#kent weald

[aisphotostuff]

Ancient Woodland in Spring - Kent by Adam Swaine Via Flickr: Wood anemones spread through roots rather than seed, so are a good indicator of ancient woodland. Later in spring, another ancient woodland indicator covers the forest floor - native bluebells. The sweetly-scented bell-shaped flowers droop off of delicate stalks later in the season.

#wildlife #wild #wild flowers #bluebells #flora #Flowers #plants #beautiful #spring #spring in kent #Trees #woodland #woodland floor #woods #Kent #kent weald #nature lovers #nature #natures finest #nature watcher #AONB #rural #rural Kent #seasons #purple & green #purple #green & purple #Adam Swaine #fuji #2024

[vox-anglosphere]

Longfield, nestled deep in Kent, is your quintessential English village

#Longfield #Kent #English villages #timeless #picturesque #The Weald #parish church #slate #rural britain #autumn #UK

[jontycrane]

Greensands Way - Sevenoaks Weald to Chartwell

Greensands Way – Sevenoaks Weald to Chartwell

A 174km path from Haslemere to Hamstreet, the Greensands Way was developed in the 1980s and follows the Greensands Ridge of green coloured sandstone. I walked part of it in half a day, from Sevenoaks Weald to Chartwell, enjoying views from some of the highest points in South East England. The path is reasonably well marked, though slightly confusingly the colour of the signage does change, look…

View On WordPress

#Chartwell #Greensands Way #Ide Hill #Kent #photography #Sevenoaks Weald #Sevenoaks Weald to Chartwell #travel #UK

[lionofchaeronea]

The Weald of Kent, Samuel Palmer, 1833-34

#art #art history #Samuel Palmer #landscape #landscape painting #landscape art #rural landscape #England #United Kingdom #Romanticism #Romantic art #English Romanticism #British art #English art #19th century art #watercolor #Yale Center for British Art

[cabinporn]

This 280sq ft A-frame cabin sits in a small clearing in the heart of the Weald of Kent. Designed and built as a lock down project by @primoauthaus, the cabin roof is clad in distressed 1.2mm mild steel sheeting covered in a protective wax coating complementing the autumn colours of the surrounding woodland. Re-cycled timber cladding frames the old front door recovered from a local cottage. All photos by @chrisrfelliott More photos on @cabinporn.

#cabin

[kindafondawanda]

Samuel Palmer

The Weald of Kent c 1833

[bonfires-n-hares]

February in the Weald of Kent by Stanley Roy Badmin (source)

#february #british countryside #botanical illustration

[blackswaneuroparedux]

The true love that has survived is mine for you and yours for me.

- Vita Sackville-West to Harold Nicolson

The writer Vita Sackville-West always felt she belonged at her lavish ancestral home: Knole, in Kent. She was distraught that as a woman, she couldn't inherit it. When she married the diplomat Harold Nicolson, though, they found another historic place in the weald of Kent: Sissinghurst Castle, a magnificent collection of Tudor buildings and a sprawling farm, all of which had long been neglected.

When Harold Nicolson and Vita Sackville-West first saw Sissinghurst, it was a ruin. The sprawling farm in Kent had been for sale for two years, its moated Tudor buildings were mostly derelict and the garden was a rubbish dump. Their teenage son Nigel told them the property was ‘quite impossible’. Nonetheless, Vita went ahead and bought it in 1930 for £12,000. Built on the site of a medieval manor, it is known as Sissinghurst Castle although there is no castle - the name comes from the 18th century French prisoners of war, held there in cramped, smelly conditions, who sarcastically dubbed it ‘le chateau’.

Vita, Harold and their sons spent their first night at Sissinghurst in one of the estate cottages, eating sardines and soup by candlelight. From these unpromising beginnings, Vita and Harold made Britain’s most revered garden. In the pantheon of British gardens, Sissinghurst is our equivalent of the Mona Lisa. Its extravagant loveliness and atmosphere of dreamy romance, as well as the famously unconventional love affair at the heart of its history, has made this a place which continues to fascinate. Vita and Harold transformed the grounds at Sissinghurst into the spectacular gardens which now attract thousands of visitors every year.

Vita and Harold formed a genuinely loving partnership and a marriage that lasted until Vita's death in 1962. Yet their letters and biographies reveal that both Vita and Harold had numerous same-sex relationships during their life together. On Vita’s part this included some very serious relationships - most famously, those with Violet Trefusis and Virginia Woolf. Their marriage was the foundation of their life together, offering both constancy and freedom for them both to pursue their same-sex desires and at the centre of which was Sissinghurst which was the bedrock of their marriage together.

