A Day out with Nan

So, as I found that I would starting work next week I thought it a great idea to take Nan out for the day, as all I had planned was driving around taking pictures, and having Nan join with me it would be a pleasure and company.

And so after filling out another half dozen forms out at the job agency, I headed off to pick her up, and we headed into the Kentish countryside in the search for picturesque scenes and maybe a pub lunch and ending up at Waitrose in Hythe for shopping and delicious food shopping.

We headed first to Coldred, where Jools and I had attended the country fair at the weekend. It is a beautiful village, all set around a village green with a pond and a colourful sign. At the cross roads, the signpost was mostly overgrown as it was being used as an impromptu vegetable patch, with bean and tomatoes climbing the post.



The church was tiny but charming, and dedicated to St Pancras; the graveyard was wonderfully sparsely populated, giving the impression that locals lived to ripe old ages.



At Eythorne, the old railway to the coal mine crosses the 'main' road, and the line has been transformed into a small preserved line. We have yet to visit this, so I stopped to take pictures. A helpful chap came out and told me some history of the line and presses literature into my hand.



We cross the main London road and plunge down the hillside to the village of Lydden; I took the wrong turn and find a small country church nestling at the edge of a wood. The light was just perfect and I snapped away.



A farmer asks me to move my car. I explain I was then leaving, no he says, can I park it up yonder lane blocking it as he wants to bring his flock out of the field ad that will stop them making a run for the vicarage. No problems; and so I reverse and soon the flock come bouncing out, marshalled by one sheepdog; the sheep leap over each other and are soon out of sight.

We continue on; over hill and down dale until we come at least to the road to hythe and join the 21st century again.

As the clouds thicken I find a wonderful timber-framed pub called The Bell and we go in for sandwiches and liquid refreshments. Outside, the heavens open and the rain pours down. The landlord scuttles about doing the job of three people, all very well.



Shopping in a supermarket is seldom fun, and Waitrose is the best of a bad lot; they have wonderful but over-priced food, but there were some things we needed that could only be got there. At least in here there are customers of a certain type, and which means I am now one of them. There are no children running around, and few people with trolleys having conversations blocking aisles.

After getting everything on the lest, I go to the till and remark how much better than Tescos it is, then the cashier tells me the total and I reply now I remember why we don't come here very often.

Oh well, I'll be a working man again soon.