Crazy Crazy Golf!

 

Yesterday saw the inaugural Ted's Planet Hastings Seasonal Sprouting competition at the Adventure Golf Course, and I was coaxed into taking part, indeed, I feel like I am being 'groomed' into joining Planet Hastings! It was a beautiful morning, just a tad cool, and the competition involved 2 rounds, one over the Pirate course, and a 'crazy crazy' round over the conventional Crazy Golf course.

Dave G won overall, and a good time was had, and with a few bevvies afterwards. I came in the bottom half as expected; see the Planet Hastings facebook page for full results. And well organised Ted, many thanks!

Seafront and 2 Award Winning Parks Stroll...

So, a 90 minute stroll was enjoyed this morning, from the town centre, along the seafront, up through St Leonard's Gardens, over to Alexandra Park via West/Tower Road, and back down through the park to the town centre, a mostly peaceful walk, but more of that later. Here (above photograph), below Warrior Square, is the pleasingly successful Goat Ledge Cafe; winter opening 9.00am to 4.00pm (website).

Entering award-winning (blog), and excellently designed, St Leonard's Gardens (blog) from behind the Royal Victoria Hotel (above), and I found myself in an oasis of peace and quiet, indeed. Walking up...

... and you soon find the pond, literally swimming with wildlife, and it's family of moorhens make their presence felt, and one sad looking herring gull too!

At the North Lodge at the top of Maze Hill, and above St Leonard's Gardens, is the first of 2 closely assigned blue plaques, this one for author Henry Rider Haggard, who lived here from 1918 to 1923.

A little further up in Upper Maze Hill is where the father of computer science and artificial intelligence, and famous for breaking German codes during World War II, Alan Turing lived whilst at school from 1922 to 1926. In July 2019 the Governor of the Bank of England announced that Turing's face will be on the new polymer £50 note, expected to enter circulation in 2021 (Bank of England website). 

Entering Alexandra Park

I carried on up Upper Maze Hill, then crossed over via Tower Road West/Tower Road, where my peace was disrupted for a couple of minutes when 3 police cars shot up Tower Road West from Tower Road, presumably previously from Bohemia Road, 2 of them with sirens blaring (approximately 09.30 hours).

Anyway, peace returned, and I carried on to the far eastern corner of Alexandra Park (blog), another another excellently designed and award winning park in Hastings, and gradually walked back down to the town centre.

And Alexandra Park has its own fair share of wildlife, and it's own families of moorhens too, for example in the pond above. The walk was a joy!

dRMM Architects New Year Honour

Co-founder of dRMM, the architects who designed the Hastings Pier rebuild and provided a free design (voluntarily) for the Friends of Hastings Pier proposed second phase of rebuilding the pier (blog), Sadie Morgan, is to receive an OBE in recognition of "services to architecture" (Building Design website); congratulations to her!

And what has the owner of Hastings Pier (blog) added architecturally since he was suspiciously sold the pier for just £60,000 over 18 months ago? As the photograph I took yesterday (above) shows, a few empty sheds have recently been added, although they are larger than the already existing empty sheds. What a waste of 18 months... 

Seasons Greetings!

Yet another year has passed, and I wish to share best wishes and peace and goodwill to all, and particularly thanking those helping to keep us safe and healthy; in Britain that is those working in/for the NHS, RNLI, Coastguard, Ambulance, Police, Fire & Rescue, and for Snowflake (blog) and any Emergency and Essential Services not already mentioned, and not forgetting other customer services!

Much Respect.

Hastings Library Closures over Holiday Season

All libraries in Hastings and East Sussex will be closed from Tuesday the 24th of December to Thursday the 26th of December inclusive, and on Tuesday the 31st of December and Wednesday the 1st of January 2020 (East Sussex Council website).