A Duck At The Table, Aylesford

After yesterday's adventure to Camber Sands I decided to have a more relaxing day at home, or so I presumed. Along with my brother I went to one of our local pubs to have a pint, which I thought would be a calming way to spend a Bank Holiday lunch hour. I didn't factor in the heavy hand of "new" technology -  i.e. trying to order our alcoholic beverages with my newly acquired smartphone via a QR code for the first time. As Ted Hastings said in Line Of Duty , "Jesus, Mary, Joseph & The Wee Donkey". It took me about forty minutes to order two bloody pints of lager! By the time they arrived we were both freezing cold and constantly being slapped in the face by a sodding umbrella that would not stay up in the strong, biting wind. All for the cost of £10.50 and cortisol levels through the roof (if only there had been one!). It was so exasperating at the time but we laughed heartily at my technophobe meltdown afterwards!
All of today's images were taken on Hermitage Lane nearby. It is a road where everything has changed over the past few years. For many decades the bottom half of the road was lined with bungalows that were built for veterans returning from the First World War as part of the Royal British Legion Village. They have slowly been demolished and now there are only a very small handful left (one of which features in the main image (I loved the surrealness of it's facade and garden) and the other in the second extra)). Some were knocked down to be replaced by a 24 hr McDonalds, a Pets At Home and an Aldi. Others are about to be replaced by new homes for veterans from much newer conflicts (see the first extra) .It is so good to see this happening, rather than the more generic housing which has strangled the Lane at the top end.
The balance between housing and green belt on the rest ofHermitage Lane has now been lost. It's as if a rapacious housebuilding T-Rex has destroyed everything and is now the rampant beast in our local environment.