The aristocratic Vita married Harold in 1913. They were a fashionable and popular couple - she a writer, he a diplomat - but although they were devoted to each other, they were both predominantly homosexual and had numerous affairs during their marriage. Vita, who dressed in pearls, a silk blouse, riding breeches and lace-up leather boots, was especially promiscuous. With Vita, it was not so much a matter of love triangles as love dodecahedrons. Vita pursued anyone who took her fancy at any given moment and several marriages were destroyed as a result.

One of the great dramas of the Nicolsons’ marriage was caused by her infatuation with Violet Trefusis, with whom she ‘eloped’ to France in 1920. Violet’s husband and Harold chartered a small plane and the two men set off together in pursuit of their wives, Harold eventually persuading Vita to return. His love affairs were much more low-key than hers. In one biography, Nigel Nicolson commented that for his father, ‘sex was as incidental, and about as pleasurable, as a quick visit to a picture gallery between trains’.

What bound the couple together, even more than their sons, was their five-acre garden at Sissinghurst. Its creation was more than just an artistic endeavour. The energy and time they poured into it also afforded them the privacy they needed to conceal the nature of their marriage from the world.

Vita and Harold had made their first garden at their house, Long Barn near Sevenoaks, where they lived between 1915 and 1930. This was where they developed their style and made most of their horticultural mistakes; by the time they moved to Sissinghurst, they were confident gardeners and within their first two years Harold and Vita had cleared decades’ worth of weeds and brambles, laid new paths, restored buildings and excavated a lake.

They were very much hands-on gardeners and did most of the work themselves, not least because in the early years they weren’t very well off, living on Harold’s salary and Vita’s earnings as a writer. They agreed on a strict division of labour: Harold worked out the ground plan - still regarded today as a masterpiece of ingenuity and subtlety - but was allowed to plant just two of the garden’s many ‘outdoor rooms’.

Vita ruled supreme when it came to the rest of the planting. Most of the large plants, the shrubs and trees - and her beloved roses - were bought in from nurseries. As the garden filled out she would propagate plants from seeds and cuttings and eventually had grown enough plants to sell to the garden’s paying visitors. Her mantra when it came to planting was ‘cram, cram, cram every chink and cranny’, and she filled the garden until it overflowed with flowers, something which occasionally caused fierce disagreement. In a diary entry for 1946, Harold complains that whereas he wants plants which add shape and perspective, ‘she wishes just to jab in the things which she has left over’. Vita, of course, won the argument. ‘In the end we part, not as friends,’ he records grumpily.

Rather endearingly, though, Vita was keenly aware of the gaps in her knowledge and regretted not being a trained horticulturist. Late in life, when the garden was already internationally famous, she enrolled on one of the Royal Horticultural Society’s training courses, even though she herself was a member of the RHS’s governing council. Roses were Vita’s particular passion. In the post-war period, when neat, shrubby hybrid tea and floribunda roses were all the rage, she championed old-fashioned roses such as the opulent damasks, gallicas and centifolias. As much as their colour and scent, she loved them for their historical associations, writing: ‘To me they recall the brocades of ecclesiastic vestments, the glow of mosaics, the textures of Oriental carpets.’

The roses are still one of the great glories of Sissinghurst.

The most famous area, imitated by countless gardeners across the world, is the magnificent White Garden. It was only planted in 1950, perhaps conceived as a reaction to the years of wartime drabness, the khaki uniforms and blackout curtains. The odd thing is that the White Garden is not really all that white. Vita called it ‘my grey, green and white garden’ and the artfully chosen foliage sets off the white flowers so that, at certain times of day and in the right light, they appear to float in mid-air. The effect is like being in that delicious halfway state between dreaming and waking.

Vita died in 1962. Shortly before her death she wrote to Harold that ‘the true love that has survived is mine for you and yours for me’. After her death, visitors to the garden would sometimes see Harold sitting there, tears streaming down his cheeks as he remembered his wife. He died in 1968, a year after the garden was handed over to the National Trust.

#vita sackville-west #sackville-west #harold nicolson #nicolson #quote #relationships #marriage #aristocracy #nobility #english #gardens #nature #outdoors #sissinghurst #society #flowers #white garden #horticulture #english garden #gardening

[master-john-uk]

The railway line between Redhill, Surrey and Tonbridge, Kent will be closed until 14th April 2024 following a land slip. This line runs through the Weald valley, close to the rivers Eden and Medway.

