Martin's Mag.

It must be Spring at last; the wisteria is in bloom, growing over the railings on our balcony. Below is an acer and in front of that some broom. It all happens at the same time.

Esme prefers picking petals off the wisteria to any of the many toys she has here.

…of the Monmouth canal, north of Newport in South Wales. We’ve walked and cycled here before but there is always something new, or very old, to see. The Crumlin is no longer navigable, so no boats, but some enthusiastic volunteers are fighting what, to my untrained eye, looks like a long, long, task.

Esme likes her new boots, as do I. Sadly, they don’t do them in a 45.

We spent a week in East Sussex, which brought back some distant memories of holidays long ago.

Saint Thomas the Martyr Church, Winchelsea. The last resting place of Spike Milligan. The inscription, in Gaelic, reads “I told you I was ill”.

The Pipewell Gate at Winchelsea, and access to one of many medieval cellars and tunnels under the town.

Sally’s new favourite shop, Merchant & Mills Ltd, in Rye.

The Ypres Castle pub next to the actual Ypres Castle, in Rye.

The view across our home for the week, looking from Rye towards Rye Harbour.

Views of Hastings.

Camber Castle.

Views around Rye, ending with some fabulous local scallops, prawns and crab claws.

Five miles north of Newport, in Monmouthshire, Caerleon seems to have escaped our attention, up until now. The local volunteer in the town’s museum confessed that this was something we shared with half of his town’s own population. It was, we learned, the first permanent Roman site in Wales, and there still seems to be quite a lot of it left.

A great thing to do on a cold Winter’s day, specially if one is of a certain age and have a nostalgia for the ephemera of days-gone-by. The museum is up the road from us at Portbury. And it’s huge!

It looks the same, despite there being a different Prince of Wales.

I remember when 1984 seemed like an impossible time in the future. 2023! Where will it all end?

We are now through the looking glass that is Christmas and New Year, and, although we had a nice time with family, friends, and our new granddaughter, there was not a lot of news, or photos. All the family, including Rosie home from Madrid, came to us on Christmas Eve, MF&E staying ’till Christmas Day. Other than that we’ve been keeping warm, going for walks (and a jog or two in my case) and eating (and drinking) the leftovers. Someone has to do it.