The nearby town of Faversham is well known for hop growing and the Shepherd Neame brewery. About this time, every year, the town holds a hop festival over the entire weekend. People come from all over to attend. At this stage in my life I am not so keen to go. It is so busy and I do not enjoy trying to make my way very slowly through the crowds watching morris dancers and drinking copious amounts of beer - all day long - with three young children. (Bah humbug!) Well, I thought I'd got out of it this year. My Mum is having Henry for the weekend as she is taking him and my grandfather (who is 94!) on the Spitfire steam train tomorrow. My mother-in-law was going to take Honor but unfortunately, for both of us, she is unwell. So I agreed to take Honor myself. She used to be frightened of all the noise and unusual characters wandering up the street but now she thinks it is all fantastic! (Groan!)
I didn't fancy fighting my way through the crowds with a pushchair so I got my Moby Wrap out. I haven't used it in many months as I'd been having back troubles, but I think I got away with it for a one-off. We aquired one of Honor's friends so we headed to the creek for...
the swing boats.
And very loud bands!
Back up the street, these fellas were making everyone laugh dressed as old grannies whizzing about on their shopping trollies - also with loud music blaring.
I enjoyed it really - well a little bit.
I have to put the baby to bed now and I'm going to let Honor stay up and watch the X-Factor with me.
I used to live in the Middle of the hop gardens at Boughton. I remember the Londoners used to come down and live in caravans for the month to pick the hops. It was crazy up our lane and those tractors often had no brakes.Many a time it was in the bush we went!! I had forgotten about swing boats! Thanks for the trip down memory lane...
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