Chestnut Leaves
January 5th 2012. The leaves are now showing their true shape. The plant has grown from 40mm on December 5th 2011 to 200mm. The leaf on the right is 70mm longhand will eventually grow to 270mm or more. Note the crown is developing another series of leaves.
Nice bit of Anorak work I thought.
Another view on 9th January.
Christmas Chestnut
Christmas morning the chestnut seedling has grown stronger and is putting out more leaves. The ribs and veins on the leaves are more obvious and the stem is beginning to harden a little. The colour may be a reflection of the wooden window frame, and also that this was taken without using the flash. However the stem colour is getting steadily deeper.
Sweet Chestnut Seedling - progress
Progress from a shy bud to a small leaf - with all the attributes of a Sweet Chestnut complete with ribs and veins and another beginning. Keep going buddy!
A Seedling
2nd December 2011 -The seedling emerges.
In October I took a trip to Boxley Church where our parents are buried to tidy the grave, as you do, and on the way back I collected chestnuts to take home. One, had a green shoot coming from the top, so I planted it in the pot I keep by my kitchen window for small plants and cuttings.
This is the result and so, here I am with another photo project - tracing the growth and hopefully the survival of the seedling to a sapling.
The idea is to pass on a strong Sweet Chestnut sapling to a garden where it can grow happily and eventually produce fruit (or nuts). Maybe I am nuts to think it possible
6th December 2011 - the leaf emerges
10th December 2011 - Growing with a second leaf emerging.
Great Expectations
The little row of children and the tombstone where Madgewick must have laid Pip. Gloomy.
I had decided that I must go and look at Cooling Church and see the real source of Dickens story. On the way I stopped off at the RSPB reserve at Northward Hill between High Halsttow and Cooling. I had a walk around part of the Heron trail and into the woods gazing over the landscape revealed by the hill. The Thames estuary where the Hulks may have been anchored to hold prisoners in the mid 19th century. Be reminded that this was considered to be a an extreme punishment for the worst felons who were manacled, dressed in rough prison garb and under threat of deportation. A reminder of our own times is that only this year there was talk of using prison ships once again: perhaps not the rotten wooden hulks of Dickens' time but the idea is there.
Looking out over the marshes
I learned also from the local information on the boards in the reserve that along the coast there was an inn where once smugglers plied their trade. A Roman ruin is close by, as expected and along the coast is the Saxon Shore Way, a recent recognition of those intrepid ancestors of ours and of course the tranquil farmlands and birds in their seasons that need the estuary. A visit to the area and a delve into the past is a worthwhile thing to do for Dickens and the birds.
Cooling Church
Ruins of Cooling Castle - maybe the inspiration for Pip's near death.
Harty
I took an excursion into oil painting recently which has led me to work on a few canvasses of real local places. The one above is probably finished except for a little titivating to give it some extra touches. The idea is not so much as to record the scene exactly but to catch a mood and reflect on it.
Other than perhaps taking the scene and creating a picture that can be placed on a wall and somebody remark that they know exactly where it is I want to pos the question - where is it? Hopefully people will find out for themselves and maybe see what I saw.
The paddock was on Harty and in the distance you can see the cut of the Swale and the hills beyond Faversham to Whitstable. It was peaceful with the suggestion of a storm gathering.
I liked it.
What the Dickens?
I went to Rochester to buy paints and brushes from Frances Iles' s shop in the High Street and plonked into a Dickens Festival. I am not particularly interested in festivals like this but everybody was having fun dressed up or watching those who were. I had a vulture for the shop to spend and so I decided that now was the time to venture into oil paintings. So I took my fuji and a bag and wandered in to Rochester using the park and ride bus. I was glad I did because parking would have been impossible anywhere near the town.
However, with my purchases installed in my bag I went for a stroll to look at Restoration House, the model for Satis House of Great Expectations and was pleased to discover it was open. No pictures to be taken inside but I was permitted free licence with the fuji in the gardens. Lovely place, a good working garden from which flowers are cut for the display in the front window facing the street and fruit and vegetables grown for the household. With a mixture of formal and informal, as the guide said, it looked as if the gardens had been there since the house was built.
The gardens are to be extended to the land beside the house (further to the left of the picture) where a Tudor wall was discovered and is being currently refurbished. Lovely!
The point of the post?
This was the place where Dickens Miss Haversham spent her fruitless days and I was amused to discover a local lad - who came from Queenborough on the Isle of Sheppey - had re-created the wedding feast room complete with cobwebs and went broke doing so. The house will swallow money if you let it.
I was a bit apprehensive about the £5.50 charge for the visit but was pleased afterwards that I had forked out for the fee knowing that I would have to wait a long time to go again. The visit was worth it. The guides were friendly and knowledgeable and there was tea and cakes to be had and devoured in the garden - nice.
Taking Pictures
One of the most satisfying things about a hobby is when you can explore it and see results appear in print or on a site that is not controlled by you. I find this happening with the 365 project where pictures I have taken appear for people to see. That they sometimes are a bit weird, and not as 'pretty' as others is also a satisfying thing. I like to take pictures of the things that are normally missed or passed by as everyday objects or sights. Now and then I catch the unusual and feel good when the picture emerges. Like when a Grey Heron suddenly flies up in front of you when you were wanting to take a picture of the pretty flowers on the verge. The poor creature flew off over the busy Sheppey Way and apart from me I don't think anybody noticed.
First Post
This is not a democracy! The one and only criteria of this blog is that I decide who writes and what is written - unless the cat wants to say something or put a picture on the site. Really this should be called First Past the Post but as I prefer Mixed Member Proportional for government I might invite guests to write a bit.
In this journal I hope to regularly post views as well as information and new and interesting links.