Friday 9th September 2016

I am back at home in Chez Jelltex; Mulder is meowing just before dawn, in which case its situation normal. My longer than expected hike the day before meant that my legs were aching to buggery, but it is better than them stopping working.

Jools has to be up and about to go to work, but lucky me is working from home, so I can lay in bed a while enjoying the moment, but then I can smell coffee brewing, so I had better face the world. There is coffee on the table, but the cats have gone out exploring after eating, and so once Jools has left, its just me. However, the cats come in one at a time to request more food. At least not all at once.

Molly must think I'm looking a little peaky, as she brings me in a partially eaten Goldfinch and a large mouse/small rat, which I don't look at too closely.

Work is pretty much as usual, there is stuff to do, mails to send, calls to write, fires to put out. The usual.

Cheese and toast for lunch whilst I work. Somehow the volume of work wasn't what I was expecting, I guess what it being an hour ahead in Dk and being Friday afternoon. By two, mails had stopped and I can see most of my colleagues offline. I pack up for the week and get my camera gear together as there was some photographing to do.

This weekend in September is Heritage Weekend, and that means getting into churches that usually are locked. In addition, another area of Pugin's house in Ramsgate had been renovated and opened, so it seeemd a good idea to go there in the 90 minutes before it closed. I think it was just about worth it.

Jools comes home, changes and we get in the car and take the Sandwich road, pretty much the same way I used to go to the office in Ramsgate when I was just an technical assistant, not that long ago, but in terms of my journey, ages ago! Traffic was a little crazy, but that is to be expected, but in the warm sunny weather, it was very pleasant indeed.

We park near The Grange, and have about an hour to get the visit done. I go straight to the Presbytery, just about the first to be built in Britain since the middle ages, designed by Pugin, and now converted by the Landmark Trust and now available for holiday rental. They have done a great job, and it feels like a fine place for up to four people can have a great stay, and help support the good cause.

I go round snapping each room, climbing the two sets of stairs to see the bedroom at the top, then back down again. What I can say is that it feels more of a home thand homely than The Grange, I think I could happily stay here. Stay and maybe never leave, mind.

Jools goes to see inside The Grange, but I have been in before, so chat with a guide outside, and I tell her about my job in the survey business. She is really interested, or says she is anyway. I do go in and take a few shots, and see that with the new camera/lens combination, the shots are fabulous. Just wish I had more time to get round.

We go back to the car as its four, and the buildings and church are closing.

I now spring it onto Jools that we are heading into Canterbury, as there is a church open that evening, that should be interesting. She takes the news well, so we drive round the outskirts of the city so to approach the right part, park up close to the chapel. We make better time that I thought, so we have time for a pint in the Two Brewers near to St Augustine's Abbey. This is the life, finished for the weekend, en route to a chapel and drinking beer and eating cheese and onion crisps; living the dream.

From the pub is was a short walk through the underpass then along the city wall to the Zoar Chapel.

You read that right; Zoar. Seems that being a Baptist isn't enough, you can have Strict and/or Peculiar Baptists too, and this is the Chapel of the Particular Strict Baptists in the city. The chapel has had an interesting life too; a former bastion in the city wall, then converted for use as a water cistern before the conversion to a church in the 19th century.

We are welcomed, but not that warmly, or I might have imagined it, I mean they open the chapel on all four days of the weekend, so they must be proud of the chapel. And rightly so, all lines with white painted wood, almost round, and looking really very fine indeed. I get my shots, talk politely, then we make our way back to the car and home.

We have run out of time for that day, so return home ready to have some dinner, as our appetites are raging. And as you will come to expect, its insalata caprese once again, with cheese and pickle bread, thickly sliced and buttered. Add a bottle of red wine, and it is perfect.

The cats are happy too, we have fed them and as we slob around the house, they ask for attention, food or whatever. Outside the sun sets on a fine late summer evening, whilst the moon has already risen and looks about half full already.