More lockdown easing. Today we went to Painshill Park. A c18th landscape garden set between the A3 and the M25. Neither of which existed at the time of it’s creation. Actually the A3 probably did, but it would have run through the centre of Cobham rather than bypassing it. And it would have be known as the Portsmouth Road. Considering that I have lived in this area for 35 years this was the first time I had visited. Surprisingly t was also the first time that Diane had visited as well, and she has lived (almost) all her life in the area.
The park was laid out by an Anglo-Irishman the Hon. Charles Hamilton. He started in about 1738 and ran out of money 1773 and was forced to sell. In the meantime, inspired by two Grand Tours and his art collection he laid out a spectacular landscape garden populated by follies.
I was highly impressed by it. Entry at £9.00 for adults isn’t particularly expensive.
Probably the best way to give a flavour of the place is to post some of the pictures I took.
I can’t really comment on their catering as the facilities were only partially open, but I had a good mascarpone ice cream before we started our walk and we finished off with a cup of tea and a scone under the trees.
There has been a bit of a hiatus in my lockdown postings. Partly because, although this pandemic is by no means over, our wonderful, “led by the science” except when the science disagrees with them, government seems to think that it is. Consequently, it does not feel like lockdown any more. The only trouble being that nothing is back to normal either.
Day 109 Friday 10/07/2020
Today was a big day for Diane. She had an appointment with her hairdresser. She has been quite happy to cut my hair using the clippers (No.3 all over), and I have been happy for her to do it. In fact, I may let her carry on doing it and save £12 a month. Strangely, she was reluctant to allow me to return the compliment.
She came back not sure about her hair cut. I’m not sure why, the style is the same as she has always had (as long as we have known each other) just a bit shorter and less shaggy than yesterday. I sure that she will be fine after she gets used to it.
Day 110 Saturday 11/07/2020
We had some little visitors today. It is Jack’s (who used to be Diane’s youngest grandson) fifth birthday on Monday, and we are having a party tomorrow. His new cousins decided to come up from deepest darkest Hampshire to help him celebrate. (Mum, Dad and big sister also came). The idea is that we will look after Amiee and Andrew, and hopefully keep ‘Tilda occupied so that they can have a bit of a rest. That is provided Finn and Sol are cooperative. I think that the idea is I do the cooking while Diane gets to cuddle the babies. I might get the occasional cuddle myself.
Apart from Finn and Sol we had another visitor this morning. We found a Golden-Ringed Dragonfly. We knew that there were dragonfly larvae in the pond, so it had almost certainly just hatched out. It is big (for a dragon fly), probably about 85 mm long. I managed to take a few photos before it flew off.
Day 111 Sunday 12/07/2020
Today was Party Day. Because lock-down isn’t quite over, Jack couldn’t have his friends to the party. He had to make do with his aunts, uncles, grand-parents and me.
He liked his rainbow cake, and was definitely amused by this book that we bought him
Day 112 Monday 13/07/2020
We still had our guests staying with us. As we hadn’t been up to the allotment for a while, we thought we had better go have a look and see what was growing. We took Matilda, to give her mum a bit of a break. We picked quite a lot of raspberries, but by the time we made it home there seemed to fewer than I remembered picking. Strange that.
Some photos we took made the allotment look like an exotic holiday destination.
I am running a bit behind, but nothing much has been happening recently to inspire blogging. I’ll be back when I have some more inspiration.
I’m not really sure whether we are still in lockdown or not. But we are off for a break in the BGB.
Taken earlier.
We have come down to the Caravan and Camping club’s site at Normans Bay on the Sussex coast for three nights. We decided on three nights because at the time we booked it was unclear whether the toilets and showers would be open. We thought that we could manage three days washing in the sink and using the PortaPotty. As it turned out all the facilities, except the shop were open. There were a few restrictions on their use, but none that made a huge difference.
By the way Normans Bay is so named because it is the place that William the Conqueror landed to start his invasion of England in 1066.
It was a beautiful sunny day, so we decided to cycle into Bexhill to find some lunch. On the way to Bexhill, we passed a pub called The Star, which was serving food. We checked to find out if they were open in the evening as well. As they were we booked a table for dinner, then carried on to Bexhill.
Bexhill has some happy/sad memories for me. After Grace died, it was one of the first places that I managed to take myself off to on my own. I’m not sure why I chose Bexhill, I think I wanted to see the De la Warr Pavilion. I took the train from East Croydon and had a good day. I had lunch at the pavilion, a meander along the sea front and round the town, then caught the train back home.
Beers on the seafront
These thoughts were going through my head as Diane, Brian and I cycled into town. We found a baker’s shop and bought pasties for lunch. We went down to the seafront to eat them where we also found a bar, so we had a beer to go along with them.
I also took a few pictures of the De la Warr Pavilion.
