UK - Bexhill-on-Snow (Sea)

When I looked out of the window this morning and saw that the garden had turned into Narnia, I knew it wouldn’t be long before I was out there on my tea tray tobogganing down the downs with the other kids...



It’s when it snows, that I remember how pretty it is living opposite the downs. It looked like a winter wonderland and was so quiet that you’d never believe it was a Saturday afternoon. That was until I arrived at the ‘pistes’...





There were about 30 people or varying abilities hurling themselves down the hill on tea trays, bits of cardboard and even – shockingly enough – toboggans!!



Apparently, there were two ‘runs’ – to the side where the kids are was considered the ‘black run’ and you have basically no chance of stopping at the bottom until you hit the trees. The adults were gingerly trying to slow themselves down on the ‘nursery slopes’ but I think gravity was against them in many cases!!



So as you can see from Frosty (above), anyone can make a snowman but there seems to still be a fair amount of one-up-man-ship that goes on. Holly can suddenly be transformed into a bouffant hair-do and a smile for Mrs Frosty.



However, the people opposite were clearly on a mission not only to keep up with the Jones’ but to overtake them at 100mph. For a while, we couldn’t work out what they were doing as it looked like they were making breeze blocks wall out of snow, but it wasn’t long before we worked it out.



Despite the heavy snow, it really wasn’t that cold so I decided to pop over and see how they were getting on. I could see hands over the top so I knew someone was inside and I was praying they’d remembered to leave a door – PHEW!!



It was so nice to see everyone out and about having fun, and it wasn’t long before they had an army of helpers of all ages and even a BBQ on the go to feed the workers and warm the water for the tea. Now that’s dedication!!



I don’t think that there has been so much snow in the south east in my living memory, so as it’s such a novelty living in such a hot place, we decided to take a walk down to the sea front.



Once we’d waded through the snow at the bottom of the driveway and through the foot path at the back, I realised that there was going to be a problem on our walk – there is so much snow that you can’t see where the pavement starts and the road begins!



With the number for the local A&E on speed dial, we set off to break in my new hiking boots. First stop was Egerton Park where there was a nutter out feeding the ducks.



The swans were starting to get quite aggressive in their fight for the bread, so knowing that ‘they can have your arm off’ according to my mum, we carried on down to the seafront. We saw a slightly odd snowman family including what looked like a duck(!) and an igloo, but it wasn’t a patch on the one we’d already seen.



It was really weird to see the pebbles all covered in snow, and I had the feeling that if I changed the colour of the snow to yellow, it’d look just like sand. I was busy contemplating this when my eye was caught by someone in the distance who was clearly deranged...



Yes, he was surfing! A bloke stopped to watch with us and said that the surfer had been out there about 2 hours.



He was worried that he might get hypothermia and drown because as he told us ‘that’s why they died on the Titanic you know’. Yes, but a) we’re not in the arctic and b) the passengers on the Titanic probably weren’t wearing wet/drysuits!!



All of sudden it seemed to be getting dark, so we headed back home to see how they were getting on with the igloo. When we left, I thought they were making a snowman at the front door but it turned out they’d made one of those proper little entrance tunnels.

How amazing is that! Within what seemed like just a few minutes it was fully dark and the snow was once again falling heavily which meant that I could get this great photo of a tree in the garden which looks like it is covered in candles – ahh!

UK - St. Marys in the Snow!

UK - Hastings Old Town, New Years Day

Today was a day of 2’s – 2 degrees at 2pm this afternoon which went down to -2 as I was coming back along the Ridge this evening. Despite the cold, it’s been a glorious couple of days with bright blue skies and sunshine, so as it was New Years Day, I decided to make the effort and pop out to Hastings.



Of course, what I hadn’t realised was that the world and his wife had had the same idea, so parking was a bit of a nightmare and I ended up in the same car park where I’d previously been attacked by a mutant seagull – eek.



When you live somewhere, it’s often easy to forget the benefits until you leave and come back to visit. Once I’d neatly side-stepped the freakishly large seagulls, I started snapping away at St. Mary in the Castle.



This magnificent Georgian church, with its unique circular auditorium sits in the middle of a Regency style building which is built into the rock. The auditorium here is famous for its acoustics, and its much under-rated place in my opinion. What is strange is that all the houses look like they have been recently painted a lovely cream colour except for one grey one. One question - why??



