Sunday 11th September 2016

It is Sunday, and as ever the weekend is slipping away from me, and on Monday I am on my travels yet again.

It as the second day of the Heritage Weekend, and if I'm honest, we could have done more with the day, but in the end we had enough planned.

Being a Sunday, there is football to watch. And with it being so muggy even before sunrise, we are up and about before six, feeding the cats and making coffee. I then sit down and watch most of the previous day's MOTD. There is an hour when cloud covers the sky from horizon to horizon, but then the sun melts it away, and it soon is plenty warm enough.

There is stuff to do in the garden; mulching the beds and deadheading, but it is soon too warm even to do that.

At half eleven we go out to Western Heights, as the volunteers up there had worked hard through the summer to open a new section of the underground fort; this time the northern access tunnel, and we had tickets.

It was just a short drive into town, then up Military Hill to the entrance. We park near the Knights Templar chapel, then walk back down, check in and begin some waiting. Western Heights are massive, a series of underground tunnels and Napoleonic forts, which have fallen into disuse and the haunt of vandals.

These tunnels were the main entrance from the town, and were the modern version of moats and portcullises. It is in a poor state, with people having stolen floor tiles, and others trying to set the drabridge on fire several times. And yet it is all there, just. Shows how well it was made.

The tour lasted an hour, and was informative, but really for locals shows how much has been hidden since the army pulled out at the beginning of the 80s.

We were lead back out, back into the bright sunshine and the heat of the day.

I had been promising Jools all summer that we would go to the Salutation Garden in Sandwich, and with the weather so good, and still feeling like summer we thought we would go straight there.

We parked just outside the Fisher Gate, walked to the entrance, paid our seven quid each and went it. Amazing that a garden so near the sea could be so full of colour, and doubly so since the site was flooded by the sea a few years back. Now rebuilt and replanted, it was full of Dahlias, of all shapes, sizes and colours. And the air was full of butterflies and other insects.

We walk round and look at the beds, plants and even talked to the head gardener. But, we had eaten no lunch, and so with pangs of hunger taking over, we go home for late lunch and sit out of the sun. We were pooped yet again.

I cook breaded chicken and dirty fried potatoes for dinner, and the day is getting old already. The sun sets and gets a tad cooler.

I can't be arsed to pack, so we sit outside in the gathering gloom, I pick up Molly and she agrees to be cuddled and even purrs, which she does much more these days.