I Had A Couple Of Things To Do In Town,

and looking at the weather I had better be quick,

 it was blowing a gale with the odd drop or two of rain,

first stop the railway station, I bought a couple of tickets for next week when it is Diana's day off,

next shopping in Marks & Spencer's for our Sundays roast and all of the other bits and pieces for next week, as I entered the park the rain started,

luckily not too heavy, that was to come later when I was already back home,

in the evening a read and a sherry,

I decided against a starter, 

and tucked into a steak and bacon pie,

 delicious!

after my evening meal I made my way to the club,

past the old pavilion,

and on to the clubhouse,

no cricket tonight, the covers over the crease, I meet up with Steve and we chatted the night away, he kindly dropped me off at home, Diana had returned from work, so we watched a New Tricks before we were off to bed.

Even Today A Voyage Of Thirty-Six Thousand Miles At Sea,

is a major undertaking,

but even more so when the voyage took place in the late 1800s, 

the book is titled 1879 A Voyage in the Sunbeam, by Mrs Brassey,

the book describes the family's travels aboard the Sunbeam, a luxury yacht which first set sail in 1874,

the work is a profusely illustrated bestselling work, detailing the author's eleven months spent aboard the Sunbeam, complete with a colour folding map,

they travelled to Rio de Janeiro around South American, then made for Tahiti, Hawaii, Japan, China, Singapore, India, Sri Lanka, the Maldives, Alexandria, Gibraltar and Portugal,

this is a new edition of Annie Brassey's popular work, which narrates their travels around the world between 1876 and 1877 along with forty-three others, (husband and four children), crew (38 members), two dogs, three birds, and a "charming Persian kitten" (who disappeared early into the voyage), many editions of the work were produced, and it was translated into at least five languages. She followed this work up with a number of other works describing their voyaging on the Sunbeam, Annie Brassey (1839-1883) perished aboard her final voyage; she was buried at sea, published in London by Longmans, Green and Co. size: 8" by 6, I can imagine it will be a fabulous read, yours for £170.00 from Rooke Books, would I like to go on that cruise? You Bet!

Having Made A Post About Pineapples A Couple Of Days Ago,

I found this article,

if after having eaten one, in this article by Akash Jaiswal, a home gardener who runs a YouTube channel Gardening Lovers With Akash and also has a Facebook page, he shares his thoughts on how to grow pineapples right at home, using one that you bought from a shop, it is all done in 6 easy steps, the article is here, what a great summer time project for the kids, or even yourself.

I Have Always Been Fascinated,

by plants that eat living creatures,

but I never knew that one could consume a sheep, until now!, photograph via triplancar.com the plant in question is known as the "sheep-eating" plant (Puya Chilensis), and has actually flowered for the first time since it was planted outdoors in Surrey around 10 years ago, it does not actually eat sheep, but as Matthew Pottage, curator at RHS Wisley, told Sky News: "There's no physical chewing up of sheep, in their native environment they form huge big hummocks of these big thorny leaves, so any grazing animal nearby, could be a sheep because they've obviously got a lot of fur, goes in for shelter and shade from sun and then has the ability to basically get stuck, they've got all these big backwards facing barbs so anything that's stuck in there, stays there, decomposes, but then feeds and fertilises the plant." Mr Pottage said: "It's generally not something that grows through the winter in this part of the country successfully, so for it to be growing here and flowering here is something that we're quite proud of." note to sheep farmers in Surrey, keep them well away from Wisley!

We Had A Great Day Out,

and took so many photographs I am only making this one post today,

it was glad rags on, for our day out to Worthing, a seaside town on the south coast of England,

any minute now we will be on our way,

and we are off,

hurtling through the south east countryside,

and here we are,

at Worthing station,

we made out way into town, passing this display of models, in of all places a solicitors window,

and the memorial,

art gallery and museum,

'Shops!',

the centre of town had been pedestrianised,

with streets leading from a central hub,

this looked interesting, the Royal Arcade,

looking to the left the pavilion on the beachfront,

all set,

and we were into the arcade,

all of the usual high end shops, and no customers,

arriving at the other end we were on the beach,

looking back to a huge fish and chip restaurant, we remembered this place for our lunch,

but first a walk to the pier,

and a quick look at the history of it, 

to both sides of it, all the fun of the fair,

looking towards Portsmouth, it was low tide,

a quick pose,

well I had to have one as well!

