From the bedroom window

Yesterday we saw blue sky in the morning - the first for quite some time. This was what greeted me when I opened the bedroom curtains.

Empty quarter

The school summer holidays are upon us, the afternoon was warm and dry and acres of grass in Stanmer Park have been mown - and yet there are acres of empty space. Actually, that is quite unusual, although as the picture was taken on a weekday afternoon that might have had something to do with the sparse crowds.

Falmer village hall

overlooks the pond. It's difficult to guess just when the hall was built as the architectural style is so unusual.

Falmer village pond

This was the only place around the pond where I could take a picture without getting fleets of cars or a host of people into it.

Field Scabious

Also known as Ladies' Pincushion, this is a common wild flower on chalk land like the South Downs. Perhaps surprisingly, it is a member of the teazel family.

Look up

I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills

Psalm 121

Rabbit, rabbit

Fern didn't see or smell them otherwise there would have been a chase.

Woodingdean crossroads

Waiting here at the traffic lights en route to the kennels I get a view over the Downs to the sea - with, of course, the obligatory sea gulls.

Reprise

Looking east from the field alongside the Ditchling Road north of the Upper Lodges to Stanmer Park. The high point is Firle Beacon.

The new stadium

Brighton & Hove Albion must be due to play their first pre-season friendly in the new stadium any day now - if they haven't already done so.

The field edge

Rather a wide strip at the edge of the field has been left uncultivated and in among the tall grasses and other plants are several young trees - beech, ash and oak in the main.

Regrowth

Remember that field of pink flowers? We saw it here, here, here, here and here. Looks like the flowers are growing back again better than before.

The wall

The path we have been following for the last couple of days is very close to the edge of the wood. this is marked by a flint wall which has seen better days. Just across the wall is the field of pink flowers we saw some weeks back. We'll see it again tomorrow.

Replanting

A few days after taking the picture in yesterday's blog, we were back in the same part of the woods and found that a whole, new avenue of beech trees had been planted. What a shame we shall never see them in their maturity, but it's good to know that people are thinking of future generations.

Clearance

A good many beech trees along this track in Stanmer woods have been extensively pruned and are now looking rather sorry specimens. This is, possibly, because of a disease that is sweeping through beech trees in southern England. Lots of other, smaller trees have been felled completely.

The rooftops of Patcham

We tend to look across the houses to the fields and hills so just for once let's see what lies between.

The Stanmer yew

This yew tree must be several hundred years old.

In Stanmer churchyard again

Stanmer churchyard

The grave stones and yew tree predate the current church. Records of a church on this site go back to 1232 but this church was built only in 1838.

The grass is green again

It was about five week's ago that I was complaining how the grass was brown and the barley green. Now things are back the right way round as shown in the soft evening light in today's picture.

"Me and my dad...

...are taking my dog for a walk."

It's an English bull terrier. You can just about see it between the little girl and her father.

A tangle of teazels

There are loads of them close to the car park in Stanmer woods just off Coldean Lane, the one the Council insists on calling Chalk Hill car park.

Party time?

The Boss says he couldn't afford to hire a single room in Stanmer House, let along space for a party with a sit-down meal. And to add dodgem cars as well!

Built in 1722

The house might be nearly 300 years old but that tent in the garden to the side of Stanmer House certainly isn't!

In need of TLC

This sign is to be found on the wall of one of the Lower Lodges at what is, to most people, the main entrance to the park. Indeed, to most people it is the only entrance to the park. The old Brighton coat of arms can just be made out with its two dolphins surrounded by martlets. Together with the peeling paint, this indicates how old the sign is.

Buzz

That bee just wouldn't sit still!

T'other way round

This view is almost diametrically opposite to yesterday's. Patcham and Hollingbury as seen from the Chattri.

Patcham

The large building centre right is Patcham High School and the grass is the school playing field.

Morning flight

Chattri panorama

A panoramic view taken from above the Chattri looking roughly north-east at the left and south-west on the right, ie through 180 degrees (thank you, Photoshop). The first wood from the left (on the skyline) is High Park Wood with the Stanmer woods also on the skyline nearer half-way along. Almost in the centre of the skyline , the high point is the Roman Camp with Hollingbury and Patcham spread out below and to the west.

Green path

Today being the first of the month is theme day for City Daily Photographers. Dogs aren't renowned for being slavish followers of fashion and anyway Stanmer hardly counts as a city, but this month the theme just happens to coincide with a picture the Boss took this week of a path through clover in a field yet to be cut for silage.