Gertsamtkunstwerk

September food

My favourite photos I took of food throughout September. I also had meals without my camera or where the lighting, or my incompetence, let me down. Often when alcohol came in copious amounts.

Tian of Crab in Hythe Bay Seafood.

The mushroom version of Eggs Benedict, in Comemos, Sandgate.

Eleto Cafe in Folkestone.

Cocktails in The Satay Bar, Brixton.

Ceviche of sea bream, compressed cucumber, wasabi and radish, at The Marquis, Alkham.

Wild mushroom gnocchi, The Marquis 

Dark chocolate mousse, white chocolate sorbet, peanut brittle & honeycomb, The Marquis.

Papa's Fish Bar, Folkestone

Everest Nepalese, Hythe

Tian of Crab, Hythe Bay Seafood

Seafood Pappardelle, Hythe Bay

Prawn pad met manuang, Thailand Tom                            Twix cheesecake, Red Lion

 

 

Quince Tree Cottage

Probably the nicest holiday let I have stayed in. I thought it was beautiful indoors, both in terms of refurbishment and modernisation, and in regard to décor and equipment. Its main disadvantage was being a long steep walk up from Hythe Town centre. However, this afforded a very decent view over Hythe Bay and to Dungeness. The garden falls away steeply from the front, so although the front door is at ground level, the rear of the main living rooms are on the first floor, above storage space. So both the ground/first floor  reception rooms and the first/second floor bedrooms had balconies. Architecturally the house combined the elegance of the 1930s and a Swiss -style chalet.

   

Pictures of Hythe

Groom's Cottage

Another home-from-home in-between selling-and-buying. I've never stayed anywhere like this, nowhere so remote. A village of only 500 or so people, the cottage near the end of a  long, narrow road, with just a few villas & homesteads, a vineyard, and, next door, a second holiday cottage, unoccupied for the duration of our visit.

It seemed less of a holiday than some other places we stayed, having to travel to London a couple of times, and having to attend to a lot of house-move admin. It was nice to relax in between trips to Canterbury, Dover Transport Museum and dinner at The Marquis.

The grounds were nice and we even managed an early Autumnal walk round the mean streets back lanes.

Dover Transport Museum

When you're staying in a holiday let in the country in the middle of nowhere in the District of Dover, and it's pouring with rain and gloomily dark at midday in September, what do you do? You head for the Dover Transport Museum, along with Faithful Companion who moaned and groaned at the idea, the word, 'Museum'. Then he got inside and found that there were lots of Big Boys Toys, some of them he even grew up with.

And so, here is a collection of photos. They don't do justice to the experience of being in the museum. I do enjoy a photoshoot like this, but I find it a challenge. I have to accept the ambient lighting, and be conscious of other visitors to the place. In any case, no photograph can really give the full immersive impression of being in a room with actual life-size artifacts. 

I'm by no means a petrol head; indeed I'm generally bored by any car discussion, and I've never watched Top Gear, but I love 20th Century history, especially Social History in its broadest sense, including design, technology, transport (and other aspects, such as housing, not really covered here).

 

 

I particularly noted the Great War section:

Who can resist a charabanc tour of the Great Orme (a long way from Dover!)...

...or a Fire Engine

We get everywhere...  

Peripherals

   

Cars, cars, cars...

 

 

Lots of rooms full of lots of models...

And more interesting stuff outside

 

 

We spent  a bit over an hour there and it was absorbing. It's very much a volunteers run museum and it's a pity they don't have bigger premises, because it's an impressive collection and would benefit if they were able to display them more spread out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Alice and the Hatter, Canterbury

After our visit to Canterbury Cathedral we went off for tea nearby - and found ourselves in Alice and the Hatter. A decent sandwich and a nice cup within striking distance of the cathedral. But I generally don't blog about mere snack meals. However, I took several photographs, just for fun. And here they are.

