Quex House Gardens, Birchington, Kent, UK

Quex House Gardens are part of the historic estate of Quex Park, located near the village of Birchington-on-Sea in Kent, England. The gardens form an important cultural and horticultural landscape surrounding the historic Quex House, a Regency-style country mansion that has been central to the development of the estate for more than two centuries. Today, […]

Secrets of the Old Pump House at Quex House

In 2023, after the access steps had been cleared and some internal detritus removed, the author was fortunate enough to be able to investigate the contents of the sunken Pump House building adjacent to the old Italianate Garden at Quex House, Birhington. This features the slopes of the old parterre and a very deep pond […]

A February of Storms after Calm, 2022

After a late 2021 – early 2022 period of calm, very mild weather with only half-a-dozen light air frosts here on the coast in Margate, February has seen the situation change dramatically. Although barely affected at all by Storm Arwen in January (a Northerly) which caused tremendous damage to trees and the power infrastructure in […]

An Unexpected Rough Time

The North coast of Thanet can be a little bit unusual weather-wise. This last weekend (26-27/9/20) has been a case in point. Following on from the previous weekend’s warm temperatures, but pretty breezy NE’ly winds, and a hot Tuesday (32C recorded at Manston Airport, 29/9/20), the latter part of the week went bad, and by […]

Another ‘C’.. Storm Ciara 2020

Sunday February 9th, Monday the 10th and Tuesday 11th saw Storm Ciara batter the UK.. and our little corner of Thanet received its fair share of the action, albeit not on a par with the rest of the country. On the Sunday, something very weird happened in Margate! It’s pretty normal to get significant protection […]

Golddream – an exhibition

Running from March 4th 2019 – April 13th 2019, Golddream was a 50th anniversary exhibition of posters and photographs from those heady student days of the flower-power era of the late 1960s and early 70s. I was a member of the Goldsmiths College ‘Class’ of 1966-1970 for most of which time it was an ‘external’ […]

Short Memories – Snowmageddon 2018

There seems to be a memory issue these days.. and it’s not mine.. except short-term! For some reason when it comes to issues with the weather, everyone seems to forget what it was like just a few years ago when making comparisons with the recent cold snap. I appreciate that comparisons are sometimes notoriously difficult […]

Margate Caves Archeological Dig

Margate Caves are located at 1 Northdown Road not far from Trinity Square in Margate, the site of the old Holy Trinity Church that was bombed in 1943 and finally demolished in 1958 after laying semi-derelict, but not totally irreparable, for about 15 years. The history of this man-made cave, sometimes referred to as The […]

Storm-Surge Friday

Not as bad as it could have been, but freezing my mitts off (4C with a major gale-force wind-chill!) taking this one at St. Mildred’s Bay, Westgate, on the way back from ‘work’ today at the Quex Powell-Cotton Museum. At least it was fine! Stopped off previously for a mocha at my new favourite café, […]