Scotney Castle

The National Trust have some magnificent properties, castles, houses and gardens. Scotney Castle is one which we had been to before, but went again with Alan and Elaine.

Elaine and John

John looking worried because the man behind has the same t-shirt on!

Elaine and Alan

There are 770 acres of countryside to explore with hidden woodlands, open parklands and 4 walking trails.

 Apple Tree Espalier

The House

Old fashioned Ice House

View of the gardens

There's a tea room, of course, can't go too long without a cup of tea, and the compulsory gift shop.
But at the heart of the garden is a romantic ruined castle where sweet scented creepers grow over old stonework.

 

The Walled Garden

 

 

Woody...

Woody is Elaine's son John's dog. He is a Cocker Spaniel about 18 months old and was brought around specially to meet me. This was to be my next dog fix.
This package spent the morning with us, helping out where ever he could. He just loves to be loved and is one of the best behaved little dogs around. Elaine has a two story house and Woody is not allowed upstairs. So up I went' fully expecting him to follow....but no..... he stood at the bottom of the stairs wagging his tail and waited for me to come back down.
He's going to wear that tail out if he's not careful.

Kay's 90th Birthday

On to Eastbourne for festivities. Today is Aunty Kay's birthday and she is having a drop in and drop out afternoon tea from 2.30pm till 4.30pm. Her daughter, Elaine has been baking up a storm with lemon, coffee and chocolate cakes, shortbread and cheese scones and her friend Mary will be chief Tea Lady. Mary has been helping Kay for many years now, she does the general housekeeping and helped Kay nurse her husband Eric when he was dying. She still comes every Wednesday morning to clean, but I suspect they spend more time chatting and drinking tea than cleaning. Mary is a sprightly 76 year old, but not to be reckoned with, she is right on the ball and very funny.

Well, the first guests arrive, they are from the Church group. They sit down and are waited on. The next group, also Churchers, arrive. Tea is delivered.The next group of neighbours arrive. Cakes are offered. The next group, old friends, with the emphasis on old, arrive. They sit.... not much room left now. The next group, younger old friends, but not by much, arrive. They move outside as inside is full. Kay's house is not very big. This afternoon is meant to be drop in and drop out, but this group don't understand the concept....they drop in and stay!
 Kay wonders if she can tell some of the earlier arrivals that they should go home.....No probably not.
Solution.....Mary stops serving tea and sits down.
The house eventually empties with just a couple of hangers on, one of whom loves washing up. Bonus.
It was a huge success with Kay receiving 62 birthday cards, various small gifts and the house smells like a florist shop.
She is greatly loved and admired, but very tired now...
Happy birthday Kay.

Shirley.....

As a lot of you know' this trip was bookended by two 90th birthdays. First was Elsie, John's second cousin on his father's side and Kay, John's aunt on his mother's side. We also visit Shirley, John's second cousin also on his father's side. Elsie's mother and Shirley's mother were sisters.
Sadly, Shirley passed away and even more sadly we didn't take a photo on this visit.
You just never know, every time we leave these older relatives we wonder if we'll see them again, but it's still a shock.
R.I.P. Shirley Draper

Cruising....

A few days to ourselves before we are back in the bosom of the family. Two nights in Ledbury and one in Arundel, both lovey little towns, the latter with an imposing castle looking over it.
Ledbury was very hot indeed and as previously, staying in old pubs without air-conditioning can be tiresome.

Probably the most photographed piece of Ledbury

Church Lane

 Still, John made friends with the local butcher a business that had been going for over 40 years, comprising the grandfather, the son and the grandson. He sapped them for all their hints and tricks for hot water crust pastry and was rewarded by tastes of their various pies. Very good too, we ended up buying a Pork Pie for our lunch, that would be Pate-en-croute to yous posh people.

