Snowdrops and Sussex

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Thursday’s walk was cancelled yet again, but despite the damp and the cold wind we snuck in to Welford Park for the snowdrops. Only just in time; many are starting to “go over”. But before the snowdrops, a cheetah overlooking where the Bake-off tent goes

 

Getting low, the dogwood also provides a background for some snowdrops

 

 

 

Then, a weekend away at HF Abingworth. Saturday was dry enough for a walk past the Abingworth Vineyards – Chardonnay grapes, according to the yellow labels.

 

Sunday was wet again, so we opted for a trip to Brighton, mainly to see the Royal Pavilion. Impressively restored, but nauseatingly rendolent of privilege and power.

 

However, Country Life suggests that “after a major restoration of the Royal Pavilion in Brighton, it is possible once again to enjoy one of the interiors created to satisfy the opulent tastes of the Prince Regent.”

 

Here’s the banquetting room

 

And here, the Music Room

 

The famous roof line

 

Between the Pavilion and the sea, are “The Lanes”. Amongst the trendy shops and food outlets, a surprise to find a Friends Meeting House.

 

The seaside featured strong wind and low cloud. One foolhardy man might have been attempting a swim near the West Pier.

 

The i360 viewing tower was lost in the clouds.  (Formerly known as British Airways i360) is a 162-metre (531 ft) moving observation tower on the seafront of Brighton, East Sussex, England, at the landward end of the remains of the West Pier. The tower opened in 2016. Visitor numbers never met expectations, and by June 2023, the i360’s debt to the council was more than £48 million, a figure around £12 million more than the original loan agreed. In November 2024, the company running the attraction filed for administration. The i360 entered administration and closed with immediate effect..

 

In February 2025, it was announced the i360 would reopen, following the purchase by Nightcap Ltd. The new owners paid £150,000. The i360 reopened to the public on 8 March 2025. Brighton and Hove City Council wrote off the £51 million debt as part of the sale. £32 million of this debt is still owed to the government from the council, which they will continue to pay over the following 16 years.[Source,Wikipedia]

 

But the gulls kept watch

 

A young Herring Gull (Larus argentatus) on the Palace Pier.

 

While waiting for the bus back to the car, we admired the front of Wetherspoon’s in North Street.   The Wetherspoon’s website implies that the building started as a bank (National Provincial, opened 1923). Next door was the home of the Brighton Gazette, Hove Post and Sussex Telegraph.  Hence the pub is called “The Post & Telegraph“.  The bank building was sold in the 1990s and became a sports bar, and opened as a Wetherspoon’s in 2010.

 

I think this is a description of the front door, photo below, “Above the cornice and its entablature is a lavishly decorated Diocletian window surrounded by carved swags with a female face forming the centrepiece on top of the keystone” [source: wikipedia]

 

Bonus information: There are/were stone swags above a White House (USA) door.

 

 

On Monday we visited RSPB Pulborough Brooks. The wind rustled a robin’s feathers

 

And a female Stonechat (Saxicola rubicola) sat on the same fence on whch we saw a kestrel on our last visit three years ago

 

 

More pictures, as usual, in the gallery.

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Note about the carpet in the featured image at the top of the page: “Working closely with Decorative Artist Anne Sowden and members of the Royal Pavilion & Museums Foundation, … was tasked with recreating the original 1822 carpet – a highly elaborate and energetic design featuring 20 dragons, 100 sun rays and 274 lotus leaves. Sowden crafted an intricate, line-drawn and painted pattern which Axminster translated to support the weaving process.” [source]

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