"A small farm upon the Downs, five miles from Eastbourne . . .”.

In the little village of East Dean, at the edge of the South Downs, we discovered this house facing the village green. It's a characteristically Sussex house in brick and flint. Notice the blue historical marker on the facade.

Apparently in the preface to “His Last Bow,” published in 1917, Dr Watson tells his readers that Holmes chose as his retirement retreat “a small farm upon the Downs, five miles from Eastbourne . . .”.

Ents? You Decide

Art, by Miss T.

Miss T has drawn her first representational drawing today. In pen, on a piece of furniture, which is bothering her mom a little, but bothers me not at all. Looking at the picture makes me feel happy.

Who Can Can-Can?

The COG pointed this flyer out to me and encouraged me to sign up for it. I told him to call and see if they had an Old Age Pensioner's Special.

On Bucket Lists

Everyone talks about Bucket Lists - the list of things you want to do before you die. For me, it's never about the things you check off your list, it's about the delightful surprises you discover along the way. The things you could never have predicted - the play of light and shadow on the grass; or the funny guy on the bus who showed us where the 0 meridian is; or finding the remains of Ashdown Forest next to a car park en route to somewhere else.

A case in point: Royal Tunbridge Wells. I have wanted to see the Pantiles in Royal Tunbridge Wells since I was a teenager - I guess Jane Austen or Georgette Heyer must have mentioned it somewhere. When we were living in Brighton, in the 1970's, we actually set out to go there, but had to turn back because it was snowing in the Downs, making roads impassable. Naturally, that only increased my desire. So, this visit the COG and I finally got there. And this is a picture of what we found. I don't think the picture accurately expresses my feelings of 'that's it? I changed 3 buses to see this?

At this point you may be wondering what a 'pantile' is. So I'll tell you: a pantile is a paving block made of local clay. Some 18th c. Queen visited the town - it was a Health Spa like Bath. She got her feet muddy while shopping, but felt much better after drinking the waters. So in gratitude, she gave money to pave the shopping area with pantiles, which apparently was really special in those days because people are still talking it up for the tourists. True, in 1793 the pantiles were replaced with stone. So what we saw was a paved shopping arcade called The Pantiles, which lacked actual pantiles. But the point is that I was able to cross it off my list. Been there, Done that. What's next.

However, there was a moment when we saw the cat in the window above The Pantiles. That, for some reason, was a highlight of the day. The delightful moment that happened on the journey, but which had nothing to do with the item from the Bucket List.

Not-Puzzling-At-All English Signs

Previously, I've noticed that many English signs are incomprehensible. However, there is are signs that are not puzzling at all. In fact, they are only too easy to understand.

This tree is 1,600 years old

This Yew tree is in the churchyard of the 12th century village church in Wilmington. Tests have shown it to be 1,600 years old.I saw the framed certificate in the church. It was 800 years old when the ancient little church was built. When it was a seedling, in about 400 a.d., the Romans were still in Britain.

Added Note: Yew trees grow in nearly every old churchyard in the UK. There is some Christian association between the Yew and resurrection. I think Christians just repackaged an earlier pagan belief, and re-packaged it. It could well be that this was a holy spot well before the church was built. We saw an old church last autumn that actually had an early burial mound right next to the church. That was just a few miles from here.