We found an fine Italian trattoria called The Olive Tree for dinner and again we were transported back to Italia. The owner looked authentic and the food certainly did. We sat in the outside patio area to get some relief from the heat, only to be caught in a thunderstorm that arrived suddenly. The staff were exceptional, moving everyone and their food inside with such speed  it hardly had time to cool down. A fun night with lovely Italian red wine.
And off to Arundel the next morning with a last minute room booked on line...SCORE. What a lovely big room with room to swing 2 cats. Sometimes you can get lucky.

Had dinner that night in a local pub which had been renovated nicely. Our waitress that night, Lauren, was as funny as a fit, she was a uni student, as they often are and she had the funniest sense of humour. I told her she should be on the stage, and she should be, she reminded me of a comedian at home, but I can't remember her name.

Detail on the bottom of the building

John's Belly Pork

My salad with scallops

Next stop....the second 90th birthday.

New friends

As well as catching up with the many relatives and old Uni friends, John's cousin Elaine and her husband Alan have been kind enough to share their friends with us too. Even after they told them stories about our silly antics, they were still prepared to have us come and stay. Wow, that is true friendship!
These friends, 6 in all, have been close friends for over 44 years and they let us in on it. Lucie and Graham live in Richmond, Yorkshire and Sally and Tom in Goodrich in Heredfordshire, all a good 3-4 hour drive from Fairwarp, East Sussex where Elaine and Alan live. Of course their 3-4 hour drive is a lot different from ours in Oz. It usually involves driving through many villages and towns at 30mph with built up traffic all the way and many one lane streets. Sometimes, I just want to kill someone, but road rage is not the done thing here, generally. John is the road rage king, even when I'm driving, but the other day I sounded my horn and yelled, only to be told...'Deb, you can't do that....'
Well, I did, and it felt good!
I digress.....
We went to stay the weekend with Sally and Tom in their home in Goodrich. The house built around 1540 used to be a coach house where travellers called in to change coaches, horses, feed and water themselves and perhaps spend the night. In fact, one such traveller was William Wordsworth. How about that!

The gound layer entertaining

You can see the filled-in arch here

There exists a filled-in high arch in the centre of the cottage that would have been an open archway running through the house, high enough for coaches. It has since been lowered by a recent owner, not Tom. The history is fascinating and a lot of renovation has been carried out, but all in keeping with the history. Their lounge room floor is the original stone floor of the coach house. Goose bumps at this point of the tour. Tom's cellar is the original cold storage room under the house......saw John turn green at this discovery.
We like sitting out for drinks etc, but competition is rife at Arch Cottage. They have 3 layers of garden, each with its own seating and the top layer even has a summer house for cooler nights. We did every level justice.
 Tom is an accomplished musician and Sally sings in the local choir, so we sat, drank and sang the night away with many laughs.

Tom.... just an old rocker

The next day, Tom had a gig at a local pub so we went along to watch and listen, but did not partake of the group dancing.

 I did my civil duty and was on dogwatch with a springer called Lottie, who gave me a right royal running around. What fun.....

Good girl Lottie....

We discovered a part of England we had not seen before and would love to return to, some of it and it's customs so old, like the Ancient Hand Ferry that crosses the River Wye. It is operated by a young man with a rope pulley arrangement, only takes 5 mins and can only carry 12 people at once, give or take a dog or two.

Filling in time waiting for the ferry

We left this group of friends on Sunday morning after brunch on the second layer, with scrambled eggs from Sally's girls (chooks) and local bacon, but we had to eat quietly so they didn't know we were eating their babies!
On route we caught this view from Symonds Yat Rock, a spectacular gorge through which the River Wye snakes, and is apparently one of the most photographed views in England.

With a misty heat haze....

And we mustn't forget the walk across the rickety rackety bridge, or a run for some of us....

We had a ball, thanks Sally and Tom....

