Part Two,

of my day out in Rochester,

I continued walking to the other end of the street,

passing a Thai restaurant,

with a nice display of spring flowers outside, 

at the end a stage had been set up,

with a 4 piece band belting out numbers,

I made a short video of them,

watching them, 

I guess a couple of lady sweeps in their finest,

by now I had worked up a thirst,

so a larger and lime it was then,

refreshed I was soon outside,

 watching the Hartley Morris Men go through their routine,

and a well rehearsed routine it was too,

also in the background there was an 'extra' in the troupe,

'it' has disappeared, 

and here he is,

the Hobby Horse, 

he has seen me,

and is getting closer,

a neigh to say hello,

I made a couple of videos of them,

and the horse, if you want to join the troupe,

all you need to know is above,

and if you want to follow them here is their calendar for this year,

one of the steam punk dancers making his way to the start of the parade,

pedestrians,

were cleared to make way for the parade, 

just a shame about the security guards and professional photographs getting in the way,

the procession started,

with the leader,

followed by the Green Man,

and here is a video of him, just so you know, Jack, is a 7-foot effigy clad in greenery, he is woken by teams of Morris dancers and sweeps at the Blue Bell Hill picnic area at 5.32 a.m, this is a tradition that dates back over 400 years to the chimney sweeps’ traditional holiday, I guess they might have had a few beers on the way!

one after another the Morris Men filed past, 

and do not forget the kids,

these dancing like the Irish dancers in River Dance,

wait a second I know these two ladies!

every so often a group would stop,

and put on a show,

and here they are on video,

along came other troupes playing and dancing on the move,

like this troupe,

the amount of rehearsing going into some of the routines,

was amazing,

as well as playing on the move, as all of these people only practise in their spare time, 

bring up the rear, 

Steampunk Morris,

I mentioned about the time taking up practising the dancing,

but think of all of the hours taken to make the costumes,

amazing!

after the parade,

everyone followed, 

on the way I bumped into the Troubadour again,

I caught up with the procession,

taking photographs on the way,

and I know I had seen these two gentlemen before,

looking fearsome in the cathedral gardens,

all manner of instruments were here,

this lady playing the accordion,

and looking the part in the steam punk group,

some lucky people had a birds eye view of the proceedings!

another creature of the Morris tradition, a bull,

who was looking at me!

another double take for myself,

I remember this gentleman,

he was a part of the Offcumdums,

I had seen and photographed earlier,

looking back at the steam punks

I moved forward,

and caught up,

with this group of ladies,

any moment now,

and here they are,

the steam punks caught up again,

by now I was hungry, so off to the smoky burger stall I had seen earlier, £4.00 for a plain burger and onions, which given where I was seemed reasonable, and tasty it was too,

I made my way towards the station,

by now there were a steady stream of visitors making their way back home,

in no time I was passing the cathedral and castle,

over the River Medway and the moored Russian submarine, I was lucky on the way home, only two stops before Bromley South and then straight onto the next train to Beckenham Junction,

as an aside if you liked the Morris dancer, I have put all of the video clips together above, or you can watch them here,

the wisteria on Foxgrove Lodge, 

has come on really well in the past few days,

and the aroma in the air is just so nice,

as are the bluebells in the garden of Foxgrove Lodge,

the rain had cleared a long time ago, blue skies as I walked home, you may remember I mentioned the ducks?

well here they are, well on at least on this side of the road two of them,

I think this is the winning male, 

the loser on the other side of the road looking rather sorry for himself!

I gave them a few peanuts that I had on me,

next a drink in a puddle, 

now all set for the fly to one of the lakes in the area, I wonder if they will be back on the roof top tomorrow? at it happens it was late and Diana was already at home, so after a snack it was feet up for a couple from A Touch of Frost before we were off to bed.