Down in the park...

...the deckchairs are dancing round the fountain in the garden of Stanmer House.

Meanwhile, up on the Downs

Yesterday, the last bank holiday before Christmas, was fine but with a cool north or north-west breeze. Visibility was excellent and for the third afternoon running I was able to see the isle of Wight quite clearly as I walked across the field beside the Upper Lodges. Being quite small and 50+ miles away, the island doesn't show up very well in photographs but I have enlarged one and fiddled with the brilliance and contrast - nothing else, I promise - to show it better. It actually looks better if you click to enlarge the picture.

Fancy a boat trip?

Both these two boats are equipped to provide an hour and a half mackerel fishing...

... or this one will give a ride to view the piers.

A meander round the marina

Feeling hungry? We could eat at the floating Chinese restaurant...

...or there are plenty of others where we could soak up the sun as we eat.

Brighton Marina

Brighton Marina is entirely man-made, from the harbour arms to the in-filling of the sea to provide land on which to build blocks of flats, shops (Including a supermarket), a health club, a casino,a bowling alley and a hotel - not to mention a multi-storey car park (from which this picture was taken). When it was built it was claimed to be the largest man-made marina in Europe, although that title was later taken by Sovereign Harbour just along the coast at Eastbourne. The picture shows the main entrance to the marina with the chalk cliffs behind. On the top of the cliffs centre picture is Roedean, possibly the most expensive girls' boarding school in the country.

Roof tops of Patcham

Old tiles and new aerials in the Old London Road, Patcham.

Plumpton Plain

That part of the South Downs consisting of a patchwork of fields behind Falmer and looking towards Mount Harry and Blackcap is known as Plumpton Plain, Plumpton being a village on the other side of the Downs.

An embarrassing moment

There they were, in the field just beyond Stanmer woods, enjoying a picnic lunch, when Fern joined them hoping for a quick bite. Fortunately, they saw the funny side of it. When we walked back on the far side of the hedge some 30 minutes later, they were still there and Fern quickly found a way through the hedge. As it happened, there was no food lying about this time, maybe because quite a few other people with dogs had walked past them.

The harvest field

The local farmers have been going flat out getting the barley in. Most of the grain is now safely under cover leaving just the straw to be hauled. (That field at the back of the picture has been cut since this photo was taken.)

This way to Standean...

...or Horsdean and Patcham via Tegdown Hill.

I do seem to have had a bit of a "thing" about signposts just lately, what with Keymer cross and the Pyecombe church signpost.

Battle of Britain Flight

This is the weekend of the Shoreham Air Show and I just happened to be up by Old Boat Corner yesterday afternoon as the battle of Britain Flight approached the airport. The planes are a Lancaster bomber accompanied by a Spitfire and a Hurricane. I know others will have taken better pictures from a shorter distance, but I was pleasantly surprised how well this turned out.

Signpost

There are still some of the old-fashioned, wooden signposts around, like this one on the edge of Pyecombe.

Cottage garden

Looks as though it is in the country but in fact this is in the town.

It's not only sheep

There are horses on the Downs as well, in this case sharing the field with sheep. I liked the way the sheep appeared to be patiently waiting their turn at the water trough.

Waiting for the tide

From the Roman Camp we see two ships waiting for the tide to rise so they can enter Shoreham harbour.

(Enlarge the image to see them properly.)

St Helen's church, Hangleton

When my parents, my brother and I first moved to Hove this was our parish church. Things were a little different then, more than 50 years ago. In those days the church stood almost on its own at the top of a hill with a farmyard next door. We had to walk along a footpath at the side of a field to get to church each Sunday. The road was tarmacked only as far as the church - after that it was just a stony, rutted cart track. Now the church is almost surrounded by houses. I say "almost" because there is a triangular-shaped, open expanse of grass (St Helen's park) in front of it.

