On My Way to Cornwall, England

  

My time in Hastings, East Sussex, England has come to an end and I am on my way to Porthcurno, Penzance, Cornwall.  I am sad to leave but excited about the next adventure.  

I enjoyed my stay at Cat's Airbnb, which was a small 'flat' overlooking the Warrior Gardens and English Channel. She has a little dog named Vina that goes  everywhere with her.  On Saturday evening, she took me as her guest to a party across Warrior Gardens.  The host and hostess, Dan and Miranda Innes were very kind to let me come.  Most of the people there were writers, artists and musicians....an interesting crowd.  Miranda has written several books, Cat showed me one called, "Traditional Country Crafts".

On Sunday, Cat and I went to a typical English Country Inn in Icklesham, Sussex, for a Sunday roast beef lunch!  It was delicious and I ate it all!  Roast beef, roasted potatoes, fresh vegetables and Yorkshire Pudding.  For dessert I had strawberry cheesecake with ice cream and Cat had rhubarb crumble.

 

Cat and I toasting our 1/2 pint of cider 

Left, hops drying on the ceiling.  Right, a little outdoor dining room

Two border collies out with their master for Sunday lunch!  Can you imagine bringing your dog in a restaurant in the US!

On my way to Cornwall, I stopped at Hever Castle, the childhood home of Ann Boleyn in Hever, Kent and at another place that was near it on the historical register, named Penshurst Place.  My pictures of Hever didn't turn out great, so I've used a couple of stock pics and one of my own.

Hever Castle:  from Wikipedia

[Thomas Boleyn, inherited the castle in 1505. He lived there with his wife Lady Elizabeth Howard and their children George, Mary and Anne (the future wife of Henry VIII). It is not known if Anne was born at Hever (the year of her birth is not certain) but she lived there until she was sent to the Netherlands in 1513 to receive an education at the court of the Archduchess Margaret.]

Penshurst Place:  from Wikipedia

[Penshurst Place is a historic building near Tonbridge, Kent, 32 south east of London, England. It is the ancestral home of the Sidney family, and was the birthplace of the great Elizabethan poet, courtier and soldier, Sir Philip Sidney. The original medieval house is one of the most complete examples of 14th-century domestic architecture in England surviving in its original location.]

More from Cornwall......

Visit to Highclere Castle, a.k.a. Downton Abbey

There is an expression in British TV that I have heard repeated on several shows, Call the Midwife, The Grand, Gnomio and Juliet, it is "Oh my Giddy Aunt".  Well that is all I could think when I first got a glimpse of Highclere Castle!  Oh my giddy aunt, it was so beautiful.  The countryside surrounding the castle is breathtaking, especially in the spring with everything in bloom.  

Highclere Castle is the home of the 8th earl of Carnarvon, George Herbert and his family.  Click on the link and read all about its history.  It is of course, the setting for the filming of Downton Abbey, the enormously popular British period drama about an aristocratic family beginning in 1912 and continuing into the 20's.  I am not a true fanatic, but I love historical fiction, written or in film!  

The drive was quite far from Hastings, but it is the only date I could get tickets for a tour.  It is not open to the public until July and August and by ticket only now on certain days.  They are in the middle of filming the last season of Downton Abbey and today was a break while they are filming at Ealing Studios in London.

The tour started at 1:00 pm and we were greeted by the current Countess of Carnarvon, Fiona Herbert, who welcomed us and gave us the history of the castle.

The Earl and Countess of Carnarvon

She is a historian who has written a few books, one of which is a biography about her predecessor, Almina, Countess of Carnarvon.

The tour continued by ladies who work for the Highclere Castle Trust who were very knowledgeable.  We were allowed to see all the first floor rooms, entrance hall, music room, library, dining room, the Saloon, smoking room, morning room, drawing room.  We were then led up the stairs to the gallery bedrooms which were as stunning as the first floor.  The third floor houses the family quarters.  We descended the gorgeous oak staircase back to the first floor and then the servants stairs down to the Egypt exhibit.

The 5th Earl of Carnarvon, also George Herbert, was an English aristocrat best known as an Egyptologist and the financial backer of the search for and the excavation of Tutankhamun's tomb in the Valley of the Kings.  It is an amazing story and discovery for Egypt.  He was not allowed to bring back much of what he found. Egypt, of course kept everything related to King Tut's tomb.  In the basement of Highclere Castle, the current family has created a museum to the 5th Earl and his discoveries.  The first room consists of artifacts that he was allowed to bring home from his digs.  These artifacts were hidden in the attic by the 6th Earl after the 5th Earl died very soon after the excavation because he believed that the 5th Earl died as a result of the Tutankhamun curse so he didn't want to be reminded of Egypt.  The artifacts were discovered (after the staff pointed them out) by the current Earl and family and brought down to the basement and set up as a museum.  There are relics that are 3,500 years old!!  Unbelievable and beautiful!  The English pronounce it Tootankhamoon...with an emphasis on 'moon'.  haha.

