pinkbirdflies

To fill in time before I went to the airport to pick up April Kerr, a colleaugue from school who was very keen to fly all the way to Scotland for 2 weeks, I squeezed in Fort George on the Moray Firth, guarding the entrance to the harbour. Had a busy schedule for April to keep her awake and get into local time by luch at Cawdor pub, visiting Cawdor Castle and then the battlefield of Culloden. A lot of history for one day and the personal passing of a generation as mum rang me to say Mardy had died.

Walked along the coast into Nairn past the Golf Club of which there are many in Scotland. Tried the delicious highland venison at The Classroom for lunch and went to a Ceilidh in the local hall in the evening. Nice to see the Scots trying to keep the pipes and dancing alive in the young people.

Drove the hire car from Rye to Gatwick airport and flew to Inverness, the “capital” of the Scottish Highlands, where I acquired another rental car and drove down the road a wee bit to a lovely B&B, Sandown House, in Nairn for 3 nights. Scotland was immediately different to England with reddish sandstone buildings and scots pines featuring…less colour than England, more austere and just, well..Scottish! The Moray Firth was calm and the shore fringed with coarse sand, some grand homes and buildings and some very plain, even bleak… a difference in climate and economy is evident.

Had some beautiful sunshine to explore the gardens at Great Dixter which surround the medieval hall house. Christopher Lloyd lived here creating the gardens as he was a gardener /designer and writer with a passion for sausage dogs too! Local fish for lunch at a nice pub.

Walked for a few hours near Rye in the Romney Marsh  where the river flows out to sea through a man made harbour and reinforced channel surrounded by gravelly pond and expanses of shingle with the unusual kale like vegetation growing at the back of the beach. Lots of gulls and terns.

Drove through the Sussex South Downs countryside and many lovely lanes to Seaford where the spectacular chalk cliffs meet the English Channel. Birling Gap and the Seven Sisters is a National Trust site. Continued along the coast to Beachy Head and its lovely red and white striped lighthouse. Amazing scenery, including the Long man and horse chalk carvings in the hillside.

Jenny and James arrived to spend a few days in Rye with me and we had a big night out on Friday with dinner at The Landgate Bistro which was excellent…they source their food from within a 5 mile radius of Rye. Sissinghurst Castle gardens were just beautiful and heavy with the scent of roses in bloom. We carried on to wine tasting at Chapel Down vineyard and was impressed with their Blanc de Blanc. The Swan restaurant turned out to be in the Michelin guide and we now realise why..it was beautiful food.

Lovely time spent at Lamb House the Georgian home of writer E.F.Benson who depicted the property and town of Rye in his Mapp and Lucia series. Watched it on the ABC and loved it…such a picturesque setting that turns out to be Rye in the TV series version.

Nuclear power station, old lighthouse, new lighthouse and shingle beaches with interesting vegetation growing in the pebbly shingle….a native kale amonst other things!

The first bit of sunshine and the Brits head to the beach with their spades, buckets, nets, and floats to get sunburned and yell loudly when they feel the water…Camber sands was a stretch of relatively nice sand and an large dune system unique in England.