National Trust - Scotney Castle visit

James and I joined the National Trust a couple of months ago and Scotney Castle was our first 'free' visit to a NT property. It's only about 40 minutes away from us at Lamberhurst in Kent. We'd driven by it often so it was our first choice. Scotney old castle (above) was built approximately c.1378–80.

Herstmonceux Castle gardens and grounds

About a month ago James and I finally got around to visiting Herstmonceux Castle, which is not far from Eastbourne in East Sussex. We'd been meaning to go for a long time, but there are so many lovely things to do around here it joined a long list. You can see the outfit photos I took at Herstmonceux here.

We went on a May bank holiday weekend on a gorgeously hot and sunny day but it was almost entirely devoid of people. It may have been because on this particular day there were no castle tours. It's not a castle you can turn up to and visit at your leisure - there are castle tours on select days. The castle is owned by Queen's University Canada and is used as an international study centre. We only wanted to see the gardens and woodland, so it suited us perfectly to visit on a quiet day.

Construction of the castle began in 1441 and it's an unusual building as brick wasn't a common building material then. As well as the castle, gardens, woodland and folly there's also a science centre and observatories there from the days when it was owned by the Royal Observatory Greenwich. We will go back at some point to see the science centre as James is a massive geek, and we both love star-gazing.

There are several themed gardens to visit but the woodland and folly were our favourite parts of our visit. This lovely pergola marks the start of the walk into the forest, and as soon as we were over a brief muddy bit I walked barefoot in the lush grass, which was like a damp, springy carpet. The mild and wet winter has made for such gorgeous greenery this year. I've never seen anything like it.

Follies are funny things. Often built during the 18th century they were decorative buildings which usually had no purpose at the time, although many have been converted to housing in modern times. As you can see, the folly appears to be two storeys tall, but from the inside there's just one big wood-clad room painted white. You walk through to a garden behind, and from there you see that the upper storey at the back is an open sun terrace with steps up from the garden.

The folly

The folly garden, which is left wild

The lake near the folly

Gorgeous rhododendrons with me for scale

Here's a really brief video just to set the ambience of the day. (If you're reading via email click through to my blog to see the video).


There's ample space in the woodland for picnics, and most of the grounds are flat, so at times when it hasn't rained recently it should be reasonably accessible for wheelchairs and prams/push chairs. There's a cafe there, and there was a peacock hanging around a family waiting for table scraps when we walked past. There are lots of statues to see and the flower gardens are lovely. Being there on such a quiet day was a real tonic, with little to hear but birdsong and the wind. I'd thoroughly recommend a visit if you're nearby.

Have you ever visited Herstmonceux?

Gardens and Grounds of Herstmonceux Castle
Herstmonceux Castle
Wartling Road Entrance
Hailsham
East Sussex
BN27 1RN
Website

Thanks for reading,
Leah xoxo

Out & About | Cholderton Charlie's rare breeds farm

Hello lovelies!

A couple of weeks ago now on the tail end of our holiday we went to Cholderton Charlie's rare breed farm. I absolutely adore animals, I'm like Dr Doolittle! Being around animals heals me from the stresses and strains of life so I have a fantastic time any time I get to spend time around cute critters.

My friend and I each bought a bag of feed for the animals and we fed the sheep and goats. Goats are greedy little gobblers who'll run along the fence following you for more food and sheep breathe their slobber on you while you feed them - tickly! My favourite animal of the day was a little white lamb called Mary who'd been abandoned by her mum and was desperate to be touched. I spent about 5 minutes stroking her and I wanted to climb in with her and stroke her all day. There are a couple of short videos at the end of the post where you can see her.

I think horse's eyes are beautiful, like deep pools of emotion. The ponies were absolutely gorgeous. It's amazing how you stroke an animal gently and speak to them softly you can sense them relaxing and trusting you. Just about every animal loves their head scratched, you can't go wrong with that! If there's ever any recovery from Fibromyalgia and CFS/ME I'd LOVE to work with animals.

This lamb had the cutest little horns!

Trying to eat my scarf!

Here are some very short videos where I baby talk the animals.



Here's Mary. She was nibbling my hands and anything that stuck out (my rings, my hair band) with her cute little teeth. I presume she was looking for a teat. So adorable. Lamb is TOTALLY off the menu now, not that I ate it often before but next time I have an urge for a kebab, I'll think about Mary instead.









I would definitely go again. I absolutely loved it. We watched pig racing, fed the animals, sat in the sunshine outside the cafe eating ice cream and had a lovely afternoon in the sun.

Do you like animals? I want to go to Middle Farm soon, which is much closer to home - and it sells cider! Wahey.

Thanks for reading,
Leah xoxo

Out and About || Avebury, Wiltshire

Hello beauts!

A couple of weeks ago hubby and I went to visit our friends M&T in Wiltshire. We went to Avebury on the Saturday afternoon.

This tomb was lovely, and set aside in the graveyard of St James's Church behind gated railings. Although much of the text is illegible, I increased the contrast enough to see this is the tomb of Captain Leopold Christian Duncan Jenner, who was born in 1869 and died in 1953. There's a small Wikipedia entry about him here.

Below we have the baptismal font (which is late Saxon) and the carvings which are 12th century. The large piece of wood to the right is part of the original bell frame, dated 1636. Info from here.

 Avebury stone circle is a lovely walk on a sunny day. Avebury is a lovely little place with lots to see.

This week has been a hard one. I've felt so fatigued on all but one day this week. The dark and rain is really bringing me down and it's so hard to get out of bed. I've let the house slip - I've barely looked at the spare room in the last couple of months, for instance (It's James's domain) but this weekend we're going to blitz it to make it more homely for visitors when they stay.

