Saturday 22nd January 2022

I had arranged a meeting of the moderators of my Kent Orchid group, and as both other moderators live in North and West Kent, best go to them for once. And as we were in West Kent, might try some churchcrawling before and after. I did a search via Google maps, and drew up a hit list of targets; some old, some new. We clearly had to go to Tesco first, as we were run out of much stuff, so as soon as we had drunk our first coffee, we hopped in the car and drove to Whitfield, where there were only a few hardy souls, like us, up and about hunting and gathering. News is that all what we needed was there, but price rises are rising sharply. Won't effect us that much, but for some it will be hard. Back home for bacon butties and put the shopping away, all set to go. I checked my camera batteries, packed them in my oversize gadget bag, threw them in the back f the car, and we were off. One of the things I wanted to check was how bad the queues of trucks waiting to get into town along the A20. Turns out it was about two miles, though that was moving, if slowly. We drove on, onto the motorway and through Folkeston, Ashford, Maidstone before turning off. First up was Leybourne, just off the recently widened M20, the church is on the main road into the village, between the war memorial and the "castle, which is manor house, really. Saturday mornings, many churches are open for cleaning prior to Sunday's services, so it is reasonable that some of the seven, including Leybourne, would be open. None were. So began a trip of disappointments, although the churches mostly looked interesting, but all bar one had no keyholder details, no way of getting access, and the thought that this may become the new normal: locked churches, becoming further divorced for their communities. Leybourne had a fine collection of ancient yew trees in the churchyard, some with equally old grave markers sheltering underneath. Spring flowers were beginning to open, including several snowdrops. A sign of hope? We hope so. I had a list of churches to visit, five new and three revisits. I had noted their postcodes, so after each we would drive along narrow lanes to either leafy villages or the edge of towns, I would park the car, Jools would remain inside, reading, and I would go to check the church door, find it locked, take some exterior shots. And we would repeat that over and over again. We ended up at East and West Farleigh. I had low hopes either would be open. West had the keyholder's details if I really wanted. I'll go back in the summer, but the door was locked, and the cricket pitch next door was tidy enough, but needing of a mow, and the squares didn't have their covers on, the ball would be going every direction! After West Farleigh, we dive to the local pub, one of the local pubs, the highest rated one, The Good Intent, where we were to meet the two mods for the Kent orchid group for us to discuss rules for the group over pints of frothy ale. Ian had arrived, but Terry was lost. We went inside to wait, Ian bought the first round, and we took up seats by the woodburner. Toasty warm. Once Terry arrived, we made five rules, agreed on those, then Jools and I ordered a ploughman's each, while we carried on talking to Ian and Terry. At half two we were done, so jools and I drove back through Boughton Moncheslea to Leeds and onto the motorway, though we came back via the Alkham Valley to avoid the port. It was getting dark when we got home, the football on the radio was at half time, but Norwich had won 20 hours before. Yay. I made brews. I had half a pint of leftover gravy from last week, so we had stak and wine pie, roast taters and steamed veggies with the gravy. It was most splendid. I watched the footy, listened to the soul and funk show on the radio, before Poppy told me it was time for bed, so we went to read before turning out the lights at nine.