Hastings Battleaxe

Have had rather a theatrical week: 'The Perfect Murder' at the Devonshire Park in Eastbourne, 'London Assurance' at the Stables, Hastings and 'Carmen' at the White Rock.
     First, the Eastbourne outing. The play was adapted from the Peter James story by our old friend Shaun McKenna, and he kindly got us free tickets.
     We'd never been to the Devonshire Park before, and what a really beautiful old Victorian theatre it is. In fact, we had an excellent evening - had a meal at a little Italian restaurant nearby, Rosetta's, which again we'd never been to. Battleaxe would recommend this place -it was friendly and comfortable, the food was good, and reasonably priced.

     So what of the play?  You'd describe it as a comedy thriller. The theatre was full, and the play was very well received by the audience - lots of loud laughing. It is doing very well - this is its second tour this year, with a slightly less sparkling cast than the first round, w…

Ore Village is our nearest local shopping area. It's tucked away over the top of the hill and down again from genteel Clive Vale, where we live. Writing on the history of Ore, the Hastings Chronicle says 'For the better-off people of Hastings, the Ore Valley has often been out of sight and out of mind.' Well, it's never far from our minds.

     Last year at the WI we had a very good talk on the history of Ore from local historian Brian Lawes, husband of my friend and Committee colleague Shirley, so I can draw on material from that.
     Why is Ore called Ore? Probably because the area was a source of iron ore, and traces of Roman 'bloomeries' or smelting furnaces have been found. The name 'Red Lake' survives in the village, referring to a former mill-pond or a pool produced by later iron-workings, coloured red with dissolved iron oxide.
     Ore has always been a poor area. It housed the labourers who built the grand hotels and homes in the town during …

I am in the middle of writing a post about Ore Village, just up the road from us, but it is taking longer than I thought.  So here's a  few bonkers pictures from our wanderings round the Old Town, some random thoughts, and a very beautiful picture from Philosopher.
     So, where to start?  We were having coffee in our favourite Hanushka's this morning, sitting at the window, watching the world go by. By the way, they do a brilliant range of unusual fruit teas. I had quince and something-or-other this morning, and it was excellent.
     Opposite is a shop called  'The Glass Sculptress', that sells reproduction weapons and armour. Yes, I know. It is the first day of Hastings Week today (battle anniversaries, bonfires etc.) and all the retailers are getting their goods in tip-top order.  Here is the bloke arranging arrows on the chain mail display - spooky, no?

Then on to the Stade, and today we find it full of classic cars - scarcely a week passes here without some happ…

We returned from Cirali, Turkey at the beginning of the week to find Hastings basking in sunshine. According to the locals there was no rain in our absence, which means that apart from a few isolated drops, there has been no rain here since August Bank Holiday.
     I said before I went away that I was worried about our garden - well, thanks to our neighbour Angela, who must have been watering way beyond the call of neighbourly duty, everything was still alive.
     Our garden birds were very glad to see us - look at these young starlings enjoying the refilled bird bath.
     It was strange to emerge from Gatwick airport and not having to muffle up in fleeces, the air was as almost as warm as Turkey. In fact, over there we had a couple of cloudy days, some showers overnight, and it was cool enough for jumpers in the evenings. On our last night, we played the final game of the Great Scrabble Tournament sitting outside Shaun's place wearing not only fleeces, but wrapped in blankets.…