Thursday in Broxham Wood

Again, this Thursday we stayed close to home. Fortnately there is plenty to do nearby. Connor was kind enough to escort me on a three-and-one-half-mile walk across Marlpit Hill  and through Broxham Wood. It is a beautifully varried area with allotments, farms, fields, lanes, a manor house, forests, bluebell glades (without flowers this time of year), and approximately 17 stiles and gates. Thursday evening Matt and Kim took us to one of their favorite pubs: The Barley Mow.

These community gardens or allotments are a good idea

 Swan Lane straight ahead

 Stone Swans mark the entrance to the first farm

 The sheep keep these fields well-groomed

 My intrepid guide enjoying a Cliff bar

 The architecture of oaks

 An opening in the forest

 Forest flora

 Too early for holly berries

 Wonderful farm lanes

 Kent is the "Garden of England"

 Well-kept farms

I am a sucker for stone walls (among other things)

 

I've never seen these brilliant plants before

 This farmer raises deer who have sculpted this bit of forest

 Missing the bluebells, but still beautiful

 Broxham Manor, an 18th-century house that replaced two previous

Manors from as early as the 13th century -- the restored moat nearby

marks the location of the two previous manors destroyed by fire

 These stiles are a clever and effective design

 Fields of barley good and ready for harvest

 Wildflowers along the path

 The Barley Mow in Tandridge

Didn't they dance the Barley Mow in Pride and Prejudice?

 A lovely dinner in a local pub

 Little man's first time in a pub

 Five adults to sort out one little baby

That was a fun day. We are off to Tunbridge Wells today in search of stuff, so there will be new adventures to report. This, however, is all for now.

OXO

D.