The second room is dedicated to the "Path of Discovery".  This gallery explores the life and interests of the 5th Earl, his passion for cars, his talents as a pioneering photographer, his many trips to Egypt, his travels and leisure and life in England in Edwardian times.  The third room is a replica of Tutahkhamun's tomb and everything found in the anteroom to the tomb.

After the tour ended, we were escorted to the gift shop where we were given a bag of goodies which included, a keychain, a box of fudge with clotted cream, a pen and a few other small items.  We were then invited to the cafe where we were served tea, coffee, cakes, biscuits and banana bread.  Here are some pictures of Highclere!

Lady Carnarvon taking her horse for a ride

Great Week in East Sussex, Hastings and St. Leonards

I have had a great week so far in Hastings, East Sussex....

On Wednesday, I did a lot of walking!!  I walked from St. Leonards on the seacoast where my B&B is, to Hastings.  I took a lift (I thought a lift was an elevator and I have always heard this called a funicular!) up to the West Hill. There are two hills, you guessed it, East and West Hill and the old town of Hastings lies in between the two hills.

The lift to West Hill on the left
and Old Towne Hastings taken from the West Hill with East Hill in the background and English Channel on the right.  It is so beautiful and seems like time has stood still here.  Here are some pics from my Hastings visit.

Detective Foyle's house (left), street scene from the show(center) 
and fishing huts from Foyle's War (right).


           
Pie and Mash for lunch at a great place and a street of shops in Hastings.  Fun day!

Oh by the way, I have a rental car.....a Kia Ria....I haven't had an accident yet ....I did run into the curb on the left side of the car a couple of times on the way from London.  When I got to St. Leonards, I had to parallel park in front of my hostess' apartment.  I'm good at parallel parking, however from the wrong side, it took me 3 times to do it :D  Not to mention it is a.six.speed.manual.shift.

Thursday, I took off in my Kia Ria and drove east of Hastings to the county of Kent and the town of Dover.  It is on the English Channel and faces France.  It is at the narrowest part of the English Channel and is called the Strait of Dover.  I have heard of the White Cliffs of Dover all my life....I'm not sure why I had heard of it, but I was excited to see it.  I got some pictures, none of which are great, but I found one on Wikipedia that was taken from the ocean.

According to Wikipedia, The cliffs are composed mainly of soft, white chalk with a very fine-grained texture, composed primarily of coccoliths, plates of calcium carbonate formed by coccolithophores, single-celled planktonic algae whose skeletal remains sank to the bottom of the ocean during the Cretaceous and, together with the remains of bottom-living creatures, formed sediments. Flint and quartz are also found in the chalk. 

I also wandered around Dover Castle and it was very beautiful.  It is a medieval castle said to be the largest castle in England, was built in the 12th century and is described as the "Key to England" due to its defensive significance throughout history.

I stopped at a Coffee truck at the Dover port and struck up a conversation with the barista   I asked her if she was from Dover and she said she was from St. Margaret's which is a little village east of Dover.  She asked if I knew who Ian Fleming was and of course I said yes!  She said he is also from St. Margaret's and he used to take the bus to London every weekend and when he wrote the James Bond books, mostly on the bus ride, he nicknamed Bond 007 after the bus route.  Very interesting...wonder if it is true!

After I left Dover, I drove to Canterbury, Kent to see the Canterbury Cathedral. It is one of oldest (est.597) and most famous Christian structures in England.  It is the cathedral of the Archbishop of Canterbury, leader of the Church of England and symbolic leader of the worldwide Anglican Congregation.  Remember your history.....Thomas Becket was murdered in the Canterbury Cathedral in 1170. 

Today, Friday, I drove west from Hastings to Eastbourne.  The English call it 'heaven's waiting room' because there are so many retirees....HaHaHa. It is a nice town also on the English Channel.  There are two beautiful cliffs there called Beachy Head and Seven Sisters.  They are actually bigger than the White Cliffs of Dover and have the same 'chalk' face.  It was so cold and windy up on the cliff and foggy.

