BRIANW

By BRIANW

The Chulkhurst Conjoined Twins, Biddenden

This morning followed the usual pattern of a run first thing with my brother.Then it was time to watch some Champions League highlights. There was some good games and some great goals but, if anything, the competition seems even more baggy and long winded than before. I think there is definitely a thing as too much football and the players are being stretched to breaking point, especially as they have the new expanded (of course it is) version of the World Club Cup to come next summer as well.
Today we decided to pay a visit to Biddenden. The name of the village itself comes from the Kentish dialect of Old English and means Bidda's woodland pasture. The village's prosperity began during the reign of Edward II when Flemish cloth workers settled there and, as the raw materials for the textile industry were plentiful in the area, the wealth created led to the building of many fine houses in and around the village.
The High Street still has many fine houses in it today and one of the historic buildings is the Red Lion pub so we thought it would be a crying shame not to partake of a pint there. We sat out front and supped our cool pints in the lovely sunshine!
Biddenden is best known, though, for the Biddenden Maidens who were a pair of conjoined twins called Mary and Elizabeth Chulkhurst who were supposedly born in 1100.The origin of The Perpetual Charity of Biddenden is celebrated in the village signage so I thought it was an ideal subject for today's image. The charity still provides pensioners and widows in the village with bread, cheese and tea at Easter, cash payments at Christmas and Biddenden "cakes" (made of just flour, salt and water) stamped with an image of the maidens themselves.
On the way back we decided to stop at the Pepper Box Inn near Ulcombe (named after an early type of pistol, apparently!) for a Coke each. It's a lovely pub and the staff were welcoming so we'll visit again at some point and try the food.
Today's user manual tutorial was all about ISO and I learnt how to set the camera in Auto ISO while using the sensitivity settings. This means the camera will choose the appropriate ISO depending on the light available.
I think I'll use this when I'm doing street photography as it will mean less fiddling about with buttons and command dials (hopefully!).

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