It Was Diana's Day Off,

so an early start,

 but first a look at a couple of things,

 the new flower spike on one of the orchids was making great progress,

 and there was a new one growing on another,

 meanwhile,

 we keep saying, 

  any day now for this ones flowers to open,

 down on the lawn,

 the crows called by for their early morning breakfast,

 this one seems to have picked up a bit of fluff,

a piece of feather or down form another bird,

meal over and we were on our way,

 through country lanes,

 for the hour and a half or so,

it took us to arrive here,

to McBean's orchids in Oak Hill near Lewes, Sussex, and what a history the company has, going back over 140 years,

 parked up we made our way inside,

 past some bamboos,

 inside what a treat,

 orchids of all descriptions,

 in flower,

 and looking stunning,

 we were spoilt for choice,

 we both liked these,

 but bearing in mind the size of our window sill, a bit too large,

 even this beauty,

 was just too big,

 I really liked this one, and asked if there were smaller plants for sale, 

 regrettably not, but I did find out that this was one of only three specimens of this orchid in the UK or possibly Europe,

 at the far end of the nursery a palm,

 back to the two main display areas,

 lots of plants for sale and on show,

 in the growing houses countless more,

 decision made we thanked this gentleman, I believe Jim Durrant the head grower at the nursery, for advice and selection of a souvenir of our visit, it will be on the window sill tomorrow, we chatted away, and here is a tip, for a really good show of orchids, call back here in January or February, the show of flowers will be absolutely stunning,

next stop just down the road Lewes,

 next to the car park we used a shop called Baltica,

 which specialises in pottery from Poland, 

these trade marks just a few of the potteries represented here,

 and very pretty the tableware looked too,

 we were hungry, and this looked like a good idea,

 but first a quick walk around a small part of this town,

 lots of old buildings as you might guess given it's history,

 we were now full of Christmas decorations for the tree,

 the entrance to one of the churchyards,

 this is so me, but it was closed,

 as was the Chinese restaurant,

 looking along the street,

 we continue walking,

 to the war memorial,

 then back, 

 towards Lewes castle,

a quick pose,

 we did not go inside but walked around its perimeter,

 it looked grand,

 but I am not sure my knees would have coped with all of those steps,

uphill we went,

 past one of the buildings at the top,

 another pose,

 as we walked to the side of the building,

 at the rear of the green,

 a view area,

 overlooking Lewes,

 we had by now started on our circular walk making our way back to the main road,

 naturally we had to stop to look at the Round House,

 we started our walk down,

 Lewes is incredibly hilly,

 across the main road looking down, it does not look it, but this pathway was so steep,

 and here we were, back again, 

to the fish and chip shop for a welcome breakfast/lunch, the two pieces of fish were huge, just as well we ordered small chips!

 back in the car,

 and we were on our way to Croydon,

to Wing Yip, Diana was getting low on rice, so a huge bag later and we were on our way,

after a snack in the evening it was feet up, for a few quiz shows, we rounded off the evening with three episodes of Taboo, what a stunningly good series, I am amazed that a show this good seems to have gone completely unnoticed, well at least, by us, a real 'must see' if you have not watched it before,

Diana found this short clip of Peter and myself on our last visit to them in Scotland in September, what a great time we had, I am just making one post today as Diana is off to work and I will be walking with her to the bus stop, then on to the shop, I need some more RO water for the aquarium, and with that we were off to bed.