Old Town Guided Walk 30th July & 1st August

Tomorrow afternoon (30th July) you can take advantage of experiencing the regular (in the summer) Tuesday afternoon Old Hastings Preservation Society (OHPS) free guided walk of Hastings Old Town (website), plus, for August, Thursday afternoons are included as well! If you wish to take part, and it is well worth it, meet up by the top of the West Hill Lift by 2.30 pm on both days (the lift is out of order at the moment, many thanks Nona, but the lower entrance to the lift is at the west end of George Street when it is working). An OHPS volunteer will guide your exploration of the historic buildings of the old town, walking the twittens and cat creeps, and tell you why celebrities of their day flocked to Hastings, and, indeed, many still do visit/move here!

The walk proceeds gently downhill, with some steps, and lasts about 2 hours. It is provided free of charge, although the OHPS would be grateful for any donations made, many thanks. Wearing comfortable walking shoes is sensible, of course, and the weather forecast is for a sunny day tomorrow, although with a strong chance of showers on Thursday, so please be prepared. It may well be worth taking a look again at the forecast closer to your choice of day as the weather has been incredibly volatile the last couple of weeks. Whatever, please do enjoy yourselves!

Postponed 27 July - Stade Saturday event

Apparently, the Margate Film Screening 'Stone & Sand' planned for this afternoon Stade Saturdays event (website) has been postponed until the 7th of September 2019 due to previously forecast bad weather, although the present forecast doesn't look so bad for the afternoon, oh well, have a nice day whatever you end up doing! 

Wild About Sussex Photography Competition

Filsham Reedbed

Sussex Wildlife Trust are holding a photography competition with the 12 winning entries to be used for their printed and online 2020 calendars (website). Photographs of the wildlife and landscapes of Sussex should be submitted by the deadline of the 15th of September 2019, up to 3 images may be submitted, should be in landscape format, and at least 4 MB in size; go to the website for further details.

Filsham Reedbed (in the photograph) is one of the largest reedbeds in Sussex and is a Sussex Wildlife Trust nature reserve that I regularly walk to, it being a lovely quiet refuge just to the west of Hastings in the Combe Haven valley. I am a member of the Sussex Wildlife Trust and, should you want to find out more about the trust and/or join, please go to their website.

Old Town Guided Walk

Tomorrow afternoon (23rd July) sees the regular Tuesday Old Hastings Preservation Society (OHPS) free guided walk of Hastings Old Town (website). If you wish to take part, and it is well worth it, meet up by the top of the West Hill Lift by 2.30 pm (lower entrance at the west end of George Street). An OHPS volunteer will guide your exploration of the historic buildings of the old town, walking the twittens and cat creeps, and tell you why celebrities of their day flocked to Hastings, and many still do!

The walk proceeds gently downhill, with some steps, and lasts about 2 hours. It is provided free of charge, although the OHPS would be grateful for any donations made, many thanks. Wearing comfortable walking shoes is sensible, of course, and the weather forecast is for a sunny day tomorrow, so please be prepared, particularly, if like me, you catch the sun quickly, so a hat and/or Factor 50 applied may well be appropriate, and do enjoy yourselves!

Stade Saturdays Returns...

Stade Saturdays (website) returns to the Stade Open Space this evening from 7.30 pm with music performed by Juliet Russel, Tijs Groen and Vocal Explosion, a truly eclectic mix of sound... Your's free to enjoy!

The Dawning of Hastings Contemporary

Well, Hastings Contemporary has now evolved from the Jerwood Gallery in Rock-a-Nore Road TN34 3DW, and is open Tuesday to Sunday, and Public Holiday Mondays, from 11.00 am to 5.00 pm; last admission 4.30 pm (website). On the first Tuesday of the month, the gallery is open until 8.00 pm, and is free to enter for everyone from 4.00 pm (website), otherwise entrance fees are £9 for adults, £8 for people 60 or over, £6 for concessions and groups of 10 or more, £4.50 for Art Fund members, £4 for Hastings residents, and free to Hastings Contemporary members. Hastings Contemporary is a registered charity celebrating "contemporary art and modern art on sea."