I am not entirely surprised. After the wettest February for 200 years, and above average rainfall in March, the ground in the Weald valley is sodden. One of my favourite walks is from my my home on the Greensand Ridge to Hever, where I grew up. This route can be challenging, even in good weather. Right now, parts of the official public footpaths are almost impassable due to surface water and mud.

The problem on the railway line near Bough Beech was discovered on Friday. Engineers worked through the weekend to try and remedy the problem... but, simply adding more ballast to level up the tracks was not enough. Geological experts have now been called in, along with advisors on wildlife welfare.

As I am not working in London this week, I might walk young dog Joe Boy down there tomorrow. Maybe I will be able to offer the engineers some helpful advice!

[airmanisr]

Armstrong Whitworth Meteor TT.20 ‘WD615’ (really WD646) by Alan Wilson Via Flickr: c/n unknown Built in 1951 as a Meteor NF.11 for the Royal Air Force with the British military serial WD646. Known to have operated with the Central Signals Establishment before she was converted to a Meteor TT.20 target tug during 1961. She then served with No.3 Civilian Anti-Aircraft Co-operation Unit (3CAACU) at Exeter and No.5 Civilian Anti-Aircraft Co-operation Unit (5CAACU) at Woodvale before being retired in December 1971 and allocated the maintenance serial 8189M. Intended for ground instruction use by No.2 School of Technical Training at Cosford, by 1973 she was with 2030 Squadron of the Air Training Corps at Elmdon (Birmingham Airport). She had been moved to North Weald by May 1993 but joined the museum at Manston in November 1997 and has since been painted to represent a Meteor NF.11 of 85 Squadron, who were based at West Malling with the type in the early 1950’s RAF Manston History Museum Manston, Kent, UK 30th April 2022

#English Electric Canberra #aircraft

[mybeingthere]

Paul Evans is one of the group of Landscape Painters working today. He is known for his watercolours, acrylics and etchings inspired by East Anglia’s landscape and coast, Sussex Downland, the Kent Weald and Cornwall’s rugged coast and moorland.

Most images copy only as thumbnails but you can see his paintings as larger images here:

https://www.kingsframers.com/collections/paul-evans

[aisphotostuff]

Wildwood...Bluebells Kent by Adam Swaine Via Flickr: We’re so lucky to have such wonderful countryside on our doorstep. All of a sudden the rapeseed fields and bluebell woods are abundant with flowers.

#tree log #moss #lichen #bluebells #wild flowers #Flowers #flora #woodland #woodland floor #woods #natures finest #nature #nature lovers #Kent #kent weald #plants #england #english #South East #beautiful #rural #rural Kent #walks #Adam Swaine #fuji #2024 #seasons #uk #uk counties #counties

[rodmajorart]

Tenterden High Street, Kent, with a few progress shots. Chasing the sun with painting pals @petgeonz and @davidswaineartist. 27 February 2023. (10 x 12 ins). Delighted also to meet @mytenterden, who posted a great photo. #tenterden #kent #tenterdenhighstreet #painting #oilpainting #pleinairpainting #britpleinair #allaprima #impressionism #winterlight #wintertrees (at Tenterden, Kent - The Jewel of the Weald) https://www.instagram.com/p/CpLj3hOIkpM/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

#tenterden #kent #tenterdenhighstreet #painting #oilpainting #pleinairpainting #britpleinair #allaprima #impressionism #winterlight #wintertrees

[themuseumwithoutwalls]

MWW Artwork of the Day (6/17/22) Sir Winston Churchill (British, 1874-1965) Valley of the Ourika, near Marrakech (1947) Oil on canvas, 63.5 x 76 cm. Private Collection

As an artist, Churchill is best known for his landscapes: sweeping depictions of the weald of Kent, sun dappled villas in the South of France, or exotic vistas of Egypt or Morocco. Rarely does the figure creep into his landscapes; rarely did he paint portraits of friends and family, and rarer still does the great man himself appear in the composition. Although he always worked with an almost compulsive intensity, Churchill understood his need from time to time, if not for a change of gear then certainly for a change of focus: a need his painting amply fulfilled.  This one was done in Morocco, where he can gone to write his Memoirs.

