Recently whilst clearing my loft

I found a faded watercolour

That I had painted some years ago

It was a rough view of three oast houses

Along with a barn and a few outbuildings

 

Jane and I were strawberry picking

At a farm some miles from Maidstone in rural Kent

I can remember its creation as if it was yesterday

The long walks in the high summer fields

And the natural swims in the nearby river

 

I was reminded of the broken lock on the washroom door

Which I guarded when Jane was in the shower

The ancient church at the bottom of the narrow lane

And the cricket pavilion built in the nineteen fifties

But looking as if it had been built before the two wars

 

 

I can recall my future wife watching cricket in her black bikini

And the extraordinary number of dropped catches in the outfield

These were the days of orange teas and bumble bees

Of quiet afternoons spent under shady trees

Which still linger fruitfully in our recent memories

 

The oast houses and the outbuildings are now residential

And they look quite splendid within this once active farm

The barn like the fields have seen better days and are now resting

Perhaps asleep as much has changed during the passing of the years

But little has really changed here in this soft but forgotten Kent valley

 

 

 

West Farleigh  August 2020