Lin and I visited Margate today to see the Turner exhibition at the Turner Contemporary and we both really enjoyed it. The Turner Contemporary had brought a lot of visitors to Margate, many more than they thought and it has helped to improve the immediate area around the gallery, but if you go more than a few hundred yards from the gallery the sad, worn out side of Margate is only too evident.
Only four days to go before these towers at the old Richborough power station get demolished. Built in 1962 and unused for many years the three cooling towers and the tall chimney have been a blot on the landscape of East Kent for 50 years. Some people have even campaigned to save them, thank goodness they lost their battle.
The broad beans on our allotment have survived the recent snow and cold weather, but they are showing signs of being nibbled. We planted them a few months ago to give them chance to beat the cold and give us a slightly earlier crop. The old wives story says that if you plant them in late autumn they don't suffer later on with blackfly. Up until a couple of years ago we always found that to be true, but in the last two years we have had bad attacks of blackfly.
View from the end of The East Pier at Ramsgate's Royal Harbour. It wasn't until recently when I saw an old railway poster advertising Ramsgate that I realised that the end of the pier was designed to look like a large ship. Even from this angle you get the idea, the buildings on the pier look like the bridge of a ship.
For too long now everybody has been saying what a mild winter we are having. That all came to an end last night. We all awoke to find everywhere covered with snow.
Lunch by the river in Canterbury, Kent.
Late afternoon on the main sands at Ramsgate, Kent. Already a very cold day, but with the wind chill the temperature was down to about -5.
