Fantastic Birthday Present!

Some of you will remember that I had a fabulous holiday in China in 2011, I am thrilled to say that I am going out there again this Friday . I can’t believe that I am getting the opportunity to go out there again, when I never thought I would ever visit a country as amazing as this once, let alone twice!

My daughter has been on a three month secondment with her job in Beijing and is due back in this country in August. I had a special Birthday last month and this trip is my birthday present from my lovely daughter! I am only going for a week this time, but I am getting very excited now. I am sure I will take a few (!) photos while I am there, so look out for some, hopefully good, photos when I get back. we are staying in Beijing for the week, but there are plenty of places there that I never got to see last time – we are starting with a trip to the Ming Tombs on Sunday so I will be seeing the ‘Night and Day’ animals that line one of the routes to the tombs.

Woohoo, how lucky am I??

Beautiful Beihai Park, we will be going there again on this trip. Such a lovely place

St. Augustine’s Church, Northbourne, Kent

The same day that my friend and I visited St Mary The Virgin Church, Woodnesborough we also visited St. Augustine’s Church in Northbourne. I first found this Church back in January while I was trying to find Northbourne Parish Hall where we were due to go for a pantomime, but at that time I was unable to go into the Church.

Beautiful winter sunshine, showing the church off to the best advantage.

The weather vane.

St Augustine’s was built in the 12th Century in the cruciform shape, and is believed to have been built on the site of an older Saxon Church. The setting of this church is lovely, there is a large churchyard surrounding this pretty little church, and the entrance doorway has a lovely Tympanum (as seen on the church of St. Nicholas at Bafrestone and the church of St Mary in Betteshanger) which can be seen when you enter the porch, which I think is probably a much later addition.

Inside the porch.

The entrance door showing the Tympanum above.

Beautiful weathered door at the back of the church.

The Lady Chapel is situated in one of the ‘arms’ of the cross has a wonderful marble statue of Sir Edwin Sandys and his wife. Sir Edwin helped to start the East India Company, and was involved in establishing the State of Virginia in 1607.

The Sir Edmund Sandys memorial statue.

The marble Altar.

The other ‘arm’ of the cross is totally taken up by a very large organ, and the only stained glass windows I could see are situated behind the organ! Undeterred by that, I managed to get behind the organ to get some photos!

The marble Altar is beautiful, and looking from the back of the Church to the Altar is a lovely sight, but sadly looking from the Altar to the back of the Church the view is not quite so pretty, and we both agreed that the feeling of the Church is quite different from St. Marys in Woodnesborough.

Looking towards the Altar from the back of the church.

The beautiful roof at the back of the building.

Looking to the back of the church from the Altar, the organ is in the alcove on the right, the Lady Chapel is in the alcove on the left.

Every church evolves over the centuries, and there is almost a feeling that what must have been a very beautiful church has at some time has not been loved as much as it should have been. These country churches are all different, many still have thriving congregations, as does this one, and I for one am very pleased that we can still visit such amazing buildings that have stood for over 900 years.

   

The marble Altar carvings were so beautiful, they deserved a photo each

   

Flower Festival, St Mary The Blessed Virgin, Woodnesborough, Kent

 

Looking towards the Altar

The colourful children’s area.

Flowers round the pulpit.

Back in May my friend and I spent a lovely afternoon at the Flower Festival held in St Mary The Blessed Virgin Church in Woodnesborough, which is a small village near Sandwich. I have seen the Church on many occasions but have never had the chance to have a look round or take photos, and, as both my friend and I enjoy Flower Festivals in beautiful surroundings we had a lovely afternoon.

We loved this teapot

Just lovely

The beautiful embroidered and quilted Altar cloth.

The Church is surrounded by trees on top of a small hill, it was built in 1180 on the top of Woden’s Hill, which is where the name of the village came from.

    

Theses crosses were carved into the pillars by pilgrims making their way to the Thomas a Becket shrine in Canterbury.

Another amazing roof.

One of the window displays.

A lovely sight while we were having out tea and scone

Going through the main door we were met with a beautiful, colourful sight. The church is lovely, and was beautifully enhanced by the amazing flowers on display.

Another view of the flowers round the pulpit.

One of the beautiful stained glass windows.

We had a really good look round this beautiful little church taking our photos, chatting to the organisers and generally soaking up the lovely atmosphere, and ended our visit by enjoying a cup of tea and a scone sitting in one of the pews.

Real and crocheted flowers in this bouquet.

When we left the church we wandered round the outside then crossed the road to the churchyard, where we saw the little Robin. Our visit was a lovely way to spend a pretty miserable Sunday afternoon.