The castle seemed to have all the Christmas trees in Rutland inside
We fortified ourselves with a festive meal in the Stewards Restuarant
We clambered round in the candlelight, listening to the various musical offerings including the Belvoir Wassailers and some much more serious music on Flute and Harp
This looks my size...!
We left before the Carol Service, uncertain of what the drive home might hold in store and therefore did not get to 'meet' Her Grace, the Duchess of Rutland.
The following day the overnighters and some new guests met for Sunday lunch at Burleigh Court
... and the balloons came too ...
Hazel and Robin were charged with proposing a toast which contained some self-penned 'poetry' and finished with ...
Mum made two fruit cakes
On the day we met at the Link Hotel in the snow
There was barn dancing to "The Funkies and the Fogies"
and "The Ladows" played through their extensive Shadows repertoire
Roger got on better with his dancing after he changed to a new pair of shoes
and with Jacqui as partner was even awarded a certificate!
There were the formalities of the cutting of the cakes
Hazel encouraged the part along with her bubbly presence
In the car park of Webbs of Wychbold I came across this piece of artwork labelled "Survival"
Look out for news of a placing in the "Star Card" competition from this week!
There were many from Thorpe Acre congregation there and several said to me that they would never again complain about singing 3 songs one after another at Thorpe Acre because here they had to sing five!
The bun fight afterwards (actually a very nice cream tea) was served on two levels (upstairs and downstairs) so it was hard for Keith & Denise to mingle and meet everyone.
The dress code for teachers at the college has changed over the years.
Being fully paid up members of the National Trust we visit as many properties as we can. This one is Batemans - home of Rudyard Kipling.
And so we arrived at our destination - Hastings. In the picture are the "net shops" in the old town built high with a small footprint to minimise the taxes payable and used (originally) for drying and mending nets.
We started exploring and arrived at Bexhill on a sunny day but with a gale force wind blowing. So we found a sea-facing shelter where we were sheltered from the wind but in the sun. There we watched herring gulls dropping mussels from a great height onto the shingle and then diving down quickly to gobble up the exposed flesh before any other birds on the beach stole their food.
Of course we had to visit the site of the "Battle of Hastings" which is confusingly adjacent to the village of Battle and we relived the battle with the help of an audio guide. The abbey was supposedly built as an act of penance for the terrible bloodshed by the winner - William (the Conqueror) and there is a stone set into the ground (supposedly) marking the place where the loser (Harold) got an arrow in the eye.
The rain was never far away on this holiday and when we visited Beachy Head there was no let up so we just grabbed a couple of photos and moved on.
Having joined English Heritage at Battle, we decided to take advantage of the proximity of one of their more recently opened properties - Down House - on our way home. It may have been a mistake to let "Jane" guide us there because we drove a long way on winding, single track roads. The property was the home of Charles Darwin. Thanks once again to an audio guide we are now up to date with how he came by his theory 'On The Origin of Species'.
So we crammed quite a bit into a 5-night holiday (which was a good thing), but we had to contend with quite a bit of rain and some so-so accommodation (which was a bad thing).
