I spent the best part of the day in the wretchedly ill-lit Alexander Centre which was devoted for the day to a fundraising sale for the Faversham Society. Most people there had booked a table to sell bric-a-brac.
The FavSoc got £10 a table, the town council got a rent for the room, and most people got a bit of cleared space.
What was on offer?
Jam, old china, books, junk, lace, pictures, crockery,jewellery, maps, cards, clothes, shoes, all the usual stuff.
I bought an old oilpainting, with a couple of small holes in the canvas, but showing a pretty Edwardian girl by the seaside. The sky is well painted, the whole scene rather jolly and pre-WWI ish.
My own stall was commercial - my nutrition business. I signed up one customer and listed 10 others who'd like to come to a presentation, all very good news.
Very social time we spent.
I knew at least 2/3rds of the people who walked around, one way or another. That's the thing about living in a small town. For better or worse.
Friday, 31 October 2008
Thursday, 23 October 2008
Elmley Marshes
Today we went to Elmley Marshes on the Isle of Sheppey, with David Snelling - an old friend and life-long birdwatcher. He brought some superb binoculars with him and his old Cavalier King Charles spaniel Bruno. Not long after we went down towards the hides, we were stopped by Steve Gordon, the estate manager, who was riding a quadbike. Bruno had to be on a lead. We didn't have one for poor old Bruno, so Steve nipped back to the centre to get one for him and also brought a warmer coat for me. Kind man.
The wind was fairly strong, blowing in advance of a great rainstorm which is already lashing the north and west of the country.
We saw marsh harriers, mallard, cormorant, little egrets, starlings, lapwing, kestrel, a sparrowhawk, black-headed gulls, finches, sparrows, a green woodpeckers, curlew, and canada geese.
Some of these I could identify on my own, but it was thrilling to see the harriers and learn more about them from David.
The sky is so huge there, wild and open, with distant views to the Downs, and the tide far out on the mudflats.
Sheppey is such a strange place - empty, old, forgotten, poor, rich, beautiful, ugly - very atmospheric. The new bridge gives you far views, and steam rises up from the plasterboard factory and the paper mills, and you can see cranes and gantries from various industrial projects old and new on the horizon. The prison sprawls out across the farmland.
We went to Leysdown to see if we could find lunch, and various arcades and pubs and cafes were open but looked so forlorn we did not stay long. Instead we drove back to the Harty Ferry Inn where we had lunch. The dog stayed in the car - not allowed in, despite being the quietest and mildest creature you could imagine. He only barks at men in hats.
We went to Harty church to see the carved chest which was once stolen and put up for auction - only to be spotted and saved, and restored to its rightful place, and now kept safely behind a locked grille.
We looked at the huge oak framework in the west end of the church and speculated whether it might be the remains of a Tudor navigation beacon giving a safe line of entry in Faversham Creek.
We bought a pot of gooseberry jam, and put the money into a wonderful old iron and oak safe by the door. No-one came to see us - this was the first time we have ever been left alone in a visit there: all other visits have provoked a guardian coming to keep an eye on us.
It is amazing that there should be such wild and open spaces so close to London, so richly populated with fantastic birds of prey and other avian characters of such beauty and radiance. Even with that industrial work spreading ever closer, that stretch of land will stay as a nature reserve, through the work of official bodies and the private landowner who farms it in such a sensitive way. His cattle - black, white and gold, roam freely over the wide marsh fields. The grass is cropped to carefully managed lengths to encourage the various wild species to use the land as they pass through. We have seen hares here in the past, and the area is rich in water voles. All this is only 50 miles from the City.
The wind was fairly strong, blowing in advance of a great rainstorm which is already lashing the north and west of the country.
We saw marsh harriers, mallard, cormorant, little egrets, starlings, lapwing, kestrel, a sparrowhawk, black-headed gulls, finches, sparrows, a green woodpeckers, curlew, and canada geese.
Some of these I could identify on my own, but it was thrilling to see the harriers and learn more about them from David.
The sky is so huge there, wild and open, with distant views to the Downs, and the tide far out on the mudflats.
Sheppey is such a strange place - empty, old, forgotten, poor, rich, beautiful, ugly - very atmospheric. The new bridge gives you far views, and steam rises up from the plasterboard factory and the paper mills, and you can see cranes and gantries from various industrial projects old and new on the horizon. The prison sprawls out across the farmland.
We went to Leysdown to see if we could find lunch, and various arcades and pubs and cafes were open but looked so forlorn we did not stay long. Instead we drove back to the Harty Ferry Inn where we had lunch. The dog stayed in the car - not allowed in, despite being the quietest and mildest creature you could imagine. He only barks at men in hats.
We went to Harty church to see the carved chest which was once stolen and put up for auction - only to be spotted and saved, and restored to its rightful place, and now kept safely behind a locked grille.
We looked at the huge oak framework in the west end of the church and speculated whether it might be the remains of a Tudor navigation beacon giving a safe line of entry in Faversham Creek.
We bought a pot of gooseberry jam, and put the money into a wonderful old iron and oak safe by the door. No-one came to see us - this was the first time we have ever been left alone in a visit there: all other visits have provoked a guardian coming to keep an eye on us.
It is amazing that there should be such wild and open spaces so close to London, so richly populated with fantastic birds of prey and other avian characters of such beauty and radiance. Even with that industrial work spreading ever closer, that stretch of land will stay as a nature reserve, through the work of official bodies and the private landowner who farms it in such a sensitive way. His cattle - black, white and gold, roam freely over the wide marsh fields. The grass is cropped to carefully managed lengths to encourage the various wild species to use the land as they pass through. We have seen hares here in the past, and the area is rich in water voles. All this is only 50 miles from the City.
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