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After dinner yesterday evening we popped down to Barton on Sea to view the sunset.
This morning we drove around the forest.
The thatcher I spoke to at East End, where the albeit somnolent donkeys were having fun with the traffic,
replied that the project was “beginning to take shape”.
Our next stop was at St Mary’s Church at South Baddesley, outside which Jackie sat on a seat cut into a very large tree stump.
Alongside the church stretches a patch of uncultivated land accessed from an open gateway dedicated to Ken Allen 1918 – 2005.
From here a path leads down
to a playground beyond a locked five-barred gate. I was unable to gain any information about Mr Allen or the leisure area that I speculated must be related to him.
It was quite refreshing to discover that the Victorian church itself was unlocked and welcoming. I found the stained glass windows particularly attractive.
Hanging on the edge of a pew was a gentleman’s cloth cap. If it is yours it awaits your collection.
Primroses, English bluebells, and other wild flowers wandered, as did I, among the gravestones in this English country churchyard.
Most of the stones were quite simple, but there was one angel and child,
and the amazing resting place of Admiral of the Fleet George Rose Sartorius, GCB, Count de Penhafirme who died on 13th April 1885 in his 95th year. This was 70 years after he had served with Nelson at the battle of Trafalgar.
What is particularly astonishing is the knowledge that the credible articulated linked anchor chain winding around the cross was carved from stone.
After lunch Jackie continued working her magic in the garden where I did a bit of clearing up and repelled some invading brambles along the back drive.
This evening we enjoyed our second serving of Mr Chatty Man Chan’s Chinese Take Away with which I finished the madiran. Jackie didn’t imbibe because she had drunk her Hoegaarden in the Rose Garden where we had a drink first.
P.S. Bruce Goodman, in his comment below, has provided a link to Ken Allen, which, incidentally explains that the playground I noticed is attached to a school. This is no doubt why the entrance would be locked during the Easter holidays.
