Saturday 14th October 2023

It is the weekend, and with the orchid season over and still with a couple of hundred or so shots from Heritage Weekend to post, what could we do to fill our days?

And as it is international break weekend, there wasn't event a disappointing football match to follow.

Autumn did arrive, with temperatures ten degrees down on Friday, and almost cold enough for a frost. We laid in bed until nearly seven, had a coffee and then went to Tesco.

It is a bit of a bind to go shopping on a Saturday morning, but the shop is pretty quiet and we can go round, get our stuff and get out.

Which is what we do.

So, back home to put the shopping away and to have breakfast, then head out for a wander round Faversham.

Why Faversham?

Why not?

Faversham is a fine old town, dominated by the Shepherd Neame brewery, which takes up a lot of the town centre, but there are cobbled streets, timber framed houses, coaching inns and churches among the shops and market stalls.

Getting to Faversham is easy. Getting into the town from the A2 is another matter, especially as there was the town carnival on later, with threats of many road closures to come.

We followed the sat nav to a small car park by the creek, then walked back through the modern brewery and to the market square where there were dozens of stalls selling local goods and produce.

We bought a sausage roll and a cuppa, sat on some metal chairs and ate and supped, people watched.

I had streetviewed the town, and saw that there was an abbey in the town, and some of the buildings show they were once part of the complex, and being church-focussed, we really hadn't done a "tour" of the town, not for a long time, if ever.

Once out along Abbey Street, crowds thinned, and the dead end lane to where the abbey once stood is quiet and filled with grand houses out of our price range.

I took shots, ten walked back along Abbey Street and up to the fine church to re-photograph the painted pillar, which is the outstanding feature of the church.

My work was disturbed by a large guided tour coming into the Nave, so having got the shots I wanted, we left, wandered back to the market square and down through the brewery and over the narrow bridge to the car, and found that the tide had come in over the two hours we had been there, and was now threatening to spill over onto the meadows lining the creek.

We had parked by a pub, so we went in for a swifter, sitting outside to sup in the now warm autumnal sunshine.

Back home via Preston to get some burgers before they closed, getting there just in time as the guys were cleaning up. Burgers were from the freezer, so we created no mess.

And then home.

Jools went swimming, while i messed around, and then cooked dinner, warming up leftover ships from Friday and cooking chicken Kyiv and steamed corn.

All was ready as Jools returned home, so we sat down to eat as the clear skies caused what warmth there was of the day to escape, leaving it a cool and dark evening.

There was rugby to watch, the World Cup seems to have going since August, but now reached the quarter finals, with the NZ v Ireland game game as the late game being a cracker, with NZ just running out winners.