Walk around Ightham

Yesterday's walk with U3A started from the car park of a National Trust property - Ightham Mote in Kent. As I have probably said before I don't have a sat nav and much prefer to navigate by using a map. Although in theory this is fine, I quite often get lost especially when trying to negotiate some of the very narrow lanes that criss cross the county of Kent but then one of the targets on my bucket list was to discover new(to me) villages in Kent. I seem to be doing this with alarming regularity but as long as I set off early enough I usually get to the starting point on time. Yesterday was a little different as I only got lost once and arrived at the meeting point almost an hour early but unexpectedly the weather was glorious.

For once it was a beautiful blue sky and a warm (yes warm) breeze. Whilst waiting for the rest of the group I wandered off on my own and just enjoyed the wild flowers that seemed to have appeared overnight.

 I can never tire of wild primroses.

Bluebells were just beginning to open.

Once everyone arrived we started by walking past  Ightham Moat, a medieval manor house. (I'll write a separate post about this wonderful building later).

We walked through woodland where the floor was ready to explode into a blue carpet of bluebells.

We walked across farmland although I was chatting so much I forgot to take many photos of the different types of countryside.













                                                                                                 

We then came to the village church of Shipbourne. Inside the church they were packing away the remains of a Farmers' market so we were a little late to fill up on cakes and pastries

Outside the church we saw this sign. I have heard of this before but never come across the reality of a small community printing their own currency. The small village of Shipbourne had decided to try to encourage the local community to buy locally. You exchange your sterling currency in the local pub (The Chaser) and then spend it at the market. The man I spoke to said it was working very well as after the market had finished, most people then went into the pub to spend any money they had left.

Our walk then took us across the Fairlawne estate. A very large estate now believed to be owned by a Saudi Arabian family. Apparently there had been some dispute about walking across the land but as there are documented public rights of way going through the gardens, we can legally walk through as long as we strictly adhere to the paths.

Looking at this tree you can see the large bunches of the parasitic plant mistletoe growing on it. I wonder if they will harvest them at Christmas. Then it wasn't long before we arrived back at our starting point just in time for lunch.

Sharing with weekend reflections.