the pier now complete it seems strange to say it but during the Second World War a 120 meter section was destroyed, by us! it was thought the Germans could use it to invade England,

to the right the Ferris wheel doing it's rounds,

the weather could not have been kinder,

blue skies,

with just a few clouds,

but, and a big but, it was so windy,

as we walked towards the end of the pier, a section of murals with clear windows in separated the pier into left and right,

no prizes for guessing who!

some one had gone to a lot of trouble,

and time creating these novelty windows,

of course you could walk between both sides of the pier,

peek-a-boo!

great fun, 

we arrived at the entrance to the end of the pier, unfortunately closed for repair,

a quick pose looking towards Brighton, about 14 or so miles away,

it was a shame the repairs could not have been finished for this summer, but there it is,

another quick pose,

it looked cloudy,

but we never seemed to be out of the sun,

we made our way back to the beachfront,

on this section of the divider,

montages had been made of underwater scenes,

a quick rest,

and we were on our way again,

not as many fishing boats as I would have thought,

looking back at the pier,

we turned to the right,

to walk past some more of the funfair,

I just had to have a pose,

these are the stalls I used to like as a kid, everyone a winner, what could possibly go wrong?

the Dome cinema and tea rooms,

it must be Mario!

if only I was a big bit younger,

and this is about as near as I will ever be, 

to riding a high powered Yamaha!

the municipal gardens,

most probably,

the most photograph boat on this section of the beach, mainly because it is the only one!

we continued to leave the pier behind us,

another quick rest, I rather liked the seat ends,

they reminded me of the ones we had seen when we went to Battersea after our visit to the lavender farm,

we liked these apartments, over looking the sea, above them two birds of prey silhouetted against the white clouds.

one of the birds of prey, hovering over the building

and one was perched on a balcony,

the Crabshack, maybe this one for lunch?

we continued our walk,

it was time for a few poses, as you can see from Diana's hair it was really windy,

this I am guessing it was some sort of modern art installation,

all I can say is that if it was,

I really did not get it,

Diana just had to have a couple more,

photographs for the album,

in the distance a crazy golf course,

in this section a number of local handicraft and art shops,

on to the beach,

for a couple of photographs,

looking towards Worthing,

and towards Brighton,

we walked as far as this new development,

and then retraced our steps,

and past the birds of prey,

the two above the building both kites of course, the one on the balcony was really good, it had a head that swivelled! I am guessing to stop pigeons and other birds from nesting on the balconies,

the building was called The Eardley, and they were private apartments,

we had decided on our first choice of restaurant,

passing The Dome cinema, 

and here we were at the fish and chip restaurant, by now we were both famished,

we were lucky to have a table seat by the window,

what a glorious day,

which just got better!

our meal arrived, Diana choses a seafood spaghetti,

for myself fish and chips, all of which was delicious,

a quick 'Cheers!', from Diana,

meal over we continued our walk along the seafront,

the seafront runs parallel to to the street in the distance, so we will use that on our way back to the station,

all the fun of the fair,

but listening to the screams I am not sure it was that funny!

and whilst this might be fun to some, for Diana and myself we decided to give this ride a wide berth,

a look into the souvenir shop,

and here it is,

not an ice-cream,

but a refrigerator magnet, well I suppose it is a sort of ice-cream,

if I was still not so full from lunch a plate of whelks would have been next,

I noticed this memorial as we were walking,

about a bomber crew,

that saved Worthing from a potential disaster in WWII, the aircraft was piloted by Edward Gordon Essenhigh,

time to cross the road,

and make our way to the street that runs parallel to the beach,

the building by the road had a mural on it,

which was quite nicely done,

it really looked quite neat,

the road was pedestrianised,

along streets leading from it,

nice flower displays were placed on the pavement,

naturally,

there were a few stops on the way,

we passed the eye on our right,

and stall selling flowers for the garden,

over the circle,

to more shops,

one thing about the streets here,

everywhere you looked there were nice displays of flowers,

we were soon walking past the solicitors,

with the model buildings in,

the legend,

as well as buildings, 

there were a few puppets on display,

we knew we were close to the station,

when we saw the Grand Victorian Hotel,

its name over the entrance,

into the station for our train home, what a perfect day, until, we trusted Southern Rail to take us to Worthing and bring us home again,

just our luck, train cancelled! with no word of explanation we were told to make our way the 14 miles or so to Brighton and then catch the train back to Croydon from there, what a miserable excuse for a railway company, eventually we arrived at East Corydon and caught the tram back to Beckenham, where it was feet up for a coffee and a relax, 

we decided to round off our day by watching Aquaman, not knowing what to expect I was blown away with the special effects, I almost believed the city of Atlantis was real! what a visual treat, and with the end of that we were off to bed.