April 7

Awake at 6:10 after a good sleep. Overcast, no birds singing, no wonder I slept so late. Tim picked me up at the bus stop again. Today I worked on the west gardens behind the estate. There are 13 of them; 7 rectangular (12x8) and 6 circular, about 6’ diameter. First I hand weeded all the large problems, and then used a sharp bladed forward hoe, that you pushed through the soil to loosen and cut off smaller weeds. Then using a long handled shear I cut the grass around the inside perimeter of the bed and finally used an edger to give a crisp face to the edge of the bed. My instruction came from Jim Buckland, Head Gardener and the man really knows his stuff. He is very concerned about the smallest detail, which makes for a great job and lots of compliments from people passing by. It was very warm today and I had to take my coveralls off, working only in a t-shirt and sweatshirt. Of course I had pants on. That job took from 8:00 until 3:00 and then I started working on the hedge behind the gardens and expect to finish that tomorrow. Worked until 4:15 and Sarah Wain, Jim’s wife drove me to Lavant, to see where I am staying, as she will pick me up tomorrow night for a dinner at the James Estate tomorrow night. She and Jim will host me and the Dutch students. Should be a good time. Home at 4:30 and cracked a stout, my first, Read and listened to music on the computer until I fell asleep. Going to dinner at the Earl of March at 7:00 and will post yesterday and today to my blog and check some email.

The birds start singing here at 5:45 and turn out to be the best alarm clock I could have. At the bus stop this morning, one of the guys from West Dean, Tim, picked me up so I was on time today. Two new Dutch students start today, Dennis and Jost, and they are here for two weeks. My job today is pretty much like Friday, but I have developed my own technique, which makes things seem to go a little faster and not so hard on the arms. By using a soft brush and a hard bristle brush, I collect the majority of the clippings before having to use the vacuum for the finishing details. Weather seemed peculiar today, starting out a little foggy but heating up around 1:00 and the cooling off later on. High was likely 18. I worked until 4:15 and walked a back road down the Silsey Arms, which was closed, darn. I waited around until 5:15 when I had an appointment to see a lady who may have a room for rent right in West Dean. It’s a fairly small house, but the room seems fine. I have to decide whether I want to give up the comfort I now have for a few pounds. She doesn’t know how much she would rent it for so I said I would call later in the week. I am going to suggest 50 pounds a week and 5 pounds for every supper I eat there. I would have to look after my own breakfast and lunch.
I took the bus home and was just in time to catch a ride up to Midhurst for a Rotary Club meeting. I was there about 6:30 and met several of the members in the bar of the Golf Club where they hold their session. There meeting being an evening one is quite relaxed and they had a lovely carvery with three choices. The chicken was great and so was the dessert, Spring Pudding. The speaker was David Glover from Shelter Box, a charity established by the Rotary Club in Cornwall. It provides in one large box everything that up to ten people could use in case of disaster; tent, water purification tablets, pots, pans etc. Check out their web page at ( ). The Rotary Club of Midhurst has provided funding for 47 so far at a cost of 490 pounds each. Our Rotary Club in Truro has paid for 3. Home from the meeting at 10:00 and off to bed.

