Rodmell and Southease

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LETTER OF THANKS: It was nice to get a letter of thanks from Maureen Ford and Jenny Brown, thanking me for assisting in making the Open Gardens on Sunday June 12 such a success. Â£2,200 was raised and will be contributed to much needed church funds. I'm sure they have thanked everyone, but we should also thank them for all the hard work they put into the organisation of the project, so thanks Maureen and Jenny. So many people have told me what a wonderful day they had in Rodmell and how impressed they were with the village and its wonderful gardens. Sadly, many people just whizz up and down the C7 but do not realise how beautiful all the villages along it are, as they don't take time to stop and walk around them. People that do are amazed at their beauty and history.

AWARD: It was nice to read in the Sussex Express that a Rodmell firm, ICS, a leading industrial roofing and cladding specialist, had success in the prestigious annual UK roofing Awards. Well done Lenny and Co. It’s good to see local firms doing well.

WINNER: In the same edition of the Sussex Express was a lovely photo of my neighbour’s daughter, Lea German, from Plumpton College with Golden Valley, winner of the Southdown Ram Class at the South of England Show.

LOOKALIKE: Yet again I had a lookalike person staying here. This one was the spitting image of Judith who lives at The Paddocks. That’s three lookalikes in two weeks – spooky.

GARDENERS: Are gardeners a law unto themselves? I’ve heard so many people say that gardeners are unreliable and let them down. I have had a gardener for several years who never lets me down and has become a good friend to Mike and me. He is of the old school and has principals. Before Rob, I had a Latvian lad, also reliable and a Latvian girl student nanny, who also loved gardening. Both were good and never let me down. In between I had a few time wasters whom I wouldn’t recommend to anyone.

WORKERS: A friend of mine has a sister who lives in Norfolk amidst the large agricultural areas and she says without the hard working immigrants the business would struggle because the English just don’t want to do the work and when they do they are unreliable. Businesses cannot grow and prosper under such circumstances and we all know such jobs are not well paid but they are jobs that can be done whilst looking for something better. This used to be the system in the past and I have done this.

THIS COLUMN: Sometimes people phone to say I have not mentioned something and I ask them to be patient because I’m sometimes a week behind.

BAND: Several people have asked me the name of the band who played at Open Gardens Day. It was the Brighton and Hove Wind Orchestra and Lorna, who lives in Rodmell, is in it. I think it’s the first time we’ve had a band at Open Gardens which has been going for 17 years now, but I may be wrong. I know we always have a band at Rodmell Summer show which his on the sports field on August 20.

FLOWERS: The gardens are a riot of colour now and the roses are amazing this year. My God-daughter sent me an amazing bouquet of flowers for my birthday recently, in shades of white, purple and blue and some of the roses were the most delicate shades of mauve and very unusual.

TRAFFIC JAM: A few weeks ago a friend whom I was having lunch with got caught up in traffic along the coast road from Seaford. The cause was a vehicle being pulled by water buffalo. I would have loved to have seen it. We get people with trotting ponies pulling things and the Harvey’s horses delivering the beer, but water buffalo are a one off I would think.

THE SEAL: The seal that comes up the Ouse every summer appears to be back and has been seen at Piddinghoe and Southease recently by dog walkers. It must mean that fish are coming up river in abundance.

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