Follow the brown signs

I'm researching Kent's agricultural history at the moment and you won't be surprised to hear that hop growing has featured strongly in my reading. Kent used to be literally covered in hop gardens and orchards, which is where the nickname "The garden of England" derives. In their heyday hops were a profitable crop for farmers because the beer they were used to make proved a cleaner and less harmful substitute for water when large scale water filtration systems didn't exist, thus weak beer was the staple drink for most people...

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After a weekend of brown-signing at Britain's oldest brewery (more on that in the next blog) and working all hours at the restaurant I flopped into bed after work last night exhausted with my glass of wine, boyfriend and BBC Horizon on iPlayer (now that's what I call living the dream). I love programmes about all things space, hardcore physics and other mind boggling concepts, I'll never truly understand them but I still find them absolutely fascinating. The episode I was eager to watch was about sun storms. A sun...

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Look at this! Drawn to my attention by a chap called Rob who thought I would appreciate this roundabout (which clearly I do!) it is a true celebration of the humble brown sign if ever I saw one. The roundabout is in Cardiff and was designed by a Frenchman called Pierre Vivant who won a competition in 1992 to exhibit his work in this rather different but at least highly visible urban space. View Larger Map Apparently the sculptures were originally hollow but were later sealed up because a local tramp took to living in one of them....

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So this is me a few weeks ago standing under a brown sign in Vigan, Philippines, after worrying (actually worrying) that my travels this year wouldn't take me by any brown signed attractions. One of my big things about brown signs is that they don't just exist in Britain and Europe but are also scattered around the world sitting quietly, bearing their directions to so many different and cool places, just waiting for everyone to notice and follow them. I always talk about how I love the huge diversity of places with brown...

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