An English Country Garden

That would nearly be the whole countryside, sooo pretty. We travelled to Ludlow for a night staying in an hotel just 10 mins walk out of town. Strangest stay, we were booked in, given a key, told where our room was and what time the bar opened....7pm. That was going to be a spot late for us, so we wandered into town in search of refreshment. Nice little place, Ludlow, supposed to be a foodie heaven, but we didn't see much evidence of that, still we found a friendly beer garden and the sun was shining.

Beer Garden

Friendly man delivering wine

Breakfast the next morning was terrific, locally sourced produce which was tasty as. Strange part kicks in now...when you check out, you put your key in a basket and walk out the door. Nobody 'persons' the desk, nobody says 'Bye now' or 'Hope you enjoyed your stay'. You leave having had a good stay but feeling a little empty.....except for breakfast!

Portmeirion

This is a weird, weird experience. We are in Wales and have just entered a closed village called Portmeirion. We have just driven back in time and into Italy.
There is a story...... 
Portmeirion is a tourist village in Gwynedd North Wales. It was built by its founder Clough Williams-Ellis to show how a beautiful site could be developed without spoiling it. He started work in 1925 and spent 50 years building the place. His motto was 'Cherish the past, Adorn the present, Construct for the future'.

Overview of the village

The township is like a walled city with a fence all around it and an entry gate you need to pay admission. It houses a wonderfully old but elegant hotel which has a fine dining restaurant and superb outside sitting area. As well, there are a selection of self catering cottages, shops and cafes, but I don't think anyone actually lives here.

Outside sitting area for drinks

It has been a popular site for filming TV series and movies with many famous actors coming to stay, including, Noel Coward, Gregory Peck, Ingrid Bergman and Paul McCartney. Probably the most famous TV series to be filmed here was 'The Prisoner' starring Patrick McGoohan as Number 6.
They hold conventions here, where 'Prisoner' fans converge on the little village, as many of the places used in the series have remained untouched for 40 years.
We decided to eat in the restaurant and have our pre dinner drinks on the terrace. Approaching the bar to order, we were told to go outside and he would attend us in a moment. But John had questions to ask about the selection of Ales. Ok, so the information was given. So, now go outside...but I know what I want, so how about you just write it down now and that will save you coming out. Good deal all round, or so we thought.....
20 minutes later, we were still waiting for our drinks.

It had been a long day driving in the heat, yes, heat, and it was also warm in the garden, so off JE trots in search of our order....half way there he's asked by another guest if he had had his drinks yet. 'No' said the thirsty one, 'why don't you come with me'....
And off they both went to have a chat, returning swiftly with drinks in hand and smiley faces. We had ordered the table for 8pm, so when the Parisian nazi like waitress came to take our orders, I suggested to her that seeing we had to wait so long for our drinks, she might like to return later. It's not that I like to play games, I just don't like bad service.
The meal was interesting, a chef trying to create dishes that were individual and somewhat different. Parts of the meal worked, parts didn't but I think overall, it didn't hang together.

 Still the atmosphere was really pleasant and we had I fine experience staying in a pretend piece of Italy.

Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwlllantysiliogogogoch

This is a tiny village in Wales with a very big name! The longest name station in the world, they say. Not sure if that is fact, but it would have to be close.

Called into Caernarfon to see yet another castle. As I pointed out France is the land of dog shit, so many of these seaside towns are plagued by huge gulls who love to target the passing tourists and their cars.

I suddenly woke up to why people were using umbrellas without falling rain.
We were en route to Abersoch where John used to go to sail with his mates when living in Mansfield. You get the impression this trip is all about John? You're quite right. I do all the driving so he can do all the looking and relive his youth. Good thing I like driving! 

The boats are towed out on their trailers by tractors and when they return, the tractor comes out and tugs them back in. Clever.
We went to a pub where John had been many years ago for lunch. During this particular lunch a friend of his consumed 20 pints of lager. He either drank them or had them poured down his throat and they all thought this to be very funny. What was even funnier, this chap went home and then fronted up for the evening session!!!
On this occasion we each had an ice cream....