For illustrated talks on natural history and history see www.peterlovetttalks.co.uk
Friday, 21 December 2007
Paul's Seven & 1/4 miles walk from Wilmington
Saturday, 15 December 2007
Ashdown Forest Circular
splendid 8 mile walk on this frosty morning, lead by Sue.
From Gill's Lap car park, near The Enchanted Place,
we headed off via Eeyore's Gloomy place and the One Hundred Acre Wood to Hartfield. The gorse seemed especially vibrant in the winter light.
The Anchor Inn was cosy and enjoyable, before setting off again for Pooh Bridge and another exciting round of Pooh sticks!
Tuesday, 11 December 2007
More path clearing of High Weald Landscape Trail
Now this winter a more permanent solution has been achieved. Using tree loppers (seen in the foreground), I lopped the monster stems at ground level. This is bloody, unglamorous work. Next Spring the benefits should become clear, when I expect to be able to smash back the dead and drying bramble stems and easily? control newly emerging stems. We shall see! For comparison, you can see what the path looked like earlier this year. That was before I cleared thousands of bracken stems, on the very first entry on this blog. You will need to scroll to the archive list at the bottom of this page should you wish to see it.
This once hopelessly overgrown path, used to be difficult to walk. Now it is getting like a municipal park. I'll be planting wild flower beds next....... now there's an idea!
Monday, 10 December 2007
Shoreham harbour estuary in December
What was it like when the Vikings first appeared in these waters, I wonder? This picture is by Werner Karrasch by kind permission of and copyright of
The Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde, Denmark
www.vikingshipmuseum.dk
Some years ago I visited the Roskilde shipyard in Denmark specifically to sail in a replica Viking longboat. I was there early on a Saturday morning to beat the crowds of tourists.... but there was only me. It was necessary to wait until afternoon when I could join a hen party, whose idea of fun was the same as mine. So we rowed out of the harbour -- a group of young Danish women, me and the skipper at the helm. Life can be hard but someone has to do it. The skipper explained that the pride of the Danish nation depended on our coordinated rowing skills. Camcorders were running on the quayside as we slipped our mooring ropes! So I pulled with this clutch of lovely Danish ladies... for the sake of Denmark. What bliss. Once out the harbour, we hoisted the sail and we got a real feel of these magnificent vessels under sail.
The extraordinary creativity to consider splitting a coach in half and mounting it on a boat is amazing enough. How do you manhandle such a thing into place and make it fast?
There are other historically very interesting ex-military boats on this stretch of estuary, which I didn't photograph on account of the poor light. I clicked these few shots when there was a fleeting shaft of sunshine.
Sunday, 2 December 2007
Chichester Harbour, Saturday, 1 December 2007
Views of Jack & Jill in late November
It is a delightful walk from the Jack and Jill windmills to The Chattri and I thank Pippa for this one.
The Chattri memorial commemorates Sikh and Hindu soldiers who died in Brighton Hospital from the first world war and were cremated at this site. The memorial was unveiled in 1921 by the Prince of Wales. see http://www.black-history.org.uk/indian.asp See also the September entry (in the index at the end) of this blog of a walk with Sussex Pathfinders where your can read the memorial text.
Wednesday, 14 November 2007
Professors in Fletching
The style of leadership was sparkling however, as Professor William Coleman managed to weave in snippets of information ranging from the recent and medieval history of the Fletching area, to its geology and ecology.
We also stopped to remember Professor Jimmy Edwards, who is buried here, which caused a chuckle or two as we remembered his hilarious antics on TV.
The Harvey's ale went down well at lunchtime. And then we headed off through some further delightful countryside.