Inside the church there have also been changes since we first worshipped there. In those days the vestry was in the base of the tower and it was a very tight fit for the vicar, the server and the choir to get robed and ready. Eventually a new vestry and porch were added on the north side with the old north door, previously blocked up, being re-opened and now used as the main door. The font used to stand at the back of the church, beside the door to the tower seen in the photo to the right, but has now been moved to stand in front of the chancel screen where the electric organ used to be. I saw no organ at all when I was in the church a couple of weeks ago.

I was pleased to see that the old pews were still in place and that the church retained its rather plain appearance - plain as opposed to unadorned rather than plain as opposed to beautiful. To me, this is one of the most beautiful churches I have ever been in.

Sea view

Stand by for a geography lesson. The South Downs are a range of low hills running approximately east-west approximately parallel to the south coast of England. It is actually at Brighton where the paths of the Downs and the coast meet and from Brighton eastwards to Beachy Head near Eastbourne, the Downs form a coastline of cliffs. The Downs are not a wide range of hills as can be seen from this photograph. This was taken at the northern extremity of the Downs above Clayton from where the sea can easily be seen.

Fellow travellers

Fern loves children and was delighted to meet these two young ladies the other day while we were walking across the Downs. The girls were equally pleased to meet Fern.

Keymer Cross

This signpost stands on the South Downs Way top of the Downs above the village of Keymer. I have always known this as Keymer Cross but since this replacement signpost was installed fairly recently it seems the name has been changed to Keymer post. The little pile of flints appears to be all that remains of the sad memorial we saw in October last year.

Nearly ready

Some fields of barley are being harvested now but this field was still untouched when we were there a few days ago.

The last bales

Haymaking is finished.

From the bedroom window - 3

Give it another hour (9.23) and this was the state of play: rain, heavy at times.

From the bedroom window - 2

This was (more or less) the same view three hours later (8.15am).

From the bedroom window - 1

This is the first in a short series of pictures taken yesterday morning from my bedroom window. This one was taken just after 5 o'clock as the sky was getting light.

A Downland bouquet

Real wild flowers today - ragwort, cow parsley, knapweed and scabious.

Cultivated wild flowers

"Cultivated wild flowers" - a touch of the Irish perhaps. The miniature wild flower meadow in Withdean Park looks colourful although many of thew plants are a bit droopy after being pounded by the rain on Thursday.

Clayton church

A closer look at the tiny church of St John the Baptist, Clayton. Sir Norman Hartnell, couturier to the Queen, is buried in the churchyard.

Looking down

The village of Clayton nestles at the foot of the hill, which is higher and steeper than it appeared in the picture of Jack and Jill yesterday. To the right of the church you will find a white-painted house with a grey roof. Just above the roof to the left of the chimney is a brick wall. It was on that wall that I rested the tripod to take yesterday's picture.

Jack and Jill

The windmills at the top of Clayton Hill. Jack is on the left and Jill on the right (I think!). Jack is in private ownership, possibly lived in although there might be a separate house. The land is surrounded by very high hedges and it is impossible to see anything except the top of the mill. Jill is owned by a preservation society and is now in a very good state of repair. This picture was taken from the same spot as yesterday's picture of Clayton Tunnel.

Fellow travellers

Fern loves children and she was delighted to meet these two young ladies as we walked across the Downs the other day. They seemed quite happy to meet her as well.

Clayton Tunnel

On its way to Brighton, the railway from London goes through a tunnel under the South Downs - Clayton Tunnel. This is the northern entrance and people actually live in this "castle". Must be a bit noisy. If you enlarge the picture you can see one of the occupants watching me as I took the photo. Look in the right-hand window.

Yesterday

I wouldn't dream of trying to walk Fern in Stanmer Park on a sunny Sunday in the school summer holidays but yesterday afternoon I drove there anyway. Most of the grass shown in Saturday's photo was empty, but the green in front of the church was crowded and there wasn't a single space left in any of the car parks.