April 5, 2009

Breakfast at 8:15 so I could catch the 9:00 bus to Chichester. Temperature is about 15 and the sun is shining. I wanted to attend the Palm Sunday Service at the Cathedral. I had looked for a Catholic Church but they were all outside and not easy to get to, so I thought, oh well it used to be a Catholic Church before Henry VIII so why not? It started at 11:00 so I had lots of time to do the other thing I had wanted to do in Chichester, which was to walk the Roman walls. I started on the south side by the Bishop’s Palace Garden and continued West. After about only 500 yards I had to come down to the streetscape. It was then I realized that the walls weren’t continuous. I asked al lady walking her dog and she told me how to get back on at the North side. So I went back to the Centre of the city, through the Cross, and up North Street to its end. There I was able to go up some stairs and was able to walk the entire north side which may have been a kilometre. From the elevated walls you are able to look down into the backyards of the adjacent neighbours. Many have gardens in their space which may only be 15 feet wide running back to the wall some 40 feet. One had chickens in a little coop. There was an old bastion that had come away from the wall but was still largely intact except for some surface erosion, but amazingly it was in someone’s yard.
I walked the northeast quadrant of the walls, which is relatively short and was surprised to see lots of new residential construction on either side and several sold signs in the windows. This was the only piece of the wall where it appeared as if the inner surface was not even and I observed several examples of bowing. Yet the structure appears very sound. Chichester is very civilized in that it has lots of clean, accessible public bathrooms. In one they even had a 3 in 1 soap, water and blow dryer unit for your hands. I swear you could nearly take a shower in it.
I arrived at the Cathedral about 10:45 and was asked to join the procession with the majority of the parishioners. I would say 200 processed and another 1oo were inside. It was a long procession with readings, singing and parading along West Street to the front doors of the cathedral. The service was very nice and lasted about one and a half hours. Afterwards, I attended a reception of parishioners and was able to talk with a few people. I took some interesting photos of the inside of the building to compliment lots from the exterior.
By now I thought rather than put in a full day, I would do some preparation for the coming week. I searched out a grocery store called Iceland and was able to locate all the things I would need for lunches this week and even a 4 pack of Irish Stout; what a civilized country. I popped into the tourist bureau to gather information on Fishbourne Palace which will likely be an all day excursion next weekend and to find out about National Trust and English Heritage properties. There are several in the region. Caught the 3:10 bus back to Lavant (it is only about 7-8 minutes) and plan to relax for the rest of the day with possibly a book and stout for company.

Up and awake (or is it reversed?) at 7:30. The weather today was very suitable. After a little rain overnight and early morning, the sun came out and it was likely 15 in the afternoon. A few of the birds I have seen in the backyard are goldfinches, but they have a red cap; chaffinch, a red breasted small bird and a pheasant that gave a great call and then walked through the yard. There are a lot of feeders.
Breakfast at 9:00 with Charlie and Doreen who left at 10:00 with an offer to visit them in York. Hilary was going to Chichester so I drove in with her at 11:30. Picked up an adapter for my computer charger at a shop for only 3.50 pounds and then headed out on my own. Went down East Street to The Cross, the centre of the city (called a city because it has a cathedral). Right across from the cathedral was a post office where I picked up some stamps and mailed a letter of thanks to the Art in Memory folks. Went down to South Street onto the Visitor’s Centre where they were very helpful. After pointing me to a pub with a WIFI connection I headed to The Fountain with a promise to return for the City tour.
At the pub I ordered a pint of ale and a BLT for 8 pounds. This is nearly $16 back home. I hooked up my computer and cleared off my email. Lots from Carol which was great and I had her forward others from my Dinosaur email to me which worked fine. I updated my blog and added a few pictures from yesterday at work. Before I logged off, I tried to connect to my Dinosaur account and was able to read the ones Carol had forwarded to me. I couldn’t understand that but could only think that it had to do with the fact Carol had read them.
Back on the street, I wrote up my diary and ran into a fellow who took one look at my hat (Tilley) and said, “If you had a belt and a couple of guns to go with that hat, you be perfect.” I went on the city tour at 2:30 which was led by a lady who had just played the organ at a funeral this morning for someone who was from Canada and she recognized my accent by listening to people who had spoken at the service. At any event, the tour was excellent if not a little overwhelming. Chichester was invaded by the Romans about 43 AD and many of the buildings are on foundations dating from that time. There is an entire Roman wall surrounding the city and tomorrow I plan to walk that. The Cathedral is also spectacular and I expect to tour that as well so more on those topics tomorrow. There were only 4 people including me on the tour and we were a friendly group with lots of conversation. I have enough suggestions on places to go and things to do to last me for six months. We saw some amazing architecture including many flint buildings. This is a common stone found throughout the area and is actually a problem for agriculture. It is very hard and makes the ground difficult to work. There is a method of decorating buildings which is called Gilletting. It includes the use of splintered sharp pieces of flint being placed perpendicular to the building sticking out to present a fine design.
Tonight we are leaving at 6:3 to go with the Rotary Club of Midhurst for a supper social event. I am looking forward to meeting a new group of people. The event was an International Dinner hosted by the Midhurst Club. There were about 200 people in attendance and considering the club has 39 members that was very good. I came from the farthest distance. They raised about 3500 pounds which was all donated to a charity. I met many people there, both Rotarians and not and am looking forward to attending their Monday evening meeting this week. We arrived home about 11:30 after helping them clean up.