 

Left:  Beachy Head with
lighthouse

Right:  Seven Sisters



At one of the breaks in Seven Sisters, called Birling Gap, the Cuckmere River enters the English Channel.  Before it gets to the sea, the picture below is what it looks like.  So pretty!

I also went to Lewes and Seaford....no, not in Delaware....in Sussex, England!

I had lunch in heaven's waiting room......Fish and Chips!

Ok, tomorrow, I go to lunch and tour of Highclere Castle (Downton Abbey).  I am really looking forward to this.....more later!

Arrived in London

I am so excited to be in England!  It will be my 3rd trip to London; first time, many years ago, I was here for only 24 hours waiting to board a ship with my sister-in-law, Sharon Massey, to travel to Amsterdam.  Quick tour!  The second time was in 2011 when Lauren, Janie and I came to London and drove around England and Wales for a week.  I have dreamed about coming back and staying longer so I could really see the country!

I am a huge British TV fan.  I have watched so many period dramas that I feel like I have been to England a lot.  I am hoping to see some of the real cities and towns where some of the programs I love were filmed.  My first week I am heading to Hastings.  Hastings is southeast from London on the English Channel.  This is where my all time favorite, "Foyle's War" was filmed.  It takes place in the early days of World War II before Britain and the U.S. were involved.  Another significant piece of history that happened here is the  Battle of Hastings.  King Harold II of England, who was the last Anglo-Saxon king of England, was defeated by the Norman forces of William the Conquerer on October 14, 1066.

Foyle's War characters

                                          DCS Foyle, Sam his driver

                                     and Paul Milner, his detective

Battle of Hastings 1066

I will staying at a B&B in St. Leonards, UK which is right next to Hastings.  My hostess's name is Cat Morrow.  Her home is literally on the English Channel.  According to Wikipedia, "St Leonards-on-Sea (commonly known as St Leonards) has been part of Hastings, East Sussex, England, since the late 19th century though it retains a sense of separate identity. It lies to the west of central Hastings. The original part of the settlement was laid out in the early 19th century as a new town: a place of elegant houses designed for the well-off; it also included a central public garden, a hotel, an archery, assembly rooms and a church. Today's St Leonards has extended well beyond that original design, although the original town still exists within it."

I can't wait to get settled in and plan my week!  I will post pics.....

Beach House Ready for Season!!

I've been at the beach in Corolla, NC getting my house ready for the rental season!!  I had two days of yard work...ugh....next year I may have to hire someone to do this backbreaking work.  Not getting any younger.  The front grove between my house and the house in front of it is full of Crape Myrtle and Oleander.  I am very familiar with Crape Myrtle but know absolutely nothing about Oleander, except that it can be poisonous.  It is extremely difficult to prune and a lot of work. The jury is still out on whether they are worth it or not.

I still have trouble centering my pictures.....maybe I will get the hang of it eventually.  So.....before pruning on the left and after pruning and hauling on the right!

The swimming pool area had not officially been landscaped.  I decided to do it myself because of cost.  I researched online what plants are attractive around a pool and also are fairly drought tolerant.  Since I won't be there to monitor the landscaping, I need it to be fairly self-sufficient.  The plants I chose are:  ornamental fountain grass, hosta, lavender, lariope and Elijah blue fescue.

I added a little topsoil and mulch to mix with the sand.  When I am there in June, I want to put a border with Mexican black stones around it to keep the soil, sand and mulch from getting in the pool.  It is definitely a work in progress!  My renters will just have to be patient.   I'm not sure if I mentioned that the beach house is rented from the middle of May until the first of September.  Wow...I am so excited for my first year to be so successful.  I had a cancellation for the middle of July and I thought, ok, if I don't get it rented, I will just go down for the week.....it was rented in 24 hours.  I have underestimated the attraction of OBX!

After the beach, I have been in Virginia with Janie, Marcelo, Mary and Paolo and it has been very nice to see them all again.  Mary and Paolo are homeschooling and Janie is doing an awesome job with this as is Lauren with Baylor in West Palm Beach.  The kids are very motivated and work independently very well. 

I had to catch up on all my doctor's appointments from being gone most of the year...get my teeth cleaned, etc.  Now I am packing and getting ready for my trip to England.  I leave this Monday, the 20th and will be gone until May 24th.  My sister-in-law, Sharon Massey, is going to fly to London to meet me for about 10 days.  It will be so much fun to do things with her...she is a sweetie.  I'm going to try to blog each week to show where I've been and what I've seen.  I can't wait....I'm so excited......