 

Canterbury Cathedral

I needed to print some important documents but my own printer was irretrievable from a self storage unit. The nearest place I could get the printing done was in Canterbury. I thought it would be quite weird to go to Canterbury and just go to Ryman's, so I also went to the cathedral.

Now, if I were a proper old school blogger, I would provide lots of links explaining the history of Canterbury Cathedral. But times have changed, and given that it's the Mother Church of the Worldwide Anglican Communion, part of a World Heritage site and so on, there's plenty of information readily available for anyone who wants to find out more.

Key facts: it is the seat of the Archbishop of Canterbury, clerical leader of the Church of England (also known as Anglican, Episcopal, etc). Direct from Wikipedia Founded in 597, the cathedral was completely rebuilt between 1070 and 1077. The east end was greatly enlarged at the beginning of the 12th century, and largely rebuilt in the Gothic style following a fire in 1174, with significant eastward extensions to accommodate the flow of pilgrims visiting the shrine of Thomas Becket, the archbishop who was murdered in the cathedral in 1170. The Norman nave and transepts survived until the late 14th century, when they were demolished to make way for the present structures.

The Canterbury Journey is a restoration project taking place between 2016 and 2021, so, when we visited, much of the exterior of the building was hidden behind scaffolding. I assume this will have cleared for the culmination of the Becket 2020 commemorations.

Most of the rest of this post consists of photos I took when I was there. It's interesting walking round, a very impressive space.

 

As I was walking round I saw numerous memorials to goodness knows how many former ABCs, Deans, Canons and whatnots, but no memorials to the countless nameless workmen (probably all men, but would we know if they included women?) whose art and craft made the cathedral what it was. An interesting thought occurred to me - these various ABCs, they may have their names written down but they left no legacy. I've only heard of about half a dozen pre-20C ABCs. Yet these common men, whose names are forgotten, who never mattered to the society they lived in and worked for, they have left a very clear and really quite beautiful legacy. There's probably a moral in that somewhere! 

Interspersed with the permanent artworks are some temporary exhibits from an Exhibition called "Under an Equal Sky", marking the centenary of the Great War Armistice. I really liked them and found them fitting to the setting but I did overhear snippets of conversation from people moaning that they didn't understand them. Which only goes to show you can't please everyone, and at least it wasn't a Crazy Golf Course.

 

It's worthwhile visiting the entire cathedral, but especially for the stained glass windows which are stunning, and quite unlike any I have seen before.

The story of Thomas a Becket is fascinating. I don't know how well known it is outside Kent, although I know a little bit from way back when in my youth. I have seen TS Eliot's Murder in the Cathedral twice, once at my future secondary school and once at Nottingham Cathedral when I was a stude. My classmates who did English Lit A-Level, did some of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. Some of my fleeting contact with Southwark reminded me of its existence. I have never read it; I think the thought of reading what would be, in effect, a foreign language, is too daunting. It has been filmed and televised, but I haven't seen it.

Anyway, my point is that in mediaeval times people travelled in large numbers to visit the shrine of Thomas Beckett. I am woefully uninformed about the Middle Ages but have a sense of a largely illiterate population who didn't travel beyond their nearest market town or Assizes. I'm beginning to learn that society was more complex than that; nevertheless I find it quite mind boggling to think of people walking all those miles, taking days, or longer, staying at inns along the way. Perhaps I should read the Canterbury Tales, in order to get a better sense of what life was like. Or perhaps I should go first to the Canterbury Tales Visitor Attraction

 

 

Battle of Britain Memorial Capel le Ferne

We had to be out of one holiday let by ten in the morning but couldn't access our next one until 4pm. We didn't want to do anything too strenuous, because the packing and unpacking is quite strenuous - we were carting around a bit more than the standard holiday packing. We were moving from a place in Hythe to a place in the countryside in Dover District. So I picked a destination between Folkestone and Dover. 

