A Walk along the River Darent, Farningham, Kent. 11/02/18
Although Spring seemed to be in the air, it was still quite cold, though nowhere near as cold as at the time of writing (25/02/18) where we have bitter Easterly winds setting in. I'm getting quite practiced now at identifying plants to record them when they have no flowers, so I thought I'd have a stroll along the River Darent, a chalk stream near Farningham. I found numerous species around this bridge, including Lesser Water Parsnip, Fool's Watercress, Pellitory of the Wall and Hartstongue fern. However this isn't a bridge, but an elaborate cattle fence to stop cattle going along the river when crossing it. Apparently it was built over 100 years ago to impress upon others how wealthy the landowner was. I journeyed downstream, first passing through the gardens of the Lion pub through which the Darent Valley footpath goes. As is often the case, there were numerous stands of Snowdrops close to habitation. It's not unusual for these to spread into the wild f...