Kemsing Down, Winter 2015

Kemsing Down, 15 December 2015

The weather forecast was for an overcast day, so as I had not had much exercise recently I decided to go up the 600-foot hill of Kemsing Down.  It was grey and drizzling.  This is what the Met Office calls "overcast," it seems.  (I have not been able to find out when the Meterological Office became the "Met Office".  It's not a very descriptive new name, unless it now employs metists.)

Kemsing Down, part way up, 15 December 2015

It was like this only part way up.  From the top:

Kemsing Down from the top, 15 December 2015

Complete with a diagram showing what you can theoretically see.  There was no activity on the hill.  I didn't find the sheep until I was nearly back at the bottom again, by a different route, though I could see they had been up there by the droppings and by the wool caught on dead bramble stems.

It was very slippery and steep, so I recommend good walking shoes to anyone who wants to try this in wet weather.

Well, that was fun, but rather samey.  But I was very happy to find some Winter Aconite flowering in the churchyard, next to the car park on the way to the hill.

Winter Aconite, Eranthis hyemalis.  Kemsing churchyard, 15 December 2015.

Like all churchyard plants, you have to assume that it was planted here at some time, but this seems now to be spreading and thriving.  This plant is supposed to flower in winter.  There were other plants there which were flowering out of their usual season - Primrose, Oregon Grape, Mexican Orange - but those were all clearly cultivated plants.