April 3, 2009

April 3, 2009
Today was my first day to start working at West Dean Gardens. The good thing about that was that after only working one day I get a weekend off. I had to be to work at 7:30 so arranged with Hilary, the owner of the B&B, to leave out some breakfast for me. I woke up at 6:20 and was dressed and downstairs by 6:30. To my surprise so was Hilary. I ate a cold breakfast and headed off to catch the bus.
There was a conflict in the schedule and it arrived at 7:23, 2.30 pounds for the trip, and dropped me at West Dean at 7:30. By the time I negotiated my way to the work shop where Jim Buckland was holding his daily meeting on updates and assignments it was 7:35 and I had to go in late. He was very good, reviewing all aspects and then ensuring people knew what to do for the day. Some are on longer term projects and some on day jobs. I was assigned to work with William, a 5 year employee on trimming and cleaning up the debris from the boxwood hedges. There are several of them inside the two walled gardens. I first cleaned up the debris from the fruit garden using a vacuum type of gas powered machine, somewhat the opposite of a leaf blower. It took a while to get the hang of it and it was a little awkward to get it in the right direction. Technology is great but it was a little easier using a push broom and a couple of devices that are handheld and act like claws making it easy to pick up fairly large piles of clippings. At 9:00 they stop for 15 minutes for a cup of tea. Nice group of folks and I am learning their names. Existing volunteers are arriving daily so I am also meeting them.
Back to work from 9:45 to noon. I went to the visitor’s centre and bought a sandwich to supplement the apple I had brought with me. Same work but now we have completed most of the boxwood and the public walks are very neat and clean. Most of the regular crew left work today at 3:00 but Will was working until 5 and I stayed until 3:30 to clean up and put some tools away. Then I caught the 4:15 bus back to Lavant. I was sore and tired especially in my arms. I had not done such hard steady work for years, but it felt good to be outside. Home to the B&B showered and lay down to sleep for an hour.
Met up with Charlie and Doreen Gurrey, the other guests and about 7:00 we went to the Earl of March for a pint and a lovely dinner. We stayed until about 9:45 when I hooked onto the WIFI and showed them my blog and we looked at Charlie’s website (axisweb.com/artist/charlesgurrey) You should see some of the very impressive work he has done. His memorial stone is on the April 2 blog.
At last I was able to see some email from Carol and the girls after signing up for a Gmail account. I’ll take my computer to Chichester tomorrow to see if I can access the Aliant webmail account. That’s all for today.

April 2.
I slept very well until 6 am. Had a very nice breakfast with Charlie and Doreen Gurrey the other guests at the B&B. He is one of the featured artists in the Art and Memory exhibition at West Dean College. They are from York. They offered to drive me to the Gardens as they were going there as well. I arrived at 10:00 and it was a little early for Jim Buckland, Head Gardener so I took a walk around the gardens. They are quite impressive with a two acre walled vegetable garden and a 4 acre walled fruit tree garden. There are lots of glass houses and cold frames. At 10:30 Jim and I reconnected and he introduced we to his wife Sarah Wain who takes charge of the volunteers. At the outset they are looking at a month and it will be up to me to impress them if I stay longer. Sarah was very interested why someone would want to come all the way from Nova Scotia to volunteer in a garden. I told her about my interest in gardens and the work we have done at various properties. I also want to learn more techniques that I can use back home. It is also like an adventure, moving to a whole new community and having to get along with people you have never met. They have a full time staff of 10 and a group of volunteers numbering 75 or so who come in for various shifts. They show up at 9:30 but I will be working from 7:30 to 4:00 and I start tomorrow. I will be bringing my own lunch and they have a place right in West Dean that may have a room for me. I will be checking tonight or tomorrow on that. The entire facility is very neat and organized which is a great indication. Also the Managers have a great working relationship with their staff and everyone seems happy with their work. I was given a book on West Dean Gardens, a commemorative issue with lots of good information.
At 11:30 I was off on my own and went through the gardens and arboretum viewing the Art in Memory exhibit, which spotlights 54 artists involved in stone or wood materials used in memorial stones. They were for the large part very interesting and tasteful and should be considered in place of some of the memorials I have seen recently. The fact that they are hand carved certain makes them special in my eyes. I saw a video showing how it is done and it certainly takes a steady hand and a creative mind. I met a few of the artists as I was walking through and one in particular, Ian Cotton spent about half an hour wandering and viewing with me. At 2:00 realizing I had missed lunch, I went to the visitors centre and bought a salad and a beer at a cost of 8.25 pounds. It was quite good and included a nice piece of English Cheddar. At 3:00 I attended the Opening ceremonies for the exhibit, compliments of the two organizers that I had met yesterday. They were very pleased to see me. Jim was astounded that I had gotten this invitation because it was a very exclusive affair. Thankfully, he and Sarah were there as well and we had a good talk. I took a small tour of the open rooms at the James Estate but Sarah has offered to give me the full tour while I am there. Back home with Charlie and Doreen and charged up my computer and will be going to the Earl of March Pub to connect to their WIFI and maybe have a pint. Isn't techno;ogy great. I created a gmail account because I couldn't sign into Aliant. Carol can forward my email from home and all is good. Not a bad pint either!

