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coastal ways ...

Today we cycled to Brighton. On the way back we stopped to take in the views and to mop up the lovely sunshine.



Houseboats sitting on mud flats, on the River Adur at Shoreham.



Yachts taking advantage of excellent sailing water along this stretch of coastline at Lancing.



Sea thrift on the shingle beach.

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where the south downs meets the sea ...

Green Sussex fading into blue, with one grey glimpse of sea.

Beautiful Cuckmere Haven, where country and sea blend into one.



Sheep seem unphased when hanging off the steep slopes. The National Trust have reintroduced sheep and cattle to graze in this area.



The Cuckmere River meanders from the South Downs to the English Channel. A grey heron wades through shallow water, along with it a little egret.



The beach at Cuckmere Haven was featured in the 2007 film Atonement. A postcard of one of the three Coastguard Cottages overlooking the beach, was a central element of the plot with Robbie Turner focusing on it as the idyll where he and Cecilia Tallis would retire after World War II. The final sequence of the film with Robbie and Cecilia running in the waves was shot on the beach.



The chalk landscape is constantly changing. The cliffs are eroding at a rate of 30-40 cms each year.



Sea kale (crambe maritima). By May the buds have turned into flowers with yellow centres, with a honey scent.

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The Coastguard Cottages as seen in the photo, once kept watch for contraband, a boom industry in these parts 200 years ago.

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On the way home we stopped at Middle Farm, a working farm at the foot of Firle Beacon on the South Downs. The plant section being strategically placed at the entrance of the farm shop!

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More wildfowl. Ducks relaxing and preening by the pond's edge.

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port isaac in cornwall and mum ...

I love this photo of my mum, looking rather impish, thoroughly enjoying a treat of an ice-cream cornet! This would have been taken in the latter years of the 1940s when cream was still generally unobtainable. Ice-creams would have been based on substitutes, particularly evaporated milk, which was obtainable on a points system, or a mix of this and 'cream' made in a cream-making machine. Walls advertised ice-cream during the second world war with a 'Keep Cool, Keep Calm' campaign!

Today I spent some time looking through old family photos again! My mum passed away on a day very much like today, a beautiful, warm and sunny day, on the 5th of April 2002, so to have these memories of her in these photos, is so important to me.



Here, my mum is pictured with my uncle, granny and grandad in June 1958, on a beach in Wales. Over the years, many a holiday was spent together on the coast, often staying in the West Country.

I discovered a set of photos taken in Port Isaac in Cornwall, I'd imagine again taken in the late 1950s? These may be of some interest to anyone who originates from this area.



This one looking down from Tregarock Hill, having a Spring theme with the little lamb in the foreground, being quite interested in the camera lens!



This one looking down Fore Street. Enlarge the photo and you will see an ice-cream sign selling Walls!

I remember as a child, when staying in Port Isaac back in the 1970s, a kleptomaniac jackdaw followed us along streets like this, taking many a swoop down on me. It was after the shiny buckles on my shoes, for its ever expanding collection!



No information written on the back of this one! I do like the crookedness of these adjoined properties.



The Harbour, which reminds me of the TV series Doc Martin!



Chapel Street. I wonder whether the chapel was, or still is, at the top or the bottom of the hill?



The Harbour wall and small area of sandy beach.

I wish I had had these photos with me on a return visit to Port Isaac just a couple of years back. The next time we go, I shall take these photos along, to compare what, if anything at all, has changed?

For those of you who know Cornwall well, I would be so interested to hear of any information you may have of this area?

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within here is grace and peace ...

Life is like an onion. You peel it off one layer at a time, and sometimes you weep - Carl Sandburg.

A saving grace to the demise of the once grand estate of Muntham Court, and the demolition of its stately house in 1961, is the now home of Worthing Crematorium, set in idyllic West Sussex countryside. A peaceful place where my Mum's ashes lie, heaven on earth.



Enter through an iron gate and walk through a sea of scillas into woodland glades, laced with daffodils and primroses.



See yellow blossom and ...



... pink blossom, against a Spring blue sky.



See multicolour bark on trees ...



... and a woodpile.



Listen to the 'drumming' of woodpeckers and the 'chink' of great tits, amongst a canopy of trees.

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travel journal ...

