Once again it is the shortest day of the year so tomorrow the days start getting longer and once again we’ll be on our way to Spring. Can’t wait. 
There are now only three more days to Christmas Day so a very merry Christmas and a happy new year to all our friends and visitors both at home and overseas. We look forward to meeting at least some of you in the new year. 
Well it was! We have just seen a butterfly go past the window in December! We didn’t get a good look but it was large and dark which means it was probably a Peacock or Red Admiral. It is very mild today but we still would not have expected butterflies to be flying around.
What next I wonder?
No not the avian variety but something a little more special. We are talking fungi here – Bird’s Nest Fungi.
Amanda found these in our garden and neither of us had seen this type of fungus before. The individual ‘nests’ are between a quarter and a half inch in diameter.
Although it’s not a very scientific description I think they’re rather cute really. 
We went for a three and a half mile walk this afternoon and I took a few photographs which turned out to be appropriate to my previous post and my remark about knitting.
First choose your wool.
Then decide what colour you’d like it to be.
Next you’ll need a large vat in which to dye the wool.
That’s just the job.
So I’m all set. All I need to do now is catch my wool – I may be some time. 
The clocks went back last night so now it will be getting dark around 5:30 this evening although of course it's now lighter in the morning. It is now eight weeks to the shortest day. We succumbed a week or so ago, when it became really quite chilly, and turned on the heating for the first time since summer. Now of course it has turned quite mild again – you can't win.
This Spring, Summer and Autumn have not been very good from our point of view. We seem to have had a constant stream of low pressure systems coming off the Atlantic so that the longest spell of sunny days seems to have been only around 3-4 days before the weather deteriorated again.
It would have been nicer to have had some longer sunny spells so that longer trips of up to seven days would have been possible. It was much the same last year. The weather forecasts have been laughable at times changing completely from one day to the next which made trip planning a bit difficut.
Perhaps I'll give up photography and the web site and take up knitting – at least one can do that whatever the weather. 
Just arrived back from our latest trip to the South Coast. We stopped off at Battle on our way to Eastbourne where we were staying for three days. Carried on to Eastbourne and went for a walk along the sea front. That was Thursday.
On Friday we walked 8 miles from Eastbourne along the coast to Exceat via Beachy Head, Birling Gap and the Seven Sisters. What absolutely stunning scenery that is. 
On Saturday we had a walk round Eastbourne and visited Seaford Head for the best views of the Seven Sisters barring a boat trip.
Sunday back home via Scotney Castle in Kent. A more detailed report will follow shortly. 
Today saw us toddle off to our nearest station to watch the Winton Train pass though travelling from Harwich to it's final destination – London.
One of the reasons we went was to see 'Tornado', the locomotive pulling the train, because we haven't seen it 'in the flesh' before and because it was built only last year.
Needless to say the experience lasted only a few seconds at the speed at which it was travelling but we're glad we went. 