The current exhibitions, until 13th October 2019, are Tal R: Eventually All Museums will be Ships, Roy Oxlade: Shine Out Fair Sun, Roy Oxlade & David Bomberg, and Quentin Blake: The New Dress (website).

I wish the charity good luck with its rebirth! 

Old Town Guided Walk

Tomorrow afternoon (16th July) sees the continuation of the regular Tuesday Old Hastings Preservation Society (OHPS) free guided walk of Hastings Old Town (website). If you wish to take part, and it is well worth it, meet up by the top of the West Hill Lift (lower entrance at the west end of George Street) by 2.30pm. An OHPS volunteer will guide your exploration of the historic buildings of the old town, the twittens and the cat creeps, and tell you why 'celebrities of their day flocked to Hastings' and, indeed, why many still do!

The walk proceeds gently downhill, with some steps, and lasts about 2 hours. It is provided free of charge, though the OHPS would be grateful for any donations made, many thanks. Wearing comfortable walking shoes is sensible, and the weather forecast is for a sunny day, so please be prepared, particularly, if like me, you catch the sun quickly, hat and/or Factor 50 may well be appropriate, and enjoy yourselves!

S.O.S. Save Our Seas!

Further to my blog yesterday about Pirate Day today, a reminder to do our best to make this a Plastic Free Pirates day and to help to Save Our Seas by turning the tide on litter! #turningthetideonlitter #plasticfreepirates #saveourseas 

The Met Office (website) suggests maybe rain early doors, but drying out by the time of the events of the day, please enjoy yourselves me 'arties!

Hastings Pirate Day 14th July 2019

Tomorrow is not only Bastille Day, but it's Hastings Pirate Day too! People were already setting up for Pirate Day yesterday (eg see above image), so you may be sure that there will be much to see, do and enjoy. The organisers have had to raise more funds themselves as there are now fewer sponsors (crowdfunder), and although Hastings already has the world record of Pirates on a Beach at 14,231, an attempt will be made to gain the World Record for the largest human image of a boat, on Pelham Place Beach at 12.30 pm; requiring over 6,000 pirates to turn up please.  For more information about events go to the official facebook page.

Music, displays, refreshments, pirate market, Hastings will be awash with pirates too, another opportunity to dress up obviously. The RNLI Lifeboat Station down at The Stade will be providing refreshments and entertainment too from 11.00 am, and you can take a look at the new speedy lifeboat if you haven't already seen it.

Ever environmentally aware, there are tips for a 'Plastic Free Pirates' Day, primarily, please bring your own reusable drinking vessels, eg if you still have a reusable Fat Tuesday or Beer Festival plastic vessel, or bring a pewter tankard if, like me, you have one, because the police will be banning the use of glasses in pubs for the day.

Whatever, enjoy Pirates Day me 'arties, yo ho ho!!

Why No Weekend Blogs?

So why didn't I write any blogs over the weekend? Personal really, partly as I had no internet access excepting on my mobile, but mainly because my brother was given 2 free tickets for Wimbledon Tennis by a friend of his, many thanks to Dan's mate Richard. This was on Friday afternoon, and we saw a couple of very good matches on Court Number 2, but the heat got the better of us, no shade at all, plenty of Factor 50 and a cap to wear just about got me through to when we decided to pub it, cheers!

On Saturday we walked about 20 miles, in the morning to another friend of Dan's flat to water their plants whilst they were away. In the afternoon to Mortlake Cemetery to tidy up the family grave (Great-Grandmother and Great-Aunt, both Mum's side of the family, and ashes of Mum, Grandma and Grandad); sadly the miniature box hedge has died.

On Sunday we walked another 16-18 miles to Southwark and back to attend Henry V played at Shakespeare's Globe theatre (website). Another fine performance at this excellent venue, and still only £5 if you are happy to stand as a 'groundling' and we were right at the front, always guaranteed to get you involved with the cast!

So, Wimbledon tennis, and a decent Shakespeare play for just a fiver each over the weekend, and ales for just £1.79 a pint, can't be bad...

Old Town Guided Walk This Afternoon...

This afternoon sees the regular Tuesