More UK

A drive South took us to Southsea, Portsmouth where an old school friend of Georgie’s graciously put us up for a couple of nights and gave us the grand tour of that historically important naval town. On the first morning there Rod did his usual trick of rising before sunrise to wander off in a random direction for a couple of hours whilst everyone else sensibly slept on.

Rugged up in multiple layers he shuffled up the long shingle beach until arriving at derelict fortifications, then turned inland to explore a bit of parkland. The wild flowers at this time of year are just coming out and this pleased Rod immensely. He had the pleasure of spotting
a fox in its natural environment and marvelled at the multiple colours of tiny blossoms all around.

The return walk held a bit of a surprise though, as he shuffled through the labyrinth of almost indistinguishable streets searching for the house they were staying in he became completely LOST! For almost an hour he stumbled in circles, metaphorically kicking his still-jet-lagged brain for not paying closer attention to which of those near identical houses was the one he needed. Most of his frustration was down to the fact that he didn’t actually remember the name of the street. Unfortunately Rod’s (usually) infallible sense of direction was totally out of whack in the Northern Hemisphere, where the planet’s magnetic fields all go the wrong way!

Later in Guildford, Georgie had a great time enjoying a reunion with old classmates from Kenya who she hadn’t seen for 50 years, and was off yakking with this grand group of girls, sharing memories and much laughter. This included a bus trip to a pretty and quintessentially English village called Shere, for the benefit of one of the group who had never been to UK before.

Meanwhile, Rod amused himself with wandering aimlessly through a patch of bush named Puttenham Common. Locating the aforementioned Common was uncommonly difficult due to a complete lack of signage, but he did eventually manage to work it out, and shuffled off into the shrubbery.

Many of the walking tracks veered off over boring golfing greens, which Rod studiously ignored, preferring instead to investigate the meandering trails amongst twisted mossy tree trunks and multiple pretty flowers nestled amongst the ubiquitous stinging nettles and bramble. A glimpse of a wild deer was an unexpected treat, plus seeing about four different species of bird, and one example of the gorgeously fluffy bumblebee which kept him smiling. Lovely bird song accompanied him on that ‘ramble’, which did help to take the edge off the constant rumble of traffic that emanated from just beyond the foliage.

Her Ladyship located a lovely spot named the Winkworth Arboretum that we had a lovely time wandering about in. It is a beautiful property with a broad variety of habitats that was enhanced by a variety of birds singing their hearts out. Simply gorgeous! Unfortunately Georgie took a tumble while clambering up some loose gravelly stairs and hurt her ribs badly.

Flowering beach kale growing on the shingle beach

The endless streets of identical houses

Mossy tree trunks on the Common

Meandering trail on the Common

Cottages within the quaint village of Shere

Shere again

Winkworth Arboretum

Georgie at the Arboretum

More Arboretum

Still more Arboretum

Yet more Arboretum

Gorgeous!