing, with information provided with a friend on here, more tests had been done and results were in. No as bad as feared, but enough as a cause for concern.

Scully has to go in on Wednesday for a urine test, but we feel that things are really moving forward. Maybe not at the pace we wanted, but still.

Baby steps.

Not much for tea, as we weren't that hungry.

And an evening filled with cup football, with Norwich away at Watford and so expected to lose. However, Norwich played well, and were 2-0 up by half time, and hung on to win.

Which was nice.

After the football, I went into the back garden to look at the rising waning moon.

A mist had begun to rise, and the moon was barely visible, but appeared as an angry red, partly deflated balloon just above the horizon, before it was lost in the mist and clouds.