A return to the library and other simple pleasures

Hello, welcome to the latest Village Diary instalment! Here are some of the things I’ve enjoyed or noticed this week, in and around Rusthall and Tunbridge Wells.

Event of the week was definitely the reopening of Rusthall Library, closed for over a year since March 2020. I was there soon after they opened, but retired vicar Tony Rutherford was there before me, and keen to take down the temporary closed signs on the High Street so that everyone knew the library was open again. He didn’t think that the spreading the word on social media would be enough. I videod the moment he wrenched the sign away, revealing the library’s opening hours beneath, and put it on social media. Lots of people came in, joining the library, borrowing books and returning them - it was wonderful to see. For children there is the annual Summer Reading Challenge to sign up to - find out more here. I was especially happy when a girl told me she was borrowing a book about Suffragettes after learning about Amelia Scott at school as part of The Amelia’s pilot project to teach primary school children about the woman the new library and museum is being named after.

We had some pleasing old-fashioned retail therapy in Tunbridge Wells; purchasing paints, notebooks and books, before going to The Grove playground where my daughter played tag with a group of children she seemed able to form an instant and temporary friendship with. Simple things, but after all the lockdowns we appreciate them more.

It was the last one-on-one swimming lesson with Janet for my daughter, who has gone above and beyond the call of duty by picking us up and driving us to the lesson, as well as being very patient with a pupil who doesn’t want to get her face wet! Walking into town afterwards we got caught in some biblical rain, which seemed like a decent excuse to seek refuge in Gail’s. I have never sat in their café before, and I am a bit in love with their cinnamon buns, but their coffee isn’t as good as Fine Grind and I don’t agree with their cash free policy!

I spotted a sign for AIM, an eleven-plus charity that helps children whose parents can’t afford tuition prepare for the Kent Test for Grammar School admission. I haven’t heard of them before, and although I don’t agree with the eleven-plus, I’m glad this charity exists and will help some people.

We went inside the house at Knole, making use of the National Trust card for the first time since 2019. Pre-Covid my daughter would not have enjoyed this. I took her to the Louvre in the last summer before Covid and my daughter mainly wailed ‘when can we leave’ and only enjoyed the gift shop and the café.  But halleluljah, the one thing I taught her in my home school was history and art, and now she appreciates galleries, museums and old houses. She gave the volunteer guides in each room quite the grilling, I can tell you. I’m so happy.

I’ve started taking my dream of opening a bookshop on Rusthall High Street slightly more seriously. I would love it so. Rusthall is the only location I’m willing to consider for my dream bookshop and there is only one vacant shop that doesn’t seem incredibly suitable, so it is a bit of a pipe dream. I have still started photographing books I would stock, like a beautiful edition of Anne of Green Gables I saw at the shop in Knole.

As I finished reading Sissinghurst by Adam Nicolson, a friend was telling me that she visited the garden of Vita Sackville West and Harold Nicolson the day before and it was unexpectedly quiet. “Everyone really is at the seaside,” I theorise. “Nobody is coming from abroad,” says Ian, “We are the plague island.” Regardless, if I had a car, now would be the time to go. Knole was also quieter than I had expected, but the weather was forbidding.

All week they have been digging up the pavements on my road. The new pavements are incredibly ugly. They were a patchwork of various tarmac mends (not the pretty brick kind which would have been more of a loss) but I’m still not convinced all the effort has been worth it.

I found this fantastic lampshade in the charity shop - perfect for my bedside table. Also some useful hooks to go over a bedroom door. The Hospice in the Weald charity shop in our village is a wonder and a blessing.

I’ve been reading this great book by Clover Stroud, an expansive, generous memoir of her wild, passionate, scattered life with horses and children and travel after her beloved mother had an accident that left her brain damaged. I follow her on Instagram and found her book in the Refugease charity shop. After hearing what Nigel Farage said about the RNLI this week, I am more than ever in admiration of both wonderful charities.

Finally, the week ended with a visit to the community larder in my village - a brilliant resource where people can fill their bag with produce for a suggested donation of £2. They take food from supermarkets and other donations that would otherwise get wasted, but they also buy in things that people need. The idea isn’t just to help people out with their food budget, but to avoid waste too, and it is different to a foodbank because it is open to anyone who wants to come along. They have recently received timely donations from Rusthall Football Club as well as private individuals who have been making their own fundraising efforts, and these help them buy more things like toiletries and hygeine items which there is a real need for.

That’s all for this week, thank you for reading. You can subscribe to the diary here, or contact me here.

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend,

Jayne