A weekend in Sussex

 

I love it when you don't have to travel far to have a fun time exploring new places. Despite living on Sussex's border, we still like to do staycations here and our recent stay at The Byre was brilliant.

We took the Friday off from work and headed down to Lewes around midday. Lewes is famous for the flea market and its antique shops which are deceptively large once inside! It was a rainy day, so after we parked the car we headed in search of coffee and pastries. I had already researched this and my place of choice was The Flint Owl bakery a small coffee shop serving delicious coffees and mouth watering cakes, pastries, quiches and sandwiches.

Refueled for the day, we wandered in search of the 15th century bookshop, only to discover when we got there, it was closed! I will have to check in advance when we next visit. Apparently the lady who owns/runs the shop is a bit of a grouch so we wanted to see how grumpy she was in person! 

Also, I love spending hours getting lost in bookshops so we head to Bows Books and dodged the rain showers and I accidently spent too much money on books. I am collecting the complete tales of Peter Rabbit from second hand bookshops which are £3 so I picked up a few of these that I didn't currently have. I then found an old Enid Blyton 'Famous Five' book and couldn't see a price on it but didn't think it could be that much. I also picked up two of the British Observer books, I like the small copies of birds, ponies etc. Anyway, I presumed I had only spent around £25 but when he totted up the bill he said it was £50! I was too embarrassed to ask why it was so expensive but we checked afterwards and it turned out I had bought a first edition of the Famous Five! 

I know its a silly thing to challenge the bill but my math's is so terrible so I don't want people to think I am dumb because I cant add up and also I'm British so sometimes I don't challenge things when perhaps I ought to. Anyway, I think its cool to own a first addition and I'm now also collecting the Famous Five books. I loved them when I was younger and they left such a lasting impression on me, when Im out walking I often think I am on some sort of adventure and I know its because of those books.

We carried on mooching around the shops and antique stores, Lewes is so good for shopping. I bought this epic basket that is enormous. Mark couldn't quite understand why I felt I wanted or needed it, but I love baskets and this one just SPOKE to me. Plus these things are usually so expensive but it was £35 so for its size and measure of how happy it would make me, I scooped it up and spent the rest of the day walking around Lewes like I was part of the 300 army and the basket was my shield.

Around 4pm, still very rainy, we drove over to where we were staying (I wrote about it in this blog post, it was a PR stay). 

We dumped our bags and I started to going into a photographic ecstasy trying to capture every beautiful detail of this delightful barn.

For supper that night we wandered up the road to The Sussex Ox. Mark and I like to eat early so it was empty when we arrived but it is a popular village pub so we made a reservation to eat there again the following night. We sat at the bar and chatted and enjoyed cocktails and then moved to the open fire and had wine and burgers. Such a fun evening, it was great to really connect with each other and just talk for hours.

Life has been really busy recenently, we have been decorating Wonky Cottage painting various rooms. I have also picked up two new clients to manage their social media and my aunt has been in hospital so its been a manic full on few months and this getaway in the countryside was just the (gin and) tonic.

The next day, I woke up uncharacteristically early, around 5am and I couldn't get back to sleep so I got up and made myself some tea and decided to photograph the barn again as the morning light was epic. The sunshine was streaming through and I knew to take advantage of this!

When Mark was awake we got up and had a breakfast on scrambled eggs on toast. We decided to walk to nearby Alfriston and have a mooch about. Its a 30 minute walk away along country lanes, I suspect you could walk cross country but Mark wasnt wearing the right footwear.

In Alfriston there is a little church, the National Trust Alfriston Clergy House which wasn't open but lovely to photograph. There are lots of pubs, shops, a tearoom and some restaurants. The main place I wanted to visit was the bookshop Much Ado Books and yes you guessed it, I didn't leave empty handed! We then had coffee and walked back to The Byre.

We had decided that we were going to climb the Long Man of Wilmington and over to the next village for a drink and then head back home. Its a steep climb but the views are amazing and there are wild ponies. Hold onto your hats its very windy up there!

After reaching the top, we could see the rain clouds coming and suddenly we were shrouded in hail which hurt my ears! But we survived and then it passed giving way to brilliant sunshine again.

Soggy and thirsty we found the pub and ordered some well earned drinks. In Wilmington there is a 1600 year old tree that is being propped up with stakes in the village churchyard. This is worth a look before you leave. There are also lots of thatched cottages for squeak worthy moments to admire.

We crossed through the fields on our way home and I knew there was only one thing I wanted to do, despite it being 3pm on a Saturday afternoon, and that was to dive into the ginomous copper bath tub for a soak and to warm my hail soaked bones. Indulgent? Yes. Dreamy? Oh you better believe.

After another fab meal at the Sussex Ox we headed back to watch some of 'The Gentleman' - take a laptop or tablet with you as the Byre doesnt have a TV.

We left around 10am on the Sunday morning, the owner of the Byre lives next door and she wanted to chat in person about social media before I left and she was a darling. It was a perfect weekend despite the bonkers weather! Oh to be British.