Sandwich in February

 

Gazen Salts Nature Reserve.

Back in February on a lovely Winter's day my friend and I visited Sandwich. Sandwich is a lovely town at any time of the year, there is always something to see and take photos of :) 

Very early daffodils peeping out under a tree on The Ropewalk. Lovely to see the splashes of yellow after what seemed to be a long Winter.

Winter shadows on the grass.

A beautiful bare tree, waiting to put out new shoots and greet the Spring :)

The Ropewalk

The ducks were enjoying the sunshine :)

Looking down Loop Street from The Butts.

 Gazen Salts Nature Reserve. Although the paths were a bit muddy the Reserve was looking really lovely following a lot of hard work by the group of amazing group of volunteers who work so hard looking after this lovely place.

It was great to see the lake free from the weed that had covered it last time we were there.

Great shadows on one of the trees :)

The River Stour with its boats, some of which are Houseboats :)

We thoroughly enjoyed our walk, and ended the visit with a lovely cup of coffee and a piece of cake of course!

Beside the sea, January and February 2022

I haven't been doing many Blogs lately, but I am still taking photos. These were all taken in Deal and Walmer in January and February this year. We have an amazing seafront promenade, which is a great place to enjoy taking photos at any time of the year. 

Beautiful calm day in January, the sea was looking its best, so was the Pier :)

The Lady Irene, a permanent feature on Deal Beach, sadly with no masts. One of the best photos I have ever taken is of this boat in the snow. It is lovely to see her still here :)

Self sown plants growing in the shingle.  Notice the amazing dark blue line of the sea on the horizon.

 Deal was originally called Dola, meaning 'a low open plain by the seashore', hence the name of this boat.

Walmer Seafront again, an amazing sky.

Look at those wonderful clouds.

February sunshine, the beach huts, Walmer. 

More beach huts, this time with the sun going down.

Evening sunshine again, the promenade in this direction goes to the North end of the town, then  a further walk goes on across the Golf Course to Sandwich Bay.

Old and new Beach Huts.

Looking North across Walmer Green, the bandstand built in memory of the 11 musicians who died in the suspected IRA bombing at Deal Barracks in September 1989. 

February, note the puddles on the walkways. Earlier in the morning it had been raining really heavily, but the sun came out in time for a lovely walk home.

One of the older huts on Walmer Beach.

A glorious sky after all the rain. The promenade going South, this stretches to Kingsdown, passing Walmer Castle on the way.

Beautiful cloud formations.

One last lovely cloud photo :) We are very lucky to live in such a beautiful place.

End of the Year 2021 Part 1

 

I always look forward to doing these two last blogs of the Year, but this year I really thought I wouldn't have much to share. I was wrong. Looking through all my photos made me realize that I have had a good year in spite of Covid restrictions.

JANUARY

Lovely fire in our dining room.

 A piece of Tonder Lace that I made, this one is called 'Little hearts of Denmark'

Our darling cat Loki, who sadly is no longer with us. More about him later.

FEBRUARY

The fob watch that my Dad brought back for my Gran from Denmark in 1945, all clean and beautifully mended now :)

Looks cold out there!  The ships are either leaving Dover Harbour or approaching it.

Sunset as seen from our sitting room.

Daffodils, a lovely sign of Spring :)

Red berries, not sure what the plant is!

The Garden of Rest behind St. Georges' Church in the centre of Deal. It looked lovely with a sprinkling of snow.

MARCH

Crocuses  in Walmer Castle.

Beautiful Deal seafront, photo taken from the Pier.

Kearsney Abbey, Dover. Two friends having a chat??

Kearsney Abbey again, I love the sun shining under the arch.

A sunset photo taken from our sitting room.

My favourite Church :)  St. Marys Church, Betteshanger. This is now the church of Northbourne Park School.

The weeping willow trees on the Quay, Sandwich

APRIL

The coast of France looks very close in this photo, it is actually 22 miles away across the Channel, but it was a very clear day :)

The entrance to our local Cemetery

Lovely blossom on one of the trees in the Cemetery.

As I said earlier this was our lovely cat Loki, who we had to have put to sleep in April. He was just unwell, but no-one could tell us what was wrong with him. He had a few nights in the Cat Hospital but was no better when he came home. Sadly we could see him getting worse so had to make the very hard decision to have him put to sleep.  His brother Merlin died last September, so to have two cats leave us in 6 months was horrible :( 

Later in April this adorable little fellow was looking for a home, so he came to live with us. His name is Smudgie, he is just adorable and is a proper character. All our neighbours know him as he goes visiting in some of their houses, he just saunters in and makes himself at home. 

MAY

Our local park looking nice in the Spring sunshine.

Lovely Sandwich Bay

Sandwich Bay again, with Thanet in the distance.

Our daughter had a special birthday this month, as there were still Covid restrictions in place we ordered this cream tea to collect from our local cafe. It was delicious, we enjoyed all of it very much :)

JUNE

Walmer Green in the sunshine :)

My amaryllis which bloomed in June instead of December....

A squirrel at Gazen Salts in Sandwich.

A beautiful peony in Walmer Castle garden.

This squirrel found the perfect place to eat his nut, the hole in the tree was a perfect fit :)

Gazen Salts, Sandwich, such a lovely peaceful place.

Walmer Castle Gardens 

Cyclamen growing in the woodland at Walmer Castle