A garden in Smarden...

So, I'll begin by noting that I am back in dial-up land, so this will be a picture-light post. The next thing that I wanted to mention was an e-mail I received from my uncle Alan, checking in from Budds Oast.

I had no idea that you were so interested in the words 'Budds Oast'. Grammatically there probably should be an apostrophe but the words originate back to a period when most people spoke and did not write while phonetic punctuation had not been tested.

An entry in an old guide book states ' Budds is a hamlet in this parish lying about three quarters of a mile westward from Shipbourne Church.'

Another reference states ' The family of John Budde, mentioned in 1293, had parted with the property but their name had stuck to the house.'

You are probably aware that both our neighbours, Great and Little Budds, may originally have had 'Farm' in their titles while the grass area is shown as Budds Green.

That's not only very interesting, but it lines up nicely with some of the grammatical facts from "Eats, Shoots and Leaves" - namely that punctuation is a living and evolving sort of thing, and that the the apostrophe, in particular, seems to shift in and out of acceptable usage as time progresses. Furthermore, back in the days of John Budde, I'm not even sure that the apostrophe existed even if the locals had known how to write.

Moving on now - yesterday, we drove down from Shrewsbury to the village of Smarden, to stay with my uncle Brian and my aunt Sarah. The drive was long, and getting tedious by the end of it, but we did have a GPS navigational system in the car which gave directions with an australian accent. It had been named Bruce by Bob and Sue. I think it aggravated Dave while he drove, much to the amusement of the rest of us in the car.

Brian and Sarah continue the English trend of having a marvelous garden. Here is a picture, for your edification.

Well, that's all I've got for now. Tomorrow, I will be trying to find an internet cafe, or some other public access point in either Folkestone or Hythe. Depending on my success, you may or may not see a lot of posting over the next few days.