The Battle of Britain Memorial is at Capel-le-Ferne, high on a hillside overlooking the English Channel; indeed on a clear day, you can see France. And it was an amazingly clear day. Fabulous views, that a camera simply can't do justice to.

We paid to park but admission was free. You have to pay something called the Scramble Experience, but we didn't - we did buy unnecessary objects in the souvenir shop! Because it was such a lovely day, it made sense to wander round the site. 

 

I always like to look at site-specific safety warnings. "The undergrowth on this site has become habitat for adders, which are venous snakes"

 

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I didn't - couldn't - photograph every panel on the memorial, which lists all those who flew in the Battle of Britain. What struck me was the high number of names obviously from Eastern Europe - mainly (to my eyes) Polish and Czechoslovakia.

 

This is what they call The Wing - this is the building that hosts the cafe, shop and facilities. No prizes for guessing the architectural inspiration.

I took this inside the Ladies loos. Themed, obviously.

It was, as I said above, a beautiful day. The light and temperature tell us it's still summer and the berries tell us that autumn is on its way.

Folkestone View

After our trip to the Battle of Britain memorial, we spent some time just sitting and watching the sea. And, of course, being me, taking photos. It was a glorious sunny clear September Day.

The Tiger at Stowting

Stowting is from the  Anglo-Saxon meaning 'place with a mound'. It lies close to the Roman Road, Stone Street and is traversed by the Pilgrim's Way and the North Downs Way footpath. It lies in the Kent Downs AONB (Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty)

In 1947, a BOAC Douglas C-47 crashed on the village while attempting to land at Lympne airport, killing 8 out of 16 people on board.

The 17th Century pub was saved from extinction by a syndicate of locals, It has changed hands since our visit so little point in reviewing the place as such. It came with excellent reviews, not just online but also from 'real' people. I thoroughly enjoyed my seafood platter but Jimmy was unimpressed by his roast beef and roast potatoes. It has to be said that "Jimmy's Law" is to receive below average food from normally excellent places. One such place even received a Michelin star a few months after his disappointment!

It's in a lovely location, although remote - the final stage of the journey being along a single track road. 

I liked the decor inside, although it seemed gloomy, especially on a gloriously hot September day that had started with several swims in the English Channel.

I started with an anti pasta board and moved onto a seafood platter, both of which met or exceeded my expectations. The latter platter consisted of: 

• breaded king prawns
• deep fried salt and pepper squid
• tempura prawns
• smoked salmon
• mini crayfish cocktail
• mackerel pate
• sweet chilli sauce
• tartare sauce
• bread

 

Nice water feature outside, too.

On the way back, we paused at Farthing Common to admire the views

 

 

 

Ivychurch: The Bell and St George's

Drive randomly around Romney Marsh, and randomly pick a village. You can pretty much guarantee it has a church, and most also have a pub. 

The churches are mediaeval, and there's a lot of them. 14, plus 4 (or more) ruined churches.

St George's was built in the 13th century, with 14C & 15C additions. It is a large church, serving a huge parish. Huge in size, that is, with the population of the civil parish being 253 in the 2011 census. The church's size reflects that it was built under the patronage of the Archbishops of Canterbury.

One sunny Saturday, we called into The Bell Inn for a pint and stayed for lunch. I had a brie, broccoli and courgette crumble, which came with chips and decent (ie fresh, crisp) salad

After lunch we went for a look round the church. At the time of my visit I knew very little about church architecture, and, anyway was more interested in the display of agricultural machinery, mainly from the early 2oth C, just prior to mechanisation, which is housed in the North Aisle, former Lady Chapel, the rather grandly named Museum of Rural Life.

Whenever possible, I like to photograph War Memorials whenever I see them. It's become my little rite of memorial.

7 deaths, from a 1911 population of 234.

One of my reference sources calls St George's The Cathedral of the Marsh, but I've also seen that used to describe All Saints Lydd, which is sixty foot longer and has one of the highest towers in Kent. However, that was locked when I went to Lydd!