Crucifix, All Saints Church, Ulcombe

We decided to pop out for lunch to the Pepperbox Inn near Ulcombe as it is in such a glorious location high up on hill overlooking the Kent countryside. It's even better when the weather is as glorious as it was today as the views are even more spectacular. The name Pepperbox refers to an early type of pistol which is displayed on the pub sign. There can't be many other pubs named after such an obscure firearm! The establishment itself dates from the 15th Century and has lovely low timbered ceilings and beautiful inglenook fireplaces. We soon settled in and ordered a couple of starters (a sausage sandwich and spiced duck croquettes, which we shared), both of which were delicious. This was washed down with the obligatory pint.
The pub itself is quite hard to find as it really is in the middle of nowhere and the surrounding lanes are winding and very narrow. It also, confusingly, is referred to as in Ulcombe, but also Harrietsham and Maidstone! Weirdly, it's not really that near any of them! Luckily, my brother worked out a route that mostly involved bypassing the very narrow lanes so we made it there, bar one missed turning, relatively untroubled. For somewhere in the middle of nowhere is was surprisingly busy but it's lovely cosy, atmospheric place with friendly staff so I can understand why.
After our meal we headed to Ulcombe itself to visit All Saints church and that where I took today's image of this really unusual crucifix and it's surroundings. It was a gorgeous church surrounded by wild primroses and had welcoming signs to cyclists and ramblers to help themselves to coffeee and tea if they were in need of a rest and some refreshment.
The only bad part of the day was hearing labour's plans for big cuts to Universal Credit top ups and PIP (personal independence payments) for the disabled, poor and mentally unwell. Again and again in this country it's attack the poor, disabled and unwell while letting the rich get richer and richer. This will lead to an even more disparity between the two and our society will become more and more unequal. There's a brilliant British commentator on You Tube called Gary Stevenson who explains it all much better than I can. 
I thought Labour would be different than the Tories but in some ways they are even worse and have abandoned the centre left ground to go more right wing than bloody Sunak and his cronies. And while this was all being announced Rachel Reeves managed to go and see Sabrina Carpenter in concert on yet another freebie! What a disgraceful, and useless, bunch they have turned out to be. Also, Wes Streeting's ego is running away with him and he doesn't seem to care at all about the staff working for NHS England who will lose their jobs or the civil servants he also wants to cut. Callousness seems to be their new watchword.