Roadsides everywhere
Thanks for checking on me during my unexpected 4 week absence. Special thanks to new readers who followed this blog when I was barely posting!
Rom and I ended up in the UK much earlier than planned due to family matters; more about that another time. Before our scheduled vacation began, we had a long run of family visits and downtime in Sussex. We were entirely without Internet access for a shocking 8 days which I would never have done voluntarily!
It took me about 4 days to acclimate. I thought it must be the 4-hour time difference, and the complete lack of coffee in the house. I am not accustomed to having to drink tea in the morning! Later I discovered that even the tea was decaf, so I was in complete caffeine withdrawal 🙂
In our tiny green village, we read constantly – I devoured 8 books! – and went hiking every day.
I enjoyed some of my favourite uniquely British foods like rhubarb yogurt and banoffee cake.
I was taken aback to find the weather was exactly like back home in Nova Scotia: only 15-20 C, but Spring had sprung earlier and the landscape was lush.
Here is a little photo album of the pastoral part of our “vacation” in the Ashdown Forest (which is actually heath land):
And I will also bring you this little local vignette:
OK, if you were looking for my Paris photos, they will be next. However, I will forewarn that because it was my first visit, they are the most typical of tourist pix!
An Exacting Life 
Your photos are so beautiful. All that greenery!
I can’t wait to see your Paris post. We are looking at making our first UK/France/Spain/UAE trip later in the year.
Wow, that sounds like an amazing trip!
Such beautiful and tranquil photos! It is so immediately relaxing seeing those green forests and such solid trees, so different to our native landscape.
I hope the family issues were nothing untoward and hope you and Rom really enjoyed being able to spend such a good length of time with his family.
I also am hanging out for your Paris post – not just photos, but thoughts / whether it lived up to expectations / how the language issue went!
P.S. Thank goodness you are back online!!
Thanks! I did OK without Internet for about 4 days and then I got restless! The town had one cafe that was supposed to have Internet but it was out of order. Eventually Rom figured out we could pay for BT FON access. This is a system whereby home subscribers agree to keep an extra channel open for public access, so that strangers can pay to piggyback on it!
It really puzzles us Brits when people from other countries get excited over sheep. They’re everywhere here and part and parcel of rural life. Then again when Lou and I last went to Yellowstone he thought that bison were a bit passe after a week!
Not many sheep here; no natural grazing lands, just forest. They just look like they have such happy, relaxing lives (or so I wish to think).
We missed you. Great pictures especially the “Invasion of the Sheep” one.
Thanks. I do not get close to farm animals very often 🙂
very pretty photos and things I love………
It is a unique area, so green and peaceful.
Thank you so much for the pictures – they were so interesting. It’s so great to see the UK in the wild!. That sheep has a beautiful face. Trees, flowers, and more! I love it.
Hi Debbie, I felt like I got to know the outdoors properly again – I needed that!
Great photos and a lovely one of you two together. Your internet enforced break sounds very relaxing.
Thanks. After I got over my Internet withdrawal jitters, it really was relaxing 🙂
Hi Dar – where are you now England or home? I have not been blogging for ages – too much going on at work and home recently but now we are on holiday in Scotland and I am catching up with everyone. Hoping to go and see Freda from Live Simply at her Open Studio near Dunoon – sorry I missed you in England but I think Sussex might just have been a bit out of our way – but perhaps one day we will get the chance to meet up. I like your photos of everything typical of England including the sheep on the road and the cloudy skies. No doubt I will be back in blogland soon. Viv x
Great to hear from you, Viv! Glad to know all is well with you. I hope to meet you on a future trip to the UK! Blogland needs you 🙂
Ah thanks Dar – I am trying to do some catching up in blogland whilst on holiday so you may see more comments. I am still alive and kicking! Saw Freda from Living Simply yesterday – went on a day trip to her beautiful house and studio higher up in Scotland and came away with one of her paintings. Just need to find wall space to hang it now. Freda is a lovely person she gave me such a warm welcome and tea and biscuits! It is quite strange to meet another blogger – you feel you know them from their interests and what is in their kitchen cupboards yet you have never met before! I don’t want to miss you next time you are over – though I think Sussex may have been a little bit out of our reach from Yorkshire! Have a good week – rain forecast here.
That sounds lovely. The next time we are there, we will be able to do proper planning, and I will let you know I’m en route! I would be most happy to feed you tea and biscuits in Nova Scotia – come on over 🙂
Lovely shots and I just love the way that you organised your pictures! The sheep in the road pic was my personal fave though!
Thanks, Holly. I am a fan of the sheep. They look like they have happy lives.
Sounds amazing! The rural scenes reminded me of visiting West Virginia – lots of chickens and cows in the road as we got further away from town there.
Mr. G and I were off the grid last year when we visited Big Sur – no cell phone signal or wifi. It was weird! I did call my parents from the pay phone at camp just because I hadn’t seen or used one in years and I figured it might be my last chance, haha! 🙂
I have been to Pfeiffer Beach at Big Sur a couple of times – isn’t it gorgeous!! We had to use a pay phone at the airport on this trip. What a hassle – I feel bad for anyone who doesn’t have a cell phone and relies on them.
SHEEP! BAAAAAAAAAAA!! Thanks for sharing the pics, it reminded me of my own visit to Wales over a decade ago. I hope everything is okay with your family now – whatever that made you depart early.
Thanks, AP, all is well.
Beautiful shots. I love green.
How’d you insert slide shows? Groovy. I want to be able to do that.
BTW. That’s not a logging road. This is a logging road. Sorry, channelling Mick Dundee and everything being bigger and dirtier and wilder in Oz.
And that windmill looks like the one in Jonathon Creek. Is it?
I had to look up Jonathan Creek – no, it’s not the same one, but similar!
To do a slideshow, you go to Add Media, Create a Gallery, and insert it in the post. When a reader clicks on the first photo in the gallery, they can view the rest as a slideshow.
Ohhh! So Jonathon Creek isn’t a thing in Canada. He’s big here. The actor is on QI, another British TV show. And I saw his stand up show.
A lot of people do watch all the BBC shows here but I am totally out of the loop on TV. I have seen that guy on QI lots of times (watched online) and really like him! I am off to work now – have a great evening!