This Pirate Ship is made from old discarded pieces of metal,
plastic and whatever else was useful.

Searching for Pirates........

Sailor to pirate “‘ow did you get your peg leg?” 
Pirate “It got blasted off by a cannon ball!” 
Sailor ”And yer hook?” 
Pirate “It got got chopped off by a cutlass in a fearsome fight!” 
Sailor “And your eye patch?” 
Pirate “Seagull poo.” 











Sailor “Seagull poo? That wouldn’t cause you to lose an eye?” 
Pirate “No, it didn’t, but i’d just had me hook done!

...and finding fishing boats.

My sister Paula won some tickets for a day out in the south of England by train and bus. So we decided to go to Hastings to search out evidence of Pirates. In July each year they have a Pirates Day where visitors come from all over dressed as pirates. This year they had a record of over 14,000 arriving for the day. We made our way from the station to the Old Town to see the great architecture of the old buildings.

 

My favourite, Sherbet Fountains.

This shop window was full of lollipops

This is a lovely old pub called
The Pumphouse.
We were glad to see that it was flying
the Pirate flag.

                        

There were lots of little lanes leading off the main shopping road. 

All of them having very old or colourful houses.

 
Moving to the beach area we found the fishing boats that had landed from bringing in the morning catch.






The evidence of fresh fish was scattered all over the beach, much to the delight of the seagulls and their babies.

I think I can safely say, there will be a painting coming from one of these fishing boats in the next few weeks.

 There were nets hanging out to dry everywhere, discarded boxes, old buoys with flags on, all waiting for their next venture out to sea.

The Seagulls were everywhere watching for any morsel of fish left on the beach.

This is me standing next to the fishing
boat that Paula painted last time.

This is the shop that sells the fish caught
from that boat. It seemed to be the wife's
job to do that.

Waiting for the left overs.

This was in the museum, its a full size
fishing boat, all kitted out complete
with fisherman lol.

Waiting for the train home.

Well, we both agreed that we had a lovely free day out.

ARDINGLY RESERVOIR

Me overlooking the water

Today's walk took us to Ardingly, the home of the South of England Show. This walk was nearly 4 miles and on a very hot day. Ardingly village itself is believed to be around 6000 years of age. The name Ardingly- pronounced Arding LYE- the last part meaning a place where cattle are kept. The walk we took follows the High Weald Landscape Trail.












While passing through part of the village we came across this real old bakery, still used today. We were good, we were not tempted to go in.


Passing through several fields and woods we came upon Ardingly College.A huge great building thats been here since 1870.

We walked past the buildings built in the shape of an 'H' and dominated by a huge Chapel and a tower. When we were walking past the back of the college we saw a lovely herb bed that was made and used by the kitchen staff.

Moving on around a sharp corner we came to a beautiful house and garden. This is Great Saucelands.

After that we arrived at the reservoir. On the water were some college students having canoe lessons.











Further over the far side there were others being taught sailing. It must have been lovely out there because the weather was 30 degrees that day.




























The views of the reservoir that day were really pretty, with strong reflections of the dark trees and the green-gold of the grasses. The reservoir was formed in 1979 and will hold 5000 million litres of water. It is now an established Nature Reserve.




























Along the path was a gap in the bushes and we saw a huge stag beetle. Created by a conservation ranger who said that as stag beetles like to live in dead wood it seemed appropriate to make one from it lol.

Next stop was the church, a very pretty and tidy churchyard. The church itself dates from around 1330. In the church are 5 old bells from the 17th and 18th century.




Also as we looked around the inside of the church, while having a nice cold drink, provided by a lady who looks after it, we were shown some lovely brasses that they keep covered.

Then back to the village and the old buildings again.

The Oak - Public House

We hope you have enjoyed our walk with us. Please do come again.


All photographs by Paula Oakley
To see Paula's Paintings click here

For details of the walk click here