Sunday 28th August 2022

Part two of a three day weekend!

Jool's boss, Andy has been off ill for 11 months, and yesterday was his birthday, so we were to go to Ashford to drop off his card and present from work.

Andy is now getting ready for the implanting of his stem cells, now that chemo has finished, just eed to sort the other issues out first. This will not be quick.

To make matters worse, Andy is twenty years younger than his partner, and used to do so much for her and her disabled son. We do wonder how they have coped, but due to COVID and his reduced immunity, we have not been able to go round, but maybe this is not the beginning of the last stage of his treatment.

We had planned to go to Sheppy to visit Harty, walk to look for dragonflies, and for me to revisit Harty church, and all seemed good, until the weather had other ideas. After weeks of no rain, and despite there being none forecasted, clouds did gather and rain did fall as we drove to Folkestone and onto the M20.

Rain fell harder, and the clouds to the north looked full of rain, or as my Grandparents would say, "it's getting black over Willy's Mothers'" Make of that what you will.

Andy lives in a quiet cul-de-sac on a modern estate, the kind that surrounds Ashford. We drove slowly to number 29, rang the bell, but not no answer, so we left the card and wine on the doorstep.

Jools snet a text to Andy saying we'd been, and half an hour later he replied saying he's been in all morning and no one rang, as he lived at 19.

D'oh.

He later said he walked round to pick up the card and present, so all was good.

By that time the clouds had cleared and we were on our way to Faversham, then onto the M2 to Sheppy.

Shepp, once known as the Isle of Sheep, hence Sheppy, is connected to the mainland by two bridges, one serving both road and rail was being built when my Dad was a young soldier and had to attend a funeral there, but recently a new dual-carriageway bridge leaps over the old one and the River Swale, easing traffic onto the island. Once over the bridge you are back on the same old outdated road network.

Most heads north to Queenborough and Sheerness, but we would head east, along the island to Harty, where the low land meets the mud of the Swale opposite Ore.

From the main road to Leysdown, the lane to Hart crosses the marshes, subsidence had made the road be more like a rollercoaster, or one wit low summits. After a while it climbs to slightly higher ground, through farms and then down to the edge of the island. This is Harty, where there is a pub, the church, a farm and a handful of other houses.

It has been nine years since we were last here.

We had come really for dragonflies, but as we park near the church, it seemed only right to go in.

I now see it for so much more, especially the south chapel, with wooden chest and table.

At the end of a six mile dead end lane, on the way to the ferry that used to like Harty with Faversham, now traffic uses the two bridges at Swale.

No mails electricity or water, you have to drive through a farm to get here.

Is peaceful.

St Thomas is one of the Kent churches I have visited the most, but not in nearly a decade, so it was surprising how much more detail I noticed this time. Before I used just the wide angle lens, and this time the fifty so to record the details.

After finishing my shots, I go back to the car, fit the macro on the camera and we set out to walk to the sea wall. It was then obvious that the wind had increased to the point that seeing dragons or butterflies seemed unlikely.

But a walk is never wasted, so we pressed on.

And in a short sheltered spot, I saw two what I thought were Common Darters, but turned out to be Ruddy Darters, identifiable by their black legs I now realise.

I take shots.

But the dragon rich area we remembered from a decade ago is all overgorwn now, and no path leads through it.

So we turn back for the car.

In the same place as the Ruddy Darters had been seen, I think there is nothing about, but I see a flash of blue, and see that it was a male Migrant Hawker, resting.

I get shots, each few taken I inch closer and closer, until it thinks that was enough and flew off.

That was the last of the shots.

We walk back along the farm track, with the wind hitting us from the right, whipping up dust.

Back in the car, we agree that the plan was to go home, so I take us back to the Kingsferry Bridge, up and over, back onto the mainland, but stopping at the services for snacks, and showing why you should never shop when hungry as I bought: two sandwiches, two tikka slices, two packs of crisps and two bottles of pop.

We ate well as we drove dwon the motorway back home. One of the sandwiches we didn't eat, we would save that for another day.

Back home we have a brew and a chocolate bar, and somehow I have timed it to be back home in time for kick off in the afternoon's games.

How odd

Anyway, Wolves drew with Newcastle, then Spurs beat Forest 2-0, Forest who have signed 17 (seventeen) playes so far this summer, looked good technically, but lacked understanding of how each other played.

And that was that.

I made chorizo hash for dinner, with it we had fizz.

And another day drew to an end.