The window

A chandelier alight in a room of Stanmer House - and is that a ghost in the room as well?
(In the centre bottom pane.)

White cliffs, blue sea

After dropping Fern at the kennels just over a week ago, I stopped off at Rottingdean to grab a picture of the blue sea. This is looking eastwards with Saltdean just showing on the next headland.

College Road

The owners of houses in the really posh Regency terraces and squares are told just what colours they can use to paint their houses but all sorts of shades and colours are used in the side streets like College Road.

Brighton and Hove Aids Memorial

Also in New Steine is this sculpture, by Romany Mark Tay (solicitor, painter, sculptor), which was unveiled in 2009. Quite why our local council wanted a memorial to people who have died of Aids is something I can't get my head round. They (the council) seem inordinately proud that Brighton is the Aids capital of Europe. Beats me.

New Steine

New Steine is a pleasant square just off the sea front with an attractive garden in the middle. Most of the huses are small hotels or guest houses; those that aren't have been converted into small flats, mainly studio apartments.

Athena B

It was back in January 1980 that a Greek cargo ship, the Athena B, ran aground on the beach close to the Aquarium Station, narrowly missing the Palace Pier. I was working in Brighton and got down to the beach in my lunch hour. This picture was a 35mm slide. The ship remained a tourist attraction for some time but all we have left now is the anchor as a monument on the sea front.

Volk's Railway

The trains remind me of those little white trains that tour around towns and this is also popular with tourists. Locals use it as well.

Aquarium Station

Click on the picture to enlarge it and you will see that this station is on the world's oldest operatin electric railway. And there should be an apostrophe in Volk's as Magnus Volk was the founder. The other terminal is at Black Rock although it is now called the Marina Station.

Human catapult

This so-called amusement involves strapping a person into a harness attached to elastic and firing the person into the air to bounce up and down. I suppose it's a form of bungee jumping. I can't say either this one or the kiddy version appealed to me.

Carousel

There's a funfair at the end of the pier and also this magnificent carousel on the beach.

Wanna buy a pier?

Brighton Pier is on the market, the price not having been mentioned but thought to be several millions of pounds. The local paper has started a petition asking the new owners (when and if the pier is sold) to revert to the name by which generations of Brightonians have known (and still call) the pier, the Palace Pier.

Morning mist

The start of the Downs and one or two houses in Patcham were all I could see the other morning when I opened the curtains.

The Swan, Falmer

One of my favourite pubs, but probably best avoided those Saturday lunchtimes when the Albion are playing at home as this is almost just across the road from the new Amex Community Stadium.

Museum pieces

The Stanmer Rural Museum. I have visited , many years ago when my cousin was staying with us. She had only recently moved into the farmhouse and as we walked round the museum she kept saying, 'We've got one of those'. It's only open on Thursday mornings - and Sunday mornings during the summer of there are enough volunteers - so my chances of another visit are not too good.

More from Nourish Community Farm

The willow dome. According to a notice nearby, this "provides a space for workshops and gatherings of a spiritual/earth based [sic] nature".

Kingston Buci

Last Friday, after I had done the supermarket shop and before collecting the Old Bat from her session at the MS Centre, I dropped into Kingston Buci. This is now part of Shoreham-by-Sea but was once a settlement in its own right. Indeed, it is mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1088 and St Julian's church dates from the 11th century.

While wandering around the churchyard looking for the best angle for photographing the church, I stumbled across a group of five war graves, all dating from 1918. It struck me as particularly poignant that the last of them records the death of a South African soldier just a couple of weeks after the war had ended. Serjeant Dexter had been awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal, then the second highest award for bravery in the face of the enemy for non-commissioned soldiers and often considered a 'near miss' for the Victoria Cross. Unfortunately, I have been unable to find out what he did to earn this medal.

Expressions of Interest Invited

"Expressions of Interest Invited For Future Commercial Leasehold Opportunities"

So reads the notice fixed to the wall of the barn in Stanmer village, part of Home Farm. It is a listed building so a developer will be restricted in what he can do to it. Seems to me it would make an excellent craft centre. The yard could be used for further car parking, which is in short supply, and the outbuildings used for pottery kins, forges etc.

Sitting pretty

The constant roar of traffic doesn't seem to bother the sheep in this field beside the bypass at Hangleton.

Colours of autumn

There might be gold underfoot, but there's still plenty of green overhead in this stand of beech trees.

Nature's gold

A beech tree sifts nature's gold coins through its finger-like roots.

Nourish Community Farm

Tucked away at the back of the council nursery in Stanmer is the Nourish Community Farm. I came across it first quite by accident when I saw a gate from the apple orchard. Seems this is the back entrance but I still haven't found the main way in. I must also find out what it is all about.

The funfair

Close by the French market, there was a funfair on Southwick Green. It was morning so the fair was not operating. Funfairs need lights, noise, people - otherwise they are rather tawdry places.


Funfair folk certainly look after their vehicles, like this old Foden truck.

More French colour

Still at the French market in Southwick Square, the shopping bags are full of colour.

But it was the patisserie that caught my eye.

Those strawberry tartlets look good enough to eat!

Going French

I dropped Mrs S off at the MS centre yesterday morning and did the shopping. On my way back to collect the Old Dear I came across a French market in Southwick Square. There was the usual colourful display of tablecloths...


...and a stall selling olives in all shapes, sizes and colours.

Going yellow

These trees in Stanmer park - field maples, I think - are just starting to turn from green to yellow.

A walk in the park

A walk in the park can be a social event for both the dogs and their owners alike.

Waterhall dew pond

The rustic bench overlooking the pond is an ideal place to sit awhile and muse while watching the birds flit from bush to pond to bush. The only snag is that Fern tends to become impatient.

Morning sun...

...in Withdean Park.
(I don't suppose those count as crepuscular rays?)

More down to earth

Plenty of spiders' webs at this time of the year. This one in the wild flower meadow in Withdean Park.

Sky-writing...

...using some form of weird hieroglyphics, or were the pilots playing noughts and crosses?

The Withdean beech

Yesterday's picture of the beach reminded me that we haven't taken a look at the Withdean beech for some time. It seems a little strange that it should be losing its leaves while the temperature is nudging towards 30 - and a branch has fallen as well, presumably in one of the summer storms.