After our recent overseas excursions, it was a pleasant change to spend a relaxing weekend on our own shores- in Worthing on the hottest day of the year. With Helen and Andrew, we took a stroll along the beach, carefully dodging the mad cyclists who had been given their own cycle lane alongside the pebbles. We watched the brave souls having a dip, including a young girl doing synchronised swimming - all by herself. I took a few 'trying to be arty' photos of breakwaters and fishing boats, then it was back into the town for a really good contemporary Indian meal.
Next day we visited Highdown Gardens, created by Sir Frederick Stern donkeys years ago to prove that plants could grow on chalk. It was on the site of an old quarry, so he had quite a job. But now it's a well landscaped garden, with an amazing variety of trees and shrubs from around the world, exotic flowers, roses, and ponds filled with some enormous goldfish. And best of all it's free. After the garden, we walked to the top of Highdown Hill on the Downs (81M above sea level according to Wikipedia - so it must be true.) There was a triangulation point on top, so we all took turns to interrogate Andrew as to what you actually did with one. There was also the tomb of an 18th century miller, which he'd erected himself 27 years before his actual death. Rumour has it that he was also a smuggler and used the tomb to stash his contraband. Rumour also has it that he used to adjust the sails of his windmill to alert other smugglers when the coast was clear of customs men.
[Little known fact - Signalling To Smugglers was a criminal offence in England until 2005 when those gallant and honourable men of Her Majesty's Customs were over-run by the cowardly and disreputable tax inspectors of Her Majesty's Inland Revenue.]
Anyway, you deserve another picture if you've read this far. At first sight it seems rundown, but look closely and you'll see positive signs of regeneration. A work in progress with a special charm. At least I thought so!
