Kent – The Garden of England
Turn right from our front door and, within ten minutes, we’re smack bang in the middle of phone-snatch central, or Croydon, as it’s also known locally. Stab vests optional!
Ten minutes in the opposite direction and we’re wandering the green fields and wide-open spaces of the Kent countryside, having already passed through leafy Surrey.
Indeed, we live on one of the very last roads with a Central London postcode. Lots of parks, woodlands and nature reserves; it doesn’t feel like Croydon, but it is!
Despite its reputation, we feel so lucky to live here. It has the best of both worlds. From East Croydon station, we can be in London Bridge, wandering through Borough Market and gazing across the River Thames towards Tower Bridge within 15 minutes!
…And, although it ‘should’ have one installed (as we’re technically ‘in’ the ULEZ zone), our road doesn’t have an enforcement camera. Not that it matters, as the local scallywags tend to chop them down on sight.
Cameras in these parts usually last less than 24 hours before finding themselves sawn down and left in the horizontal position.
Now, I’m not condoning these criminal acts of civil disobedience (after all, I’m a supporter of most green policies), but the logic behind why Emma’s car is not exempt is a little beyond me. Her garage regularly measures NOx and particulates well within the ranges recorded in much newer ‘ULEZ-exempt’ cars. But because it’s ‘older’, it fails to meet the arbitrary, blanket ‘age’ rule, so we are required to pay the extra tax (which would mount up to around £4.5k per year if we used it daily).
Ho hum… winners and losers!
The offending car now lives in Cornwall, we swapped it for a smaller Ford Focus!
Titsey – a brewery, the bridleway and Pilgrims Way
Our local brewery at Titsey is in a great spot, miles from anywhere, and located right on the ‘North Downs Way’, so it gets a lot of walkers and cyclists visiting.
Today, the brewery was packed with people enjoying the warmth of the sun.
After a quick tipple, we spent the afternoon wandering the North Downs Way, heading for a cycle shop/stop we know called Velo Barn. We strolled back along the Pilgrims Way, which is now a small ‘B’ road weaving the bottom of the ridge.
The bluebells were out in large numbers – which is unusually early, and probably due to climate change, hopefully our Ford Focus will make a difference!
Love this place.
I often bring the bike out here, but today it was just nice to spend a few hours walking the bridleways and footpaths with Emma.
Gorgeous!