Our new patch

 

 

Our local hill seen from the road as we approached the hamlet yesterday morning. Behind me are the remains of the Roman Villa. I’ve always been struck by the beauty of this view in front of the villa and the way the land unfolds to the south before the rise of the Downs. It must have been a beautiful setting nearly 2000 years ago. About 10 years ago we walked these fields with our children looking for Roman coins but we only found lots of terracotta which we took to our local museum for dating and were a little disappointed to learn our finds weren’t Roman! I can’t believe we cycled up from the cottage to the top of the ridge last summer. You have to stay in low low gear and keep pedalling otherwise you’ll never get going again. Looking forward to exploring more once the weather warms up and the ground dries. Last weekend we walked back along the river from the pub in the next village and in places the mud was so deep it tugged at our Wellington boots as we slip-slided along. 

The cottage garden which doesn’t seem as frosty as my garden at home. I live in a frost pocket but here we are slightly elevated which must give more protection. 

Petworth Park 

The sun was streaming molten gold across the sky. 

I bought three useful things for the cottage from an antiques emporium on the A29 –  a coat rack to hang by the utility door, a hand forged steel poker with a twist for the stove and a stoneware jar for my wooden spoons. All beautiful. 

We had another busy day at the cottage yesterday. We have two decorators and a carpenter working at the cottage so there was lots to discuss. The heating engineer came round to take us through the handover of the boiler and there was more measuring and more discussions about flooring. We loaded up the car with rubbish for household recycling and arrived at Petworth Park for a walk during Golden Hour. Afterwards we were in sore need of a cup of tea and a chocolate brownie handily provided by the Hungry Guest in Petworth town.

 

 

Today has been a quiet day. I’m still sewing curtains, British Gas have been to service the boiler and I made a big pot of celeriac and apple soup for lunch which followed on nicely from toast and marmalade for elevenses.