Iden

Doesn’t it take an age to get into bed at night? By the time we’ve put out the cat, locked the back door, checked that the stove is off, filled the dishwasher [taken our statins!], watered the African Violet, made the cocoa, located a book and a glass of water, completed our ablutions, dabbed on a little Nivea, said, “Night Night God bless” , and added a few bits to tomorrow’s shopping list, the sand man is well and truly calling. My husband likes to be quiet and go straight to sleep, but I have a myriad of things I’ve forgotten to tell him. “ Yes good night Gill”, he says firmly [honestly, excuse me for breathing]. To crown it all, the moths have started flying into the bedroom. [I can’t possibly share a room with anything that flutters.] prompting me to run around the bedroom with a rolled- up newspaper. I’d get more peace on the M25”, my husband murmurs. When you weigh it up, pre-sleep is nothing more than a glorified check list. No wonder we’re ready for some shut-eye. It’s so exhausting isn’t it?

A SERVICE OF HOLY COMMUNION

There will be a service of Holy Communion, in Iden Parish Church, on Sunday, at 9.30am.

IDEN OPEN GARDENS

Iden Open Gardens is a biennial spectacle, to which Iden folk, and visitors are all are invited. On Sunday, 11th June, from 11am-5pm, we can visit garden after garden, enabling us to appreciate how various keen Iden gardeners interpret their own plots. Admission is by map, which can be obtained from any participating garden [Adults pay £5, accompanied children admitted free.] There are places to eat, model trains, ponds, and places to sit and ponder, art and plants for sale. [Iden is situated to the North of Rye, on the B2082. Proceeds from the ‘Open Gardens’ go to the ‘Friends of Iden Church’, to pay for restoration and repair.

A CREAM TEA TOMORROW IN IDEN VILLAGE HALL

There is a cream tea in Iden village hall tomorrow [Saturday 3rd June], from 2.30pm-5.30pm. All are welcome, for tea and cakes, and a get-together.

FIFTY SHADES OF GREEN

‘Fifty Shades Of Grey’ was the talk of the literary world recently, but I’ve gone past the age of being intrigued by anyone being shackled to a bedpost. However, driving in the countryside yesterday, I was entranced [yes, entranced] by the fifty shades of green colouring trees and hedgerows, made to look even more spectacular by dappled sunlight. This month’s Iden Book club choice is ‘The Devil Comes To Winchelsea’, by Philip Lindsay, and the synopsis describes the countryside as being lettuce-green, [what a pretty description] What also pleases me is the way trees on either side of the road, meet in the middle, to form a tunnel of shadow. Driving from Iden to Tenterden we get that sense of burrowed shade, just as we do going under Dartford, or any other tunnel That flickering [now you see me , now you don’t], teasing sunlight, enhances every tree and green hue. The variety of both is almost unbelievable, and nature’s sequence has brought out the moon daisies, which in spite of numerous roadworks and ugly metal paraphernalia dotting the countryside, still manage to lend an air of countryside in bloom. Aren’t we lucky to be a party to such splendour?

CONTACT ME

If anyone has anything to add to the Village Voice, please ring Gill Griffin [telephone 01797 280311]

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