Hi folks

Whilst I'm exiled down here in deepest darkest kent, I've decided to resurrect my blog page. Today Sunday 8th November I had my first day out in the country visiting the the north east corner of the Isle of Sheppey. Sheppey is located on the north Kent coast, cut off from the mainland by the River Swale and with the Thames estuary on the north side. Sheppey has been known as the a***hole of Kent, it's a very rundown and deprived area and the landscape is very bleak and quite depressing with a lot of marsh areas. The area I visited today is just to the east of Leysdown. Leysdown is quite unique as it comprises mainly of rundown pre-fab holiday parks and huge static caravan parks and amusement arcades, however the marsh area to the east known as the Isle of Harty is very rich in birdlife and is designated as a nature reserve. The weather was quite dreich and I only walked about six miles, first along the sea wall dyke to Shell Ness where the beach is made up entirely of shells, and then round part of the nature reserve. Although the tide was out there was a lot of birdlife to be seen. The following are just some of the species I saw: Grey Heron, Little Egret, Brent Geese, Greylag Geese, Curlew, Ringed Plover, Oyster Catcher, Redshank, Kestrel, Mallard, Teal, Avocet and the highlight of the day was watching a pair of Marsh Harriers hunting just in front of the hide I was in. I was able to watch them for about twenty minutes before they flew off towards Elmley. Unfortunately I did not have my camera with me, so no pics.

We are hoping to get our broadband connection set up sometime this week so then I'll be able to post some pics.

Having spent a couple of days last week putting in shelving and boarding out the loft in the flat, this week I shall be decorating for Joy, I am however hoping to get one good walk in a week and will post the details to here to bore you all.