Photos for publication and painting

I have been sending some of my recent photographs to our local newspaper the Eastbourne Herald for publication under the heading "Photo of the Week".
They have published several which have been used by a number of readers who are in my wife`s art group on Mondays and Wednesdays, the group called "Pleasure Painters" are producing some lovely oil and water colour paintings which are then sold at local tourist spots in Eastbourne.
Here are a few recent photographs.

Butts Brow late afternoon in winter

Red Arrows Airborne week Eastbourne

Daisies Western Lawns

Low tide at Holywell

Spring in the garden and pea shoots indoors

A selection of flower shots from my garden now that the flowers have finally woken up

My annual daisy shot before the lawn has it`s first proper cut

Grape hyacinth close up

Indoor daffodils

Pea shoots I grow for cut and come again in salads

Sovereign Harbour and Marina

Located at the Eastern end of Eastbourne in a area know as the Crumbles and developed over the last twenty years or so. During WW2  a factory built aircraft engines there, one of the reasons Eastbourne was targeted and bombed by the Luftwaffe. We often go for a walk and marvel at the variety of boats in the marina. The water level is constant thanks to two locks at the harbour entrance.

Excuse my bit of meerkat fun  with the first picture you can view the wonderful "headlikeanorange" here

We like this restaurant (should have remembered to weatherproof the table and chairs)

Sir Richard Arkwright`s second mill Masson Matlock Derbyshire 1783

As a retired apprentice trained mechanical engineer I marvelled at his Mill  when we visited and had a close look at all the various heavy machinery involved. While I was taking the photos I became aware at just how much light came in the many large windows and I realised of course no elecric light in 1783. I was also impressed that in those days he was able to visualise the river Derwent giving him ten times more power than his first mill  for the water to run this one. If you are that way it`s well worth a visit as is Cromford mill his first and Chatsworth

Highlighted text is a web link

The mill still produces a limited number of fabrics for sale. The machines are all belt driven the noise must have been awful with the belts slapping on the pulleys with the metallic clang of the machines themselves, no H and S in those days, my grandmother worked in a Derbyshire mill as a child of 12 she was small enough to reach parts of the machines the adults couldn`t. 

Complex machinery and very very noisy

Carding machine

Overseer`s office

River Derwent the weir constructed by Arkwright

The largest collection of bobbins in the world each one has a coloured reference dot

Napolionic Fort and a Hotchpotch Pasta Salad

The daughter and granddaughter stayed with us over the weekend and because the weather was fine we decided on Sunday to visit the beach and The Redoubt a Napoleonic fort on the seafront which was holding a spring fair.
After the family had left we realised the shops were shut so we raided the fridge for leftovers to make a pasta salad for the evening meal, which was delicious. (I have type 2 diabetes so it was ideal for me)

A combination of folk music, and Morris dancing

The Redoubt Napoleonic fort showing the many individual gun emplacements

Boats on the Redoubt beach  Eastbourne

Eastbourne pier in the distance

Hot pasta, prawns (chopped), olives, mixed beans, blue cheese, peas shoots, coleslaw, French dressing

Alfriston village East Sussex

We visited Alfriston last year on the 10th March glorious sunny mild weather, what a difference a year makes
It`s a lovely unspoilt part of Sussex with an ancient history, the road through the village is very narrow and no parking is allowed for obvious reasons, there are adequate public car parks at both ends of the village.
The area is very popular with walkers as it is not to far from Long_Man_of_Wilmington it also has the very quaint  Alfriston clergy house The National Trust it`s very first property purchased for £10.

Web links in italics

The village square

The Star inn 

The village store and post office

The George inn

Alfriston high street

St Andrews church Afriston circa 1370

Raised beds in the veg garden of the Clergy House

The Clergy house garden If only this March could have been as nice

Lidl Seeds

I have posted a allotment blog on ukveggardeners.com (click on link on right) so I will leave it at that for the moment here, but I did call into Lidl on other peoples recommendations today, they have their seeds out for sale and I bought the following, small packets were 29p and large 49p to sow on the plot, there was also a muti-buy discount.
I will use the peas for making pea  shoots for salad use as I already have my tall pea variety.