City of Ice

We went down to Maidstone for coffee and homeware shopping, and for a change it was me who spent money on some new cushions for my kitchen chairs (now I'll have to decorate!).

On the way back, I took a detour through a modern housing estate at Allington toward the River Medway.  I had a vague childhood memory of visiting a manor house of some sort, either with school or Sunday school, where we were shown a priest hole and taught some history about them (the estate was just fields then).  However, it was all a bit disappointing as we couldn't get near to the river, and although Allington Castle (now a wedding venue and firmly shut today) was at the end of the road, I'm not convince that that was the place I visited - so perhaps my memory is at fault.

We stopped in a car park next to an open area clearly used for dog walking and perhaps family picnics in the Summer. I took a stroll round the field and found areas still in deep shade with frost.  My eye was taken by the ice crystals stacked up along the ridge of a leaf vein which reminds me of a city vista.