please empty your brain below
Your summer walk took you through my local manor. The break in the treeline is the Chevening Keyhole; the steak pub in Dunton Green (Rose and Crown) is excellent; and the hotel with the elephant (subject of a planning wrangle) was once owned by the Kray Twins and is now hugely popular for Indian-style wedding parties.

Waterhouse | 22.01.18 - 7:13 a.m. | #

Some parts of Kent are still very beautiful - if you blot out the inevitable traffic noise. As an aside, apropos of nothing - I believe Aleister Crowley once resided in a cottage in this neck of the woods, at Knockholt.

Burntweenie | 22.01.18 - 7:14 a.m. | #

"Most south westerly" easterly, surely?

dg writes: Surely, thanks.

Ian | 22.01.18 - 7:16 a.m. | #

Did you ever do most southwesterly or most northeasterly, dg?

dg writes: Not yet.

Gordon | 22.01.18 - 7:28 a.m. | #

Unimproved parts of the North Downs, particularly those where the scrub has been kept at bay can be very rich botanically and for butterflies. I’m pretty sure your butterflies were Meadow Browns, and the plants look like wild Marjoram.

Robert Butlin | 22.01.18 - 7:38 a.m. | #

Thank you for a wonderful description of my favourite place in the whole world.

Christine | 22.01.18 - 7:42 a.m. | #

Thanks for a pleasant reminder of summer.

Malcolm | 22.01.18 - 8:38 a.m. | #

An area frequented in my youth as I discovered the joy of all-day walking. I particularly remember one December between Christmas and New Year. We were hiking (and camping out) and the North Downs Way took us over a huge chalky scar which was to become the M25. As the construction industry took a break at that time of year it was eerily quiet and I think all of us in the group knew that visiting this beautiful area would never be the same again.

Pedantic of Purley | 22.01.18 - 10:12 a.m. | #

Just right as reminder of Summer. Thanks.

Dave | 22.01.18 - 10:41 a.m. | #

Wonderful.
I feel the wilderness and the warmth calling to me.

Cornish Cockney | 22.01.18 - 11:53 a.m. | #

I thought DG didn't do reflections - have you metamorphosed?

Gerry | 22.01.18 - 4:08 p.m. | #

Following Robert B's comment, there's a seam of chalk grassland running along this part of the North Downs, which - if sympathetically maintained and conserved - can be particularly rich in flora and fauna.

As regards the 'Otford' stretch of the NDW, which you haven't reached yet, one of my stand-out memories is of stopping to chat with another walker, who pointed to a grand house overlooking the path and said 'that's "Treacle Towers" over there.' It had, apparently, been commissioned by one of the members of the Lyle (as in Tate & Lyle) family, hence the local nickname.

RogerW | 22.01.18 - 5:00 p.m. | #

I apologise for being a rather sporadic reader of your blog. I'll suddenly remember that I haven't checked it out for a while, then hoover up and enjoy a whole bunch of entries.
So I'd like to ask, purely out of curiosity....did you ever get another job after becoming unemployed last year?

dg writes: I refer you to the answer I gave earlier.

Richard M | 22.01.18 - 9:37 p.m. | #

The mirrored dome at Otford is the nearest we get to a selfie I guess?

Jerym | 24.01.18 - 11:46 a.m. | #

In an effort to make a comment without a question, in a nice piece of synchronicity, the reference to the Solar System model in Otford comes around the time of this post from Phil Plait with a spreadsheet of diameters and distances of Solar System objects, so you can to make your own model with a rope or piece of paper or whatever.

If I have got my maths and conversions right, I have in front of me a piece of A4 paper (landscape) marked with the positions of the Sun (of 0.5mm diameter) near the left margin, with Mercury at 2.1cm away, Venus at 3.9cm and Earth at 5.4cm, Mars at 8.2cm and Jupiter near the right margin at 28cm. Saturn would be towards the edge of the next piece of A4 (51cm from the Sun) and Uranus another two pieces further away (1m from the Sun on this scale). Neptune is another couple of pieces of A4 away (six now, at 1.6m). Alpha Centuri is about 14km away (about 50,000 pieces of A4). Remember, the Sun is about 0.5mm across, so Jupiter is about 0.05mm, and the Earth is about 0.005 microns (5 microns).

Space is really empty.

dg writes: A London version.

Andrew | 24.01.18 - 12:21 p.m. | #

Indeed. But a have my model on my desk!

On your scale, the Sun would have a diameter of about 7 metres, as I see someone has commented there already. And a model of the nearest star could be installed on the Moon.

Andrew | 25.01.18 - 7:58 a.m. | #

Are you planning to bring your NDW project out of hibernation? Clearly 2018 was too busy with other activities but, well, the weather is fine at the moment.

Vic Flange | 17.04.19 - 10:04 a.m. | #











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