The sun has been shining here in Brighton this week, and I've had a growing awareness that we will soon be leaving this country that has been our home for the past two years. So Iain and I have been out and about quite a bit.
Monday was a bank holiday; Chris and Katy Fry graciously gave an open invitation to their home, and we had tea in their garden. I even baked a cake from scratch, which is something I haven't done in a long time and it felt wonderfully fun and creative. It was a little lopsided and the strawberries kept slipping off, but nobody seemed to mind.
Here is our merry band. Me, Ann, Iain, Katy, Chris, Ray, and
Mika took the picture. Katy's garden is beautiful. I will always think of her whenever I garden in the future.
Then we took a nice walk to Hove Park, which was full of families, children, grandparents, and dogs playing.
They even had the model railway running and Chris treated us to a ride. Iain was thrilled!
On Tuesday, Iain and I went to
Drusillas Park Zoo. He really enjoyed looking at the animals. We stood and watched the squirrel monkeys for about 30 minutes! There were about 20 of them in there and they were pretty entertaining. They
leaped about from tree to tree and scrambled up and down the ropes in their pen, occasionally getting to very loud fights. Here is one having
some fruit.
Iain's interest in the animals disappeared when he spotted this:
The zoo had a train to ride on! I heard lots of crying about the train after that, because he wanted to do nothing but ride it. Because of that, we only rode it once! Here he is being forced to look at more animals instead of trains. Not too happy.
We had a picnic and some ice cream and played on a playground there. It was a nice day out.
Wednesday we went to playgroup as usual, which Iain always enjoys. We also had Ann over for supper and took her on a drive to see the Long Man of Wilmington and some of the beautiful country
back roads that you can only see by car.
Today Iain and went down to the seafront and rode the
Volks Railway and played on the playground again. Tomorrow we'll go to Maria's house for lunch. So it has been a very sweet and relaxing week. I feel like I'm saying goodbye gently and gratefully and I'm so thankful for that.
After walking a little way up the cliffs, we drove further on to one of my very favorite spots, Beachy Head. I'd never actually seen it on a sunny warm day before. Unfortunately, my pictures didn't come out, so there are just a few to share here.
Then we stopped at a pretty country pub for Elderflower cordial and Pimm's.
This is the only picture I got of Taylor and Brian!
Iain thoroughly enjoyed the walk down. We collected sticks, saw a toad, found a hollow log, picked up some pebbles and stood on a stump. Iain got filthy and had a fabulous time.
Pooh sticks!
Racing our Pooh sticks under Pooh Bridge.
What a lovely place-- just one of many near our home that we love.
We went home and packed some more, visited with our dear friend Anthony, and had supper with our friends Phil and Maria. It was a busy, blessed day, like many we've had recently.