I continued towards the castle and my attention was soon diverted by drumming. Was it the effects of a wild and rampant New Years Eve I hear you ask? Sadly not! On the plus side, it was something more exciting than a hangover, as I soon came across a group of madly dressed Pirate type people waving a skull and cross bones and banging various drums rhythmically.





I have no idea who they were or what they were doing, but it was really entertaining nonetheless. They were all dressed in black and red with feathers and skull in their hats, and weird and wonderful shapes painted on their faces. I watched for a while but the wind was bitterly cold so despite the several layers of clothes, I needed to keep moving to save myself from freezing to death!



I’d forgotten how old and interesting the old town is, if you don’t take much notice of the local loonies. For an architecture junkie like me, it was great to wander along and just check out all the different styles arranged in a higgledy piggledy fashion next to one another.



All the shops, restaurants and pubs seem to have names like ‘The Seagull’ and ‘The Mermaid’, and even on a day like today when it was freezing, there were a good variety of accents amongst what were clearly day trippers. It’s a shame that not more of the attractions were open such as the old Customs House.



Smuggling was a huge problem in Hastings like in many coastal towns
'No business carried on in Hastings was more popular and extensive as that of smuggling. Defrauding the revenue, so far from being considered a crime, was looked upon as a laudable pursuit, and the most successful 'runners' were heroes. Nearly the whole of the inhabitants, old and young and of every station in life, were, to some extent, engaged in it.'



The caves (Smugglers Adventure) are definitely worth a visit, but as they were also closed, I had to contend myself with the lifeboat house.



What was interesting about the lifeboat house was that it was a fair distance from the sea – OK, so it was just beach between, but surely it’s not a good idea to that far from the water if time is of the essence. Then again, Hasting Council made the strange decision to build a boating lake between the old lifeboat house and the sea before realizing this would hinder launches – d’Oh!





One of the most famous landmarks of Hastings are the huge black Fishermen’s huts which are officially called ‘Net Shops’. There are about 45 of these huts still standing including one that is actually half a boat planted in the ground! Many years ago, the council restricted how many of these huts could be built on the Stade, so for added space, the fishermen simply built them taller – as high as 25 ft.



I’d walked along to see the net shops but got slightly side tracked by the huge old galleon style boats nestled on the pebbles, so I was surprised when I suddenly found myself in the outside bit of the Fishermen’s Museum which is housed in the little Church of St. Nicholas.



The museum relies on donations so it’s free to visit and is decorated with old nets and artefacts as well as a huge galleon inside. It was quite busy but I suspect that was because it was so cold and the aquarium was closed, so I carried on to the cliffs the other side where there were people on the beach trying to out-run the waves. Wallies.



I love this part of the old town and the houses at Rock-a-nore are particularly pretty. They are all slightly different in terms of design and also colour, but I like the blue one close to the East Hill railway.



The smell of fish and chips was wafting gently on the air, so I followed my nose to the Blue Dolphin fish bar at the edge of George Street where there were queues of expectant customers all licking their lips. For once, I was good and didn’t stop (although I was sorely tempted) but as it’s New Years Day I thought it was a bit early to break all my resolutions, so I carried on up the high Street.



It was weird because within just a few minutes, it felt like I was in one of the country towns like Tenterden or at the very least the set of Miss Marple.



I found a beautiful church tucked away amongst the little whiteboard houses as well as the Fishermen’s garden where you can see all sorts of things they have dredged up including a propeller from a WWI plane, but my attention was caught by the sign for the caves & castle one the side of one of the old houses.



I followed the pathway than very quickly narrowed to just steeps steps and was soon regretting my decision – this was harder going than the Chemin de Fozzano and I had to stop more than once to ‘admire the view’ which is a euphemism for stopping my lungs from exploding!



When I finally got to the top, the view was incredible and given the height, it was no surprise that there was still snow on the ground. I also remembered why they have the East & West Hill funicular railway, so that people don’t have to kill themselves getting up here!! The smugglers caves were closed so after a wander round, I decided to take the easy way down.



£2 for a round trip, even though I only wanted to go one way was a bargain according to my legs, and the railway deposited me right at the heat of George Street, so I was able to justify a look at all the shops on the way back to the car.



This street is so narrow that it is almost always in shade which is a shame because it’s so pretty, but it’s impossible to get a decent photo. What I like about George Street is the eclectic mix; tattoo parlours, old fashioned sweet shops, cafes and haunted pubs as well as old fashioned iron mongers and shops selling all sorts of spiritual things – phew!!



There was enough here to keep me entertained for a month of Sundays!