Nature's jewels

From the Boss: I know it's not a good photograph, but I do love the way raindrops catch the light.

Brown paper leaves

The leaves still clinging to the beech trees look rather like crinkly brown paper.

Wild flowers

The Friends of Withdean Park are planning to turn this corner of the park into a wild flower meadow. There is a slight problem in that the soil is really a bit too rich as the park was given over to allotments during the last war. The ranger responsible for the park is hoping to use community payback workers to do the heavy job of lifting the turf in time for the seeds to be sown in March.

Christmas trees

Several of the trees in Stanmer Park have wreathes or bunches of flowers fixed to them, presumably because those trees were bought in memory of various people, but the decoration on this one is a little more elaborate - complete with a rather poor imitation of a robin.

Bluebells?

Here? Resting under the snow and getting ready to carpet this part of the wood in just a few months.

Stanmer snow

The snow has gone from the trees but there is still enough on the grass in Stanmer Park and in the fields beyond the village to make things look different.

I've been waiting . . .

. . . to wish you a happy Christmas.

Blue sky at last

What a treat after the dull, grey mornings we have had recently. The snow is going slowly - very slowly.

A different smell

This new grass looks funny and smells a bit different too.

Missing gate

These gate posts were put in place yonks ago but there is still no sign of either the gate or the fence. Have they forgotten or were the posts put here by mistake?

The back lane to Stanmer

This picture was taken last week before the snow arrived. That's just a heavy frost on the ground, although it does look rather like snow on top of the Downs.

Bucket and spade weather?

Hardly, but this young lad was intent on taking a bucketful of snow home with him.

Hungry gulls

It really irritates me when birds land on my conservatory roof, but our next-door neighbour will insist on feeding the herring gulls on his garage roof.

Meet the man in the woods

The original Green Man?

Was this a dew pond?

It's the right shape for one but the farmer seems to be using it as a rubbish dump.

Wolstonbury Hill

Those stunted hawthorns on the lft are round what looks like a dew pond. We'll take a closer look tomorrow.

From the Boss: For the uninitiated, that's pronounced "Woostenberry".

Red sky in the morning...

If a red sky in the morning is a shepherd's warning, is a pink one a sort of half-hearted caution?

Winter sky

Yesterday's picture was looking to the north-west. Today's - taken from almost the same spot - looks towards the south-west across the Downs to the English Channel.

A winter afternoon

Mid-afternoon - and already the light is fading. Sheep everywhere, and the Surrey hills far in the distance.

Is that a tank?

One does see the strangest things in barns.

From the Boss: This farm is a good half-mile from the nearest made-up lane along one of the worst-made tracks I have ever seen. I happened to meet the farmer and he explained that he bought this vehicle (personnel carrier?) as he was fed up with being snowed in for weeks at a time. He told me it had only 9 hours on the clock when he bought it - practically brand new.

Nature won

This tree had died and was marked for felling but Nature got there first.

No need to shove

There's enough room for all of you.

All fall down

This part of the wall round the Stanmer estate has certainly seen better days.

How's my camouflage?

From the Boss: I think I have mentioned before that Fern is camera-shy. To get her to lie still enough for me to take this picture I had to hold a tennis ball up in one hand with the camera in the other.

From the Boss's bedroom

The snow-covered Downs are blanketed in low cloud.

Snow on the Downs

The Chattri is over there somewhere.

Winter sun

Looking over Hollingbury from just above Old Boat Corner.

Then there was snow

Not a lot around here, but early in the winter all the same. This was what Stanmer Woods looked like.

Crisp

There was a frost in the mornings earlier this week which lasted into the afternoon in places, like this spot in Stanmer Woods.

From the Boss: I am still posting pics I took before the snow arrived. We had intended to be going to France today and I had taken a load of pictures to be scheduled for posting while we were away...

It's here somwhere

I will find that ball!

Still in Withdean Park

This tree still has quite a lot of leaves.

The Withdean beech - again

Almost bare: just a few handfuls of leaves on the lower branches.

Red on blue

Plenty of berries on the cotoneaster but apparently the only bird that will eat them is the waxwing - and we don't often see them around here.

Past time

There are quite a few of these signs fixed to various things around the area, both in the town and on the Downs. They've been there for weeks and surely they should have been removed by now?

Waiting for the plough

Until it comes I can run across the field without getting muddy paws. Not that I care if my paws are muddy.

A private initiative

Walking along a footpath running between the houses of Patcham and the Brighton bypass, we came across this bench. It's not standard Council-issue so it must have been placed there by some individual. Whoever it was, they have also provided food and water for the birds and water for passing dogs. The cross was presumably placed there for Remembrance Day. Perhaps this was a favourite spot of an old soldier.

Winter presses on

From the Boss: These two pictures were taken from almost exactly the same spot less than two weeks apart. Truly,

'Summer retreats. Winter advances her probing, dead'ning squadrons.'

Recovering

The grass in Stanmer Park seems to be recovering nicely from the cycling event the other weekend.

They're not children

We're in the Ladies Mile Nature Reserve and those young men are working off some of the community service to which they have been sentenced by the courts.

Where are the children?

It's a cold afternoon, it's trying to rain, and it's term time. No wonder the playground is empty.

Sarsen stones

Sarsen stones are blocks of sandstone deposited across southern England in the last Ice Age. This one, which measures about four feet across, is in a field just north of the Brighton bypass. Those are Stanmer Woods in the background.

Stanmer church

Drier today

As you can see from the picture of a path in Stanmer Park, it's been pretty wet this week. It's not raining today and I wonder where we will go for our walk this afternoon?

A matter of balance

You see all sorts of things in Stanmer Park.

Making tracks

There was obviously some sort of cycling event held in Stanmer Park over the weekend. No doubt the grass will recover eventually.

The new stadium again

It seems quite a while since we last checked out the new stadium at Falmer. Here it is, seen from 39 Acres. The houses in the foreground are in Coldean, while the University of Sussex buildings can be seen in the trees on the left. The buildings to the right of the stadium are the University of Brighton, Falmer campus, and a gym. Way in the distance, just under the Downs, there is a glimpse of Lewes.