I'm also really sad because I'm self-medicating with pretty things too much to try to cheer myself up, and thus am worried about how I'm going to pay for Christmas. I'm going to have another clothes clear out I think as James has a very 'bah humbug' attitude to Christmas (having his birthday on Christmas Day has both ruined Christmas and his birthday for him) and we always have friction at this time of year as I need money to pay for presents and he doesn't want me to bother.

So I feel really crap. About the only thing keeping me from falling off the edge is slapping on some make up and taking selfies, as if by looking good I can kid myself I feel good too. Sometimes it might seem like someone is big headed when they post a lot of selfies, but like me they might be doing it to mask some other crap going on.

I hope you've had a better week. Have a fab weekend!

Thanks for reading,
Leah xoxo

Out and About || Rye Lifeboat Memorial

Hello love birds,

A month or so ago James and I went to Rye Harbour church. We didn't go in but there was one very interesting and sad feature to see in the cemetery. This memorial is a tribute to 17 men who lost their lives in the Mary Stanford Lifeboat tragedy of 1928.

The oldest was 47 and the youngest was 17. Some families lost three men. It is the biggest loss of lives in one incident in RNLI history.

The lifeboat house that the Mary Stanford launched from can be seen in this Snow Patrol video from about the 1 minute mark to 1.15.



Thanks for reading.
Leah xoxo

Out & About || Hastings Bonfire Night

Howdy!

We celebrate Bonfire Night in Hastings a couple of weeks earlier than a lot of other places as it ties in with the anniversary of the Battle of Hastings. I'm lucky to live in a place with such a rich history to celebrate and there are lots of fun events throughout the year. This year was really crowded and we spent most of the route trying to find somewhere to watch from, so I didn't get many photos of the procession itself.

The air is thick with smoke even before the procession reached us.

Our Bonfire night is made up of several bonfire societies who parade through the town. Everyone in the procession either carries a pitch torch, plays the drums, collects money for charity or drags a fire cauldron behind them. It's an assault on the ears and eyes but it's wonderful. Many people dance to the beat of the drums, and they're so loud you can feel the vibrations in your body. There's something base and primal about fire and drums and I think we react to it instinctively. The best drumming I heard all night was from Sambalanco, an Afro-Brazilian carnival band. They had a lot of people shaking their butts, me included!

Flares are so bright they sear your eyeballs!

There's a huge bonfire on the beach after the procession has walked the length of the seafront from the pier and through Old Town. The fire is lit by torches from the procession. They're thrown onto wooden pallets, which are stacked about 50 feet high on the beach. There are oodles of different bonfire societies from the different towns and villages of Sussex, and you can go to a bonfire procession every weekend from September through to the end of November as there's such a wealth of choice.

The bonfire is lit!

Fire is so mesmerising.

I liked the reflection.

You can see some more photos here on the Hastings Borough Bonfire Society page.

If you're reasonably near Hastings and can get here next year I'd heartily recommend it. There's a buzz about the whole town, everyone's happy and it's all free to attend. Fun for all the family!

Thanks for reading.
Leah xoxo

Out and About || A sunny day on the beach

Hello flowers,

A couple of weeks ago when my dad and brother came down for the day we all went into town for something to eat and to have a nice walk.

We queued up for takeaway from the chip shop and waited about half an hour because someone went in before us and ordered 18 x fish & chips. It was worth the wait for their award winning chips, even though I choked on mine (choking through drinking, eating and even on my own saliva is a regular occurrence with CFS/ME) and it made my throat so sore and tickly I left the rest. There was a classic vehicle show of commercial vehicles that day, but I didn't get many photos as I was walking and eating. I liked the colour of the green van though so I had to snap it.

We don't sell drugs. HA HA HA.

This vehicle moves the lifeboat

I absolutely love living here. There's always something to see and do. I like that we're not a posh seaside town. I prefer a bit of run-down scenery as you can see the history in it. I don't like overly-sanitised places.

Thanks for peeking!

Leah xoxo

Out and About || Hastings Cemetery

Hiya!

If you are sick of my obsession with cemeteries, now is the time to back away. Actually I'm kinda feeling the overkill too so I'm promising some non-cemetery shenanigans at some point in the near future....but first have at this lot.

I can't believe I'd written Hastings cemetery off as being tiny (it looks so from the front as we whizz by in the car) when it's actually huge. We spent about 90 minutes there and saw about a quarter of it.

So, why the fascination with cemeteries? Well, they're outdoors so you're surrounded by nature, they're free to visit, they're peaceful and I love history. I guess I've been fascinated with death since I was a teenager. When I was a teen I had a bit of a rough time because of my mum's then-partner, and I developed my first mental problems then. They manifested in a couple of ways - I was terrified of my mum's partner (and of being in the house alone with him), and I was terrified of dying, which is reasonable when you're forced to live with a violent, alcoholic abuser of women. Do you remember book clubs? Well I joined one when I was about 16-17 and bought a book which was all about death, all the gory stuff which happens afterwards, and it took away the unknown and eased my fears. The issues with my mum's fella weren't so easily explained away, unfortunately.

Moving swiftly on....I guess it fascinates me that people would make such elaborate and beautiful memorials to their dead. I love the workmanship, the art of it all. You rarely see elaborate gravestones in the modern age, so there's a wistfulness, a romanticism of days gone by.

There's one small area which was my favourite part. It was under the cover of trees and very overgrown. As you can see from the photo below a tree has swallowed up and broken a gravestone. It'll probably totally engulf it in time.

This one on the left looks like a fireplace. The right one is modern but I like it.

Thanks for looking!
Leah xoxo