One of the first bluebells on blip in 2021

It wasn’t very inspiring this morning which led to us pottering and having an early lunch. Cold, grey and windy. Typical Easter Saturday.

With the promise of a better afternoon we drove down to Yalding (still in the Borough of Maidstone) to walk east along the Greensand Way until we reached the Weald Way which we followed for a while before joining the Medway Valley path back to Yalding.

It remained windy with some good sunny intervals as we walked parts of Kent new to us. We spotted an early bluebell, walked through many new poly tunnel areas and across the Weald of Kent sitting on a bench, outside the redundant St Michael’s Church at East Peckham, admiring the views south and enjoying a hot cross bun.

The final mile of the walk was fascinating, along the banks of the Medway. The Environment Agency are doing work at the Yalding sluices meaning the gates that hold back the Medway to make it navigable were open leaving the river to revert to the levels it was prior to the works to create the Medway navigation. Water levels were 10 feet lower than normal leaving banks and bed exposed which will not have been seen for decades. A once in a lifetime experience that Nogbad had observed earlier in the week. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medway_Navigation

Lots of blip opportunities today but I’m posting that bluebell. Not the first on blip this year, but one of the first. Thank you for hosting Miranda. I’ve got the tag correct on this one. And, as an extra, I’ve posted an shot of the Medway.