An overcast afternoon, not particularly warm, but not unpleasant, and a different feel to the countryside. I parked in the village hall car park (care, it may be locked in the evening if the hall is not in use) and walked into the centre of the village, where the footpath runs as a narrow ground-floor passageway between the cottages, a bit difficult to find.
The footpaths here are often fenced in, even when running alongside fields, which seems to me not overly restrictive, and with some advantages. Of course when the fencing isn't present, you get a bit more freedom to wander!
As you come out of the passage, the fenced and hedged path was very shady and ran alongside fruit trees to the East, and gardens to the West, eventually finding itself along a stream, that must feed in to the Alders Stream that leads eventually to the River Medway. After crossing the stream further South, the path finds itself alongside a field to the West, used for sheep grazing.
Then it gets to the small complex of houses at Brook Farm, where the fenced paths lead you very conveniently through the different properties out to the hop gardens between Brook Farm and Reeds Farm.
One the other side of the hop garden, there was an old run-down orchard with sheep grazing in it, maintained in its current condition I am sure with a Higher Level Stewardship Grant.
I found a Jay and heard a Green Woodpecker, which revel in old orchards like this one. The habitat is full of little niches, including hollow old branches like the one below.
This old stump has been protected presumably for habitat rather than horticultural reasons.
And this old fallen tree has been left, again for habitat enhancement:
The sheep also seem happy with their grazing habitat:
The autumn flowering plants included Redshank, Persicaria maculosa, aka Polygonum persicaria as I used to know it,
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