Mixed Emotions

A short while ago I read a piece about Quex House and the Powell Cotton Museum. With the WEB now available it was easy to find out the opening times and the directions to get there and this afternoon we visited Quex Park for the first time.

The Museum isn't particularly attractive from the outside, but it is set in the park and next to the Regency House.

There has been a house at Quex for 600 years, housing various families. The name Quex comes from the Quekes family in the 16th Century who were wealthy from the wool industry in Kent. The current Regency House was built be John Powell-Powell who inherited the estate in 1813.

The museum house the collection of animals collected by Major Percy Horace Gordon Powell-Cotton is both fascinating, and to some degree horrifying. In an age when shooting animals in Africa is done with a Canon Camera, not a fire arm it is hard to accept that until comparatively recently collecting specimens for museums was the norm. Once one gets over the shock, the skill of the taxidermist and the beauty of the displays is stunning. Other galleries include Ceramics and an outline of Roman activity on Thanet. Certainly one afternoon, or day is not enough to take in all that is on offer!

The museum links to the house and there are several rooms open to the public. It is certainly worth a visit.

Outside the gardens, including the walled greenhouse area are open to the public. September is probably not the best time, but still interesting. A visit in June or July would be sure to see these gardens at their best.

One noisy visitor that wouldn't have been around in the time of John Powell-Powell is the Ring-necked parakeet. There were quite a few in the grounds and for them the time of year is perfect. I was standing under a rather diseased looking Horde Chestnut tree when conkers stared dropping around me. They were being opened by the Parakeets, but whether or not they were actually eating the hard interior, so beloved by school boys until Health and Safety came along, I couldn't see.

One thing that they were managing to open and eat with no trouble was Beech Mast.

They were easier to see in the beech trees as the leaves didn't obscure then as much as the Horse Chestnut leaves.

The damage to the conker trees is caused by a small moth, the Horse chestnut leaf miner (Cameraria ohridella). It was first recorded in the UK in 2002 and has now spread rapidly.

We do like to be beside the Seaside

Folkestone boasts that it has the best free adventure playground in the County of Kent, and while we haven't been to other contenders, this one is certainly very impressive.

There is a massive complex of climbing frames, walk-ways, tunnel, rope bridges and enclosed metal chutes or slides.

This is the biggest slide, and I was made to promise I wouldn't "have a go", although we did meet Heather Chantler, who informed us that a senior member of the Bockhill Birders had tried it out, when there with his grandchildren, and had got stuck in it!

Sam's four and three-quarter sized girth ensured that he had no such trouble, and he seemed to enjoy the experience.

The whole complex is beautifully designed, and it is easy to sit and follow the progress of your charge with out having to expend too much energy (other than the long walk down the Zig-Zig path.

After the playground the sea beckoned (not for Pam or me) and Sam went for a paddle. Quite why he was practising his Irish Jig I don't know.

First it was a step on the left foot and then one on the right, may be we're in for a revival of River Dance.

It was when Sam was coming out of the water that he really discovered the joys of walking on a stony beach with no shoes on. As I was photographing these antics I managed to drop my lens cap. When I bent down to get it, I discovered it had found it's way through a gap in the large rocks and it was now well out of reach under the concrete groyne.

A few feet further along, a larger gap enabled me to slide along the six feet or so, on my Darby Kelly, in a gap about 18 ins high. I have never fancied trying pot-holing and after this experience I certainly haven't changed my mind.

After all this we decided a hot coffee for us two and an ice cream for Sam would round of the excursion. The Mermaid Cafe and Bar is right at the bottom of the cliff, surrounded by a lot of Tamarisk and other vegetation. I was surprised to find that there was a really healthy looking flock of House Sparrows down there.

My garden flock has certainly dwindled over the last few years, the birds here obviously do well out the the customers dropped crumbs, and of course the peanut feeders provided for them by the Cafe.