Wednesday April 1. No April Fool’s today. Actually it was more like serendipity. The plane left on time last night and the flight was wonderful. My seatmate was a guy from Nfld who worked on ships installing communication cables in the ocean. He was quite nice. I did sleep quite a bit after having one complimentary drink of rum and listened to classical music. It has a soothing effect. About 8am UK time, they served us a pretty good breakfast. We had to go into a holding pattern but landed at 9:45 only ten minutes late. I found out that carrying bags that weighed 50, 40 and 10 pounds respectively made you really think about what you pack. I developed a good system and was able to function pretty well even when I had to climb and descend lots of steps in the subway and train stations. I took a train from Heathrow to Paddington Station and changed to the tube for Victoria Station. From there I bought a train ticket from London to Chichester. The train ride was good and only took one hour and 32 minutes leaving precisely at 12:02 and arriving at 1:34. From there I wrestled the luggage over to the bus depot and caught the #60 going to Lavant. The bus driver never heard of my B&B West Faldie but said he could drop me off at the second stop. It took about 15 minutes. While on the bus I struck up a conversation with two older ladies (older than me) asking if they knew where my B&B was. They never heard of it and lived all their life in the area. I couldn't bring up the website but did know it was close to a pub so they suggested I get off at the second stop as well. So there I was on the doorstep of The Earl of March after negotiating my luggage across a fairly busy street. I asked the barman, Joe if he knew where my B&B was - he never heard of it and lived here all his life, Now I am sure that I have come to the wrong community. At any rate Joe and I struck up a conversation and I ordered a real ale - Fuller's London Pride and a ham and cheese sandwich. Both good choices. Joe was pretty interested in my volunteering at West Dean and went to get some promotional material. South Down which is a huge area encompassing West Dean and surrounds was just declared as a National Historic area two days ago. When he came back with the brochures he had one from West Faldie which turns out to be just around the corner - 2 minutes- Hallelujah! But you know I wasn't worried, somehow this place just felt right. The next thing that happened was that a lady came to the counter and asked if Joe could help her in contacting her B&B which was just across the street (not the same one as mine). She mentioned that she was curating an exhibit at West Dean starting tomorrow and I knew it was an Art and Memorial exhibit as I had seen it on the webpage. I told her I was volunteering at the West Dean Gardens and she was pleased that I knew about it. She and her partner provided me with an invitation to the private opening for tomorrow, a fairly exclusive event. Now isn't that amazing. Everything is falling into place. . Then when I went to ask detailed directions to the B&B from the bar, a patron said it would be too far to walk so he offered to drive me. It wasn't too far really but then I showed up and the place was beautiful. I'll try and upload some pictures I took to my blog. Well wouldn't you know it after unpacking, I have about 20 shirts, 20 pairs of socks and two pair of underwear. Good thing they are Tilley's. By the way the adaptor for the electricity doesn't work with three prong plugs such as the computer so I'll have to figure something out when the battery needs recharging. Hilary my B&B owner had an adaptor that is charging the computer. Now if I can connect to the wireless internet I'll be fine. I can catch a WIFI at the Earl of March but can’t get Aliant webmail to work. Joe provided me with a Welcome to the area pint. Life is good.