Friends and Bonfires

A very sociable weekend - Went to Rye on Saturday, and had a great walk down the river to Camber Sands - took a couple of hours, and was really the first sign of spring, beautifully warm & sunny - and finished with coffee and a sandwich in a little cafe in the old High Street. Then home just in time to get dinner ready for the arrival of friends Jill and Colin, and Martin & Janet. A great, fun evening with good food (venison shepherd's pie - that must be wrong, as it should be deer-herd's pie - and a huge cheesecake with a huge fat content) and rather a lot of Lindeman's red wine.

Sunday we spent gardening - had the best bonfire known to man, and got rid of a year's worth of prunings and dead oak leaves. Watched I've Loved You So Long with Kristin Scott-Thomas - very good and rather sad.

Monday was another beautiful day, so we were up with the lark and down to the beach at Herbrand for a low-tide walk.

Then to the De La Warr Pavillion in Bexhill for coffee - it's a modernist masterpiece, the first steel-framed building in the UK and always heaving with architecture students wandering around in wide-eyed amazement. Average cafe, so won't be racing back there for refreshment. Good art though - a series of photos and video installations by Michael Nyman, who wrote the music for The Piano. Wasn't expecting to enjoy it, as I'm not usually drawn to video-art, but found much to like, particularly a film of Metal beaters at work, set to a recording of church bells - strangely moving. Also an amazing sound installation called Anthem by William Furlong - again not my style on the whole, but really enjoyed it, much more than expected. Must have been in a curiously receptive frame of mind.

Then back to the garden for more chopping down of ivy etc - chucked it all on the newly vacant bonfire spot, on the ashes from the day before, and it just started up again. I love bonfires!!

The dog's got a nasty limp - too much running.