Benchmarking A Saturated Scene

Today turned out to be much sunnier than the we had been given to expect from yesterday's forecast, albeit it with another bitingly cold wind.
We headed out with no particular destination in mind but it would eventually morph into a continuation of our Kent town and villages tour.
We'd found ourselves on the road towards Tonbridge again when we saw a sign for the small town of Paddock Wood and decided to give a try as we hadn't been there for years. I wouldn't call it particularly picturesque but we were certainly impressed by the range of shops, many of them independent, and without a single empty premises which is more than be said for some much larger nearby towns.
We therefore decided to continue onward and took the twisting and turning country roads to the close at hand village of Matfield. The village grew up around its village green, which is the largest in Kent, with an expansive pond at its northern end which just 18 months ago had to be completely drained at the cost of £20,000 to rid it of illegal Prussian carp, an invasive fish species from East Asia and Central Europe.
Once we had parked the car we strolled along the High Street and 'somehow managed' to locate one of its hostelries - The Poet - named to commemorate the World War One poet Siegfried Sassoon, who was born in the village. It was wonderfully characterful inside and the barmaid was very welcoming and chatty but we did feel slightly self-conscious as we were the only customers. We were thinking of having lunch but at £15.00 for a starter and mains heading towards the £40.00 mark it was a bit outside our price range!
Libations downed we took a wander back along the High Street and towards the village's pond where I captured today's image. I couldn't get an image of the pond I was happy with but there was just something about this adjacent bench, with a tiny bunch of tulips attached to one arm, sitting on saturated ground following recent heavy downpours that just appealed to me - it almost looks like it's floating.
We took the scenic route back home via the villages of Brenchley (which looked lovely and we have added to our list of future destinations), Horsmonden and Goudhurst before stopping off for some provisions - a tin of beans, a bottle of wine and some toffee eggs. Once back home it was time for an eggy roll for a late lunch, followed by a glass of wine and a toffee egg watching The Great Pottery Throw Down. We know how to live! :-)