A Day Out

The forecast was good but the morning had started with a thick mist. We planned to go out but had not decided on a destination. The Portsmouth Historic Dockyard was our first choice but when trying to book the tickets the earliest availability was tomorrow. That doesn't help us today! In the end, we decided on a trip to Nyman's at Handcross. 

We finished our breakfast and prepared Jasper's lunchtime feast. Hitting the road, we drove up through Fontwell, Amberley, Storrington, Cowfold, across Plummer's Plain and on to Handcross. As we left the A29 and dropped into the Arun Valley the sunshine gave way to thick mist and the temperature dropped from 7C to 2C. It remained misty for most of the drive. This did not bode well for Nyman's. As it happened, the mist lifted just as we approached and it didn't trouble us again.

As we entered the grounds we took the route that led us around the perimeter of the gardens. It was lined with wonderful specimen trees and looped along a ridge that afforded brilliant views across the slightly misty Weald.

We were in no hurry so we made the most of the views and made our way, at a leisurely pace, to the more formal gardens in front of the skeleton of the ruined house.

Skirting around the ruins, we made our way to the small restaurant. We sat and enjoyed a coffee and the Silver Vixen had a lovely bowl of soup. The Gorse Fox made the mistake of selecting something simple - a Ploughman's Lunch. He finds it hard to comprehend how it is possible to make something so simple taste so bad. The cheese was nice. The bread was nice. The apple was tolerable. Everything else: pickles, jam, and salad was deeply unpalatable.

We moved on, stopping to look at a mediocre set of paintings in an exhibition, then back to the ruins themselves.

The ruins always inspire the imagination, reminding the Gorse Fox of old Gothic novels or 1960s horror films. We wandered back and forth, looking at the ruins from every angle and photographing most of them.

Eventually, gothic-ed out, we made our way out through the walled gardens to the NT Shop, then on to the car and home.

We were home in under an hour and spent the remains of the afternoon in the Orangery, soaking up the warmth and finishing our books.