Snake in a Lake

Penny is here for the weekend so we visited Petworth House for the first time. Wonderful gardens, excellent talk about the history of the house and its owners – the Percys and the Egremonts. The walk around the lake built by Capability Brown was very enjoyable, geese, ducks, coots, Fallow deer, damselflies, dragonflies and a snake swimming from shore, the first time I have seen this. Plenty of wild pasture with Common Spotted Orchids and butterflies – Small Coppers, Large Whites, Painted Ladies and a Peacock. We will return to see the renowned art collection. On our return Penny and Sue plunged into the icy (so they assured me) Channel waters.

Jacqui the Voice

We saw Jacqui Dankworth this evening at the Worthing Pavilion Theatre. Saw her at Chichester a few months back where she did Ella Fitzgerald to someone else's Frank Sinatra. We saw her Mum and Dad at the same theatre a few years ago, she is the image of her mother with a gifted voice to match. Her brother Alec was on bass. Most of her numbers were from her new album, could have done with some more standards. She has a natural stage presence, sadly the theatre was only partially filled, a symptom of the credit crunch. A lovely warm evening, during the interval we ate ice cream on the promenade looking out over low tide and the pier. An excellent evening, look forward to seeing Jacqui Dankworth again.

Ladies rule in Rustington

Took Audrey to Baird's Farm Shop and she mentioned that many butterflies were enjoying the flowers in the garden. Enough said, we collected my camera on the way back and found two Painted Ladies feeding and staying still for a change. The migration is in full flow along the south coast with reports coming in daily: http://www.sussex-butterflies.org.uk/sightings.html