More of Sir Winnie's work is included in this MWW gallery/album: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2713812972057388&type=3

#winston churchill #Valley of the Ourika #british artist #landscape

[richwall101]

Sissinghurst Castle & Garden, at Sissinghurst in the Weald of Kent in England, was created by Vita Sackville-West, poet and writer, and her husband Harold Nicolson, author and diplomat. It is among the most famous gardens in England and is designated Grade I on Historic England's register of historic parks and gardens. It was bought by Sackville-West in 1930, and over the next thirty years, working with, and later succeeded by, a series of notable head gardeners, she and Nicolson transformed a farmstead of "squalor and slovenly disorder" into one of the world's most influential gardens. Following Sackville-West's death in 1962, the estate was donated to the National Trust. It is one of the Trust's most popular properties, with nearly 200,000 visitors in 2017. The site of Sissinghurst is ancient and has been occupied since at least the Middle Ages. The present-day buildings began as a house built in the 1530s by Sir John Baker. In 1554 Sir John's daughter Cecily married Thomas Sackville, 1st Earl of Dorset, an ancestor of Vita Sackville-West. By the 18th century the Baker's fortunes had waned, and the house, renamed Sissinghurst Castle, was leased to the government to act as a prisoner-of-war camp during the Seven Years' War. The prisoners caused great damage and by the 19th century much of Sir Richard's house had been demolished. In the mid-19th century, the remaining buildings were in use as a workhouse, and by the 20th century Sissinghurst had declined to the status of a farmstead. In 1928 the castle was advertised for sale but remained unsold for two years.

#Sissinghurst #Castle #Gardens #National Trust

[upwiththegood]

MAIDSTONE STROKE GROUP

AUGUST NEWSLETTER 2022

NEW 'SUPER CLINIC' TO OPEN AT CANCER CENTRE

 A new “super clinic” has officially been opened at Maidstone Hospital. The new building is an addition to the Kent Oncology Centre the fourth largest provider of cancer care in the country which offers specialist treatment to around 1.9m people. On May 26, Maidstone and Weald MP Helen Grant was joined by MP for Chatham and Aylesford Tracey Crouch, who received care at the centre herself, to officially open the site. It has nine new clinic rooms which means patients can see consultants, registrars, cancer nurse specialists and radiograpers in a streamlined “super clinic” where multiple teams work together to provide smoother and quicker care. There are also two specialist rooms for patients to have quick blood tests and face-to-face consultations. The politicians were joined by new Maidstone mayor Cllr Derek Mortimer and received a tour of the new suite before the official unveiling of a commemorative plaque. The new suite is the lastest in a number of developments in cancer care at the Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells Trust, with the most recent developments including multi-million-pound investments for diagnostic equipment and facilities, recruiting more clinical staff and upskilling nurses to deliver chemotherapy treatment. Mrs Grant said: “My husband was diagnosed with prostate cancer six years ago and we entered a process that took about four years to complete, in multiple locations. “Navigating that journey was a challenge whilst also having to deal with the mental stress of the disease and its treatment. “Here at Maidstone Hospital, we are extrmely fortunate to have the Kent Oncology Centre with many services all co-located – making the process far easier”.

                                      Article from local paper

Vitamins 'a risk to cancer recovery

 ONE in three cancer patients should bin vitamins and supplements in case they block recovery, scientists say. Herbal pills and remedies can worsen side effects or make treatment less effective for people having chemotherapy or radiotherapy. Ninet-one per cent of cancer patients take some kind of supplement, a study in th USA found. Some 35 per cent would be told to stop if their doctors knew what they were taking. Lead author Dr Stacy D'Andre, of Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, warned supplements or alternative therapies “can be dangerous in several ways.” She said: “They can be toxic, interact with other medications and may decrease the effectiveness of cancer treatments.” Brits should consult a doctor before using them, UK cancer experts say.

  Article from daily paper

Heart joy with egg

 EATING an egg a day could help stave off a heart attack or stroke, a study suggests. Scoffing the versatile shelled food staple was shown to boost metabolism and increase healthy proteins in the blood. That leads to more “good” cholesterol and strips away the “bad” type from arteries, protecting against clots. The team from Peking University, Beijing, said the study “highlights the need for more strategies to encourage moderate egg consumption”.

Article from daily paper

STATIN PILL IS CANCER FIGHT HOPE

 Statins could help fight bowel cancer, experts say. The cheap pills already used by millions to lower cholesterol were found to stop tumour growth in laboratory tests. Researchers claim the breakthrough could help in a quarter of cases, benefitting around 10,000 UK patients each year. Queen Mary University of London scientists tested over 1,200 already approved drugs on cancer cells, journal Frontiers in Oncology reports. Though not a cure, experts hope the pills can be used to prolong life and aid treatment.

