Shakedown Cruise, 27 May

The weather forecasters had promised that today was going to be a lovely day. They were not wrong! So after breakfast (my turn to have the slightly cold shower - I was not impressed!) we drove over to Ashburnham House and went for a wonderful walk round the lake.

Most photos are on Facebook. It was very beautiful but by the end I was glad to sit down in the Orangery tea rooms and drink pink lemonade while the SW had coffee and lemon cake (I had a bite - delicious!).

When we went to leave we had a problem, as when we drove round the one-way system, we came up against the place where there was a gallery across from the dormitories to the main house, giving me flashbacks of the vicar's wife filling hot-water-bottles and chivvying us off to bed. ("Yes, Matron!" - most of us had been at boarding school, some even at the same school as me). Anyway, the SW went and asked and was told we could go out the wrong way, delivery lorries always did, but be careful, and as it was, we didn't see any other cars until we were back on the public road.

We moved on, and discovered that our tour took us past Hurstmonceaux castle and the observatory.

It was quite nearly lunch time, so the SW went off to see what he could see while I made hot rolls for lunch.

This turned out to be nothing, as it was all closed.

The afternoon was spent crawling through a massive traffic jam in Newhaven (we should probably have gone via the A27) but we evergreen arrived in Brighton and the op site here. The Swan Whisperer went for a walk and I fell asleep, but I'm awake now and am going to get supper.