This colourful travel journey was given to us as a gift by family, before we set off on our whistlestop tour of a small part of the Antipedes and the Far East, back in late January, early February of this year. I believe it came from Paperchase? It has great sections for writing, sketching (if you can!), snippets and photographs, and a nice little pocket at the back for storing all those little things that you just can't throw away.

From our travels I brought home, which fills up a large shoebox, memories from our trip, which will eventually be put down in words, and bits 'n bobs stuck in the journal. Don't forget I have my Postcards from Oz travel blog on the go too, which with very limited time, I am trying to keep updated, before I forget all these terrific memories I have.

If the posts on my other blogs become few and far between, or I forget to visit and leave comments, this is where I am likely to be for a while.

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to dearest Lottie from Walter ...

Isn't it amazing what you can find tucked away inside of an old book bought from a jumble sale? A few year's back I discovered this letter which was written to Lottie from Walter in 1877!

It reads:

Afwicks Farm
Little Missenden
Bucks
Oct 14th/77

Dearest Lottie

We arrived at Great Missenden at 4 o’clock. We got into High Wickham about 12 o’clock. Waited till about three, could not see anything of Uncle or Cousin, so started off to walk and found when we got there that they had gone to Aylesbury Fair.

Saturday we had a long walk through the wood and different parts of the farm.

In the evening we drove down to Great Missenden with Uncle to the school of which you have heard from Father, you may be sure we had plenty of broad language.

Will you send down the paper with the account of the execution of the Penge Murderers, and receive lots of kisses for so doing when I come back.

Uncle says that we are to stay a month, but of course Love I shant think of that. I expect that he will make us stay the week at his place.

But I shall let you know when we are coming home. Edwin wants to walk home, but I expect we shall have had enough walking around here.

You will write to me Love and let me know how you are getting on.

Darling you must excuse bad writing I got such a wretch of a pen.

Darling accept my best love and believe me,

to remain
yours till death
Walter

I would like to visit Little Missenden, as I would be interested to know if Afwicks Farm still exists to this day. I have searched on the internet without any luck. I do know that shortly after this letter was written, in the census year of 1881, the recorded population of Little Missenden was 1113.

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a new smaller model ...

These are some practice shots from our Christmas present to ourselves, a more portable camera. The photo above shows one of the local fishing boats and Worthing pier in the background. We both use quite bulky cameras, J uses his for recording fish catches and of lake shots and I have J's cast off (pardon the pun) which I use for the blog, a good camera with a good lens, but we just needed something a little smaller, something less cumbersome to carry around with us on our travels, on foot and on our bikes.

I must say we are pleased with it, although I have to find time to study all the functions, gone are the days when you can just turn on the flash and press a button! It takes me ages to master anything new, and I am useless when it comes to instructions! It is a Panasonic Lumix with a Leica lens so it should take good quality pictures, we bought if off the internet from a reputable firm and saved £60 off of Currys and Jessops price, so well worth doing the homework first.



These enormous rocks are part of the new defence system which has gone up along many miles of the West Sussex coast. These should put an end to the high tide washing up shingle along the pathways and more importantly the roads.



This shot, taken late afternoon, is of the newly refurbished Dome Cinema in Worthing. Click on here for the history of the cinema. Before being refurbished it was known as the local flea pit, people would avoid it like the plague!

durrell on jersey ...

We hope that you will be grateful for having been born into such a magical world. Gerald Durrell 1925-1995

In 1959 Gerald Durrell set up Jersey Zoo (now known as Durrell) at Les Augres Manor in Trinity. Durrell breeds rare animals from all corners of the globe in captivity with the aim of releasing them back into the wild, they also fight hard to preserve the creatures’ natural habitat. Durrell also runs a number of projects that aim to preserve the local environment and wildlife with considerable success.

I really enjoyed visiting Durrell on our recent trip to Jersey, I had previously visited when it was still known as Jersey Zoo on a school trip back in 1977 at the age of 12, a lot of changes must have taken place since then. I especially wanted to visit the Gorilla and Orangutan habitat, I have always had a fascination with apes.



Me in 1977 aged 12 (note the Radio 1 247 teeshirt bought from the Roadshow)



The Gorilla


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The baby Sumatran Orangutan

We had lunch in the very inviting Dodo restaurant, we were sensible and had soup and roll, but there were other hot and cold foods, and of course lovely tempting cakes and cookies to be had. If you ever have a trip over to Jersey I can recommend Durrell for adults and kids alike, we easily spent a morning there but you could spend the whole day.