                                                                Article from daily paper

HOSPITAL THEATRE TO CUT OP QUEUES

 Plans have been put forward for a new multi-million pound medical facility which would create 181 jobs. The development at Maidstone Hospital in Hermitage Lane would cost around £30 million and represent part of the government's £8 billion Build Back Better NHS project. If approved, the standalone “Orthopaedic Barn” would have four theatres, a 22-bed inpatient ward with medical support and plant spaces. Maidstone Hospital deals with orthopaedic cases for all of Kent. If given the go-ahead, the two-storey building would help cut waiting times and backlogs, which have been worsened by the Covid-19 pandemic. The planning statement said: “there is a compelling need for the development arising from a demand for additional operating space to deal with existing backlogs in the system. “The improved functioning of hospital is critical in light of the pressures created by the Covid-19 pandemic which has placed immense strain on an already under-resourced service. “The application is a direct part of Maidstone NHS Trust's response to improve the efficiency of Maidstone Hospital in line with the Government's Build Back Better plan. “The proposed facility will have the direct ability to improve the lives both of those people currently awaiting procedures and those people who will need procedures in the future. “It will assist wider training and best practice and would link with the new Kent and Medway Medical School which has been set up to train the next generation of NHS doctors.” Construction would be”short” and the building screened by surrounding hospital buildings. It is also hoped the facility would help increase the amount of hip replacement procedures from five to 20 per day. The planning statement added: “Moreover, provision of this additional capacity will free up operating space in furthur theatres within the main hospital for more complex operations.”The development is predicted to significantly improve the efficiency of hospital functions to attend to backlogs in the waiting list.” A new patient car parking and drop-off area with six parking spaces including four blue badge spaces will be provided to the front of the building. Another 10 cycle storage spaces have also been proposed.

                                             Article from local paper

JOHNS NOTICE BOARD

 ONE ----- There was no doubt in my mind that the last Tuesday meeting on July 19th was far too hot for us to attend, with temperatures reaching 38 plus degrees so the decision was made to cancel it, sorry if it caused any incovenience to any members.

 TWO ----- MEMBERS UPDATE: PAULA SMALLWOOD. I had word from our newest member ( in a wheelchair ), that her health situation has changed and it means that she will be unable to attend our group meetings, but thanked me for all the time I had given her. We all wish her well for the future. MEL MORGAN. I had word from mels daughter Janine, that mel had settled into a residential home and was stabilised from his seizures and was doing just fine, we hope he remains in good health fron now on and from all at MSG we wish him all the best, we are always thinking of you. BARRY FAWCETT. Barry is a regular visit to our Thursday excursions to the brenchley for a coffee and a chat,some while ago he had a knee replacement and was all the better for it, he needs the other replaced but unfortunately has had some very unpleasant ulcers on his leg that have stopped the operation going ahead, he regularly visits Kims hospital 2/3 times weekly for attention to dressing his leg and is hoping the operation will be in the not to distant future. May I add that Val ( barrys sister-in-law ) has not enjoyed good health and has been in and out of hospital herself. We wish them both a speedy recovery from all at MSG. BARRY&MAVIS. Sorry to hear that barry has had some impairment with his vision and is undergoing medical treatment, and unfortunately will not be driving. Maybe mavis will feel confident enough to drive them both to the meetings some day,Wish them both well. JUNE DINES. June is just her usual self, very much a yo yo on the health front, a very strong and determined lady who seems to have the will to go on forever. All our best wishes from all at MSG. DES&PAM. I spoke to des a few days ago and it appears, he has had a couple of operations to remedy his ongoing problems that have jeopardised his health for some time now and he has also had both cataracts removed, this obviously has kerbed his driving and stopped him temporarily visiting pam in her home in speldhurst, where she has been for a year now. When he is back to driving he will pop in and see us for ten minutes. We all wish you all the best and a speedy recovery.

 THREE ----- BEWARE COVID IS STILL HERE. For some unknown reason I seem to be one of the lucky ones that have up till now escaped the covid bug, dispite being with my friend at the moat who tested positive the following day, and at my brothers for a BBQ and he and his wife tested positive the following day, ditto my neighbour on returning from France.

 FOUR ----- I have provisionally set a date of weds 7th September for a fish and chips lunch at Wetherspoons in Ramsgate for a coach day trip. I have yet to do the costings, but the meal is about £8 plus whatever the price division for the coach will be, obviously more people less price. Let me know asap if interested and peas or mushy???

FIVE ----- I have booked Geoff stephens for this years xmas dinner at the village hotel, on Thursday 8th December.

Birthdays:

18th August ------ Peter Fenton

Meetings:

Tuesday ------- 2nd August

Tuesday ------ 16th August

Tuesday ------ 30th August (3 meetings this month)

Tuesday ------ 13th September