We cycled back the way we had come, arriving back at the van about three thirty.
We walked along to the Star for dinner. Because they were operating under social distancing rules, their menu was quite limited and the service was different. Food and drink was placed on a side table from which you passed it to the other people on the table. However, the cheese bacon burger and chips that I had was fine. Every one else said their food was fine as well. The puddings were large.
In a previous life, I might have said that the food was adequate at best, but to be honest after 106 days it was lovely to sit down to a meal that someone else had cooked for me and where someone else was going to do the washing up. Critical faculties are currently suspended.
Day 107 Wednesday 08/07/2020
When we woke up today, the weather had taken a turn for the worse. I had been woken up by the rain during the night, so it must have been fairly heavy. Bacon sandwiches for breakfast were needed.
We were booked to go to Pevensey Castle in the afternoon. We decided to visit Hastings for lunch first.
A hopeful seagull
Hastings
We found a cafe for lunch and wandered back to the BGB along the foreshore. Hastings doesn’t have a harbour, even though it has a fair sized fishing fleet. T he boats are winched up the beach. They are launched (I think) by pushing then down the shingle using an old Caterpillar.
We had booked a slot at 3pm for Pevensey Castle, so we didn’t have a lot of time to look around Hastings.
The castle is an interesting site. Unusual in that it has been used as a fortification from Roman times right up to WWII. (There were gaps when it wasn’t in use). The Romans built it to protect Pevensey Harbour. The sea used to come right up to the walls of the castle. The Roman walls are still visible right round the site. After the Romans left, the Saxons used it. It was William the Conqueror’s base after he landed his army at Norman’s Bay in 1066. It was an important castle all through the Middle Ages, but gradually fell into run. In 1940, with The United Kingdom facing the prospect of invasion the castle was returned to use. For more information click here.
Pevensey Castle
We went back to the van and made cup of tea, while Diane tried and failed to get a photo of some cute, but uncooperative piglets.
Supper was cooked in the van.
Day 108 Thursday 09/07/2020
We woke up on Thursday morning to find out grey and damp. We had thought of going to Battle to visit the battlefield, but wandering around in the rain looking for the spot where King Harold got an arrow on the eye didn’t appeal. We packed up and headed home.
It was good to be able to finally get out after one hundred and eight days.
Following yesterday’s excitement (seeing the twins for the first time) it was back to more mundane matters today. Some charity shops have reopened. We have been doing a bit of sorting out during lockdown, and had a reasonable amount of stuff to re-cycle. We took the BGB, to Rayne’s Park — we did have a fair amount of stuff- to find a charity shop, and do some shopping.
Diane came back with two cappuccinos and a slice of chocolate cake to share. As of the moment cafes are only open for take-away, but we had our own private socially isolated cafe with us.
Our own little socially isolated cafe
After lunch, we went up to the allotment I decided to attack the brambles and the bind weed. I should have taken before and after photos, but forgot. It looks a lot better, but the brambles took their revenge on my hands and arms.
Day 99 To 104 29/06/2020 to 05/07/2020
I managed to miss the momentous 100th day in lock-down. We probably should have thrown a socially distanced street party, or something like that. On day 103 (Saturday 4th) however the pubs, and hairdressers were allowed to re-open. It went surprising smoothly. The predicted mayhem did not occur. Though there were apparently a couple of localized incidents, some over hair appointments.
Sunday (Day 104) was spent getting The BGB ready for our first trip of the year, because not only are the pubs allowed to reopen, so are campsites. I checked that everything was working, filled the fresh water tank and the fridge with beer and wine (and some food). Just to be clear the water tank only has water in it. We packed about twice what we would need for three nights. I put the van on electric hook-up overnight to make sure that the electrics were OK, and to ensure that the leisure battery was fully charged. We went to bed quite excited about our first trip in almost a year.
Practising for the trip.
Day 105 Monday 06/07/2020
The big day dawned , bright, clear and sunny. The BGB was packed and ready. the bikes were on the bike rack. We set off about an hour and a half later than planned. The idea was to travel to the campsite at Norman`s Bay via Liphook, to see Finn and Sol (and Tilda, Aimee and Andrew)
Sort of defeats the object of having a Brompton, but we need a rack for Diane’s e-bike
Finn and Sol were of course lovely. As was Tilda, though I think she is finding sharing her mum and dad slightly difficult. Everything was going smoothly until we had lunch and I discovered that I had left my spare insulin at home. To be honest it wasn’t much further to go from Liphook to Norman’s Bay via New Malden than it would have been to go the way we had planned. Or at least that is what I told myself.
We arrived about five thirty. Diane’s cousin was on the next pitch to us (planned), so we had a drink with them. We had a walk on the beach before we made dinner. It was a beautiful evening.
A Scotsman in Suburbia 