Hop Stringers' Silhouettes, Barming

Today was another food shopping day but we decided to combine it with a longish walk (four miles or so). Rather than go to the nearby Sainsburys, Marks & Sparks or Aldi we thought we'd walk around two miles or so to the nearest Waitrose instead. It wasn't busy so I managed to walk straight in and purchase what I needed without any fuss or delay.
On the way back we went via Barming and ended walking through what used to be open countryside but is now an estate of executive style homes called Hermitage Park. It's funny how these developments are nearly always given a name that they are the exact opposite of. The "Park" keeps expanding taking more and more greedy mouthfuls of the green fields and old orchards that used to exist on the site. At the moment, though, the building seems to have stopped altogether and there are a lot of unfinished houses brooding like man made skeletons in the muddy fields.
Today's shot is of a sculptural work of art on the edge of the development, it's called Hop Stringers and it's by the artist Jane Ackroyd. It's beautifully realised and executed. Needless to say hop growing in Kent is now a much smaller industry than it was in it's hay day so this artwork has a melancholy rather than celebratory feel to it.