SPRUNG?

Went to Nymans gardens in Sussex yesterday, where they had a Signs of Spring event.  And there were signs of spring.  Herewith just a few pics of the gardens . . .

Interestingly, I see we visited about the same time last year.  It was just as spring-like, but also just as cold.  It snowed just after our last visit . . .

WORTH WALKING

Went on my first walk of the year today.  Started at Byworth, near Petworth.  'Worth', you might like to know, is from the old English for enclosure, so we skirted Pet's and By's enclosures.

This is Byworth

And, after all the recent rain, this is how the countryside now looks.

We met some horses

and had clear views of the South Downs.

Just took this because I thought it looked nice with the trees and clouds.

Here we all are walking up the lane back to Byworth,

followed by a descent through one of those gullies of which there seem to be many on the Surrey Hills.

And here we are back at the Black Horse, an almost untouched 16th century inn, for lunch.

SECRET PARK

It's maybe not so secret to folks who live/work in Croydon, but I had never heard of Tilford Park before we met the grandchildren there at the weekend.  Getting to it involved driving through a seemingly huge estate.  That's probably why I had never found it before.

It had lots of the sort of wild parkland that kids love

 and some cultivated parts that were equally fun.  I think someone's been cheating in this maze.

There was also a small zoo with the sorts of animals that kids enjoy watching.  But, as if to emphasize the secrecy of the place, MI5 seemed to have posted some mysterious code messages around the place.
 

 

I wonder what it means.

Since spending a couple of days with the kids, I have been fighting to throw off an incipient cold.  Why is it that kids are so contagious, yet seem not to get so ill themselves?  Anyway, I'm trying to walk it off.  Tomorrow I go on my third 10 mile walk this week.

In between, I am dosing myself up with Marmite, coffee and honey.  And look what I have just been sent!

 

That should knock any germs on the head. 

BATTY FUN GUY

I haven't had time yet to write up any of my recent travels, leave alone sift through all the pics.  But today, in a rare burst of autumn sunshine, we went for a walk on Ebernoe Common.

In the days when the South Downs and much of Sussex was covered with woodland, commoners used to graze their cattle in the woods.  This practice is now being reintroduced on commonland that still has wooded areas.  Like Ebernoe.  But it's sometimes disconcerting to meet a cow walking the same footpaths.

 Otherwise it looks like an ordinary wood.

 

I've no idea where the name comes from, by the way; it's a good old Saxon name probably from the Old English 'eg' meaning island and 'burna' meaning river (the town is completely surrounded by rivers).  Here's a lake in the forest.

 Ebernoe has about 200 residents, but has a nice cricket pitch and still has an annual Horn Fair (when 'much wassailing and cuckoldry there be').  The common is famous for having over 400 varieties of fungus and 16 of the 18 varieties of bat (flying, not cricket), including 2 that are now very rare. When we arrived, we found a leaflet saying that 1,000 varieties of fungus have been found.  But then it also said that there are only 16 varieties of bat in Britiain, so what do I know.

We started from the church which is an interesting building also in the woods.

I didn't see a bat, but I don't think I have ever seen so many toadstools.  It was impossible to walk through the forest without stepping on them.  Here are just a few (sorry about the crap pics; I'm no good with these sorts of close-ups with a point a shoot).
 

 

Of course it's the dead trees that also attract the bats.  But they also need meadows, like this.

There is no industry there now, but there used to be a major brickworks.

Then at home, for lunch we had to have . . . . yes . . . . mushrooms.
 

This sort of meal is now second nature for someone who has studied fungus for as long as I have, and who knows exactly where to get the best mushrooms.  These came from Tescos.

SQUIRREL HUNT

Today we took Isaac and Imogen to Petworth House.  The house itself was closed, but very pretty today with all the flowers.

 

The grounds were open, however, and there was a sort of treasure trail for children to follow.  We had to follow the animal spoor along tracks all over the gardens, find the different animals and in the end find the squirrel.  Isaac turned out to be very good at following trails and Imogen turned out to be very enthusiastic.  Here they are in the rotunda checking out clues.

And here we all are following the spoor along one of the alleys.

 Here is one of the animals we found.

And here was squirrel's house in the woods with a post box where we could post cards to the squirrel (don't ask - the kids knew what they were doing anyway).

Here are the gatekeepers waiting for the back gate to be unlocked.

When the gate was open, we walked down to the lake for a picnic.

And threw some bread to the ducks,

with a wary eye on the rest of the ducks, in case they decided to descend on the bread (and us) too.

Home now and kids sleeping.  I feel as though I've just led a walk on a seven day hike across the country.  Hope I can stay awake long enough to watch the film on TV . . .

RYE SMILES

Sussex Border Path Leg 11

Despite cutting short the previous day's walk, we set out early next morning (after a full English breakfast of course) before it became too hot again. So, back to Ewhurst and off across more orchards

and fields of crops, some with clear paths,

some without.

And there's Northiam. Could we have walked that bit yesterday?  No, I think we'd had enough.

 Then, to emphasise the slightly cooler weather, we even had a shower of rain. 

Part of a very old hedge.

The path then led through an abandoned orchard,

across a meadow,

over a stile with a superfluous notice,

across a stretch of desert,

and then over a stile, with the most helpful waymark I've seen,

 to our key objective, the River Rother, which flows down to Rye.

A bee on a teazle.

We were expecting a nice 6 mile stroll along the river bank into the town.  But it was heavy going.

A boat graveyard.

The river runs into the Royal Military Canal, the lower part of which is tidal.  Unusual to see sheep without grass.  Maybe they were trying to cool off?

The canal was built as protection against invasion from France.  I thought it was kind of the local council to provide a notice explaining that - in French.  But it's a boring stretch of bank and water, so no pics.  Never the less, at last we were walking down Mermaid Street towards the Mermaid Inn.

The inn was rebuilt in 1420.  The cellars date back though to the 12th century.  And here we are!  Yes, grounds to celebrate.  150 miles in only 18 months!  And thanks to Jeffers for his direction.

Not one of my pics (obviously).  Here's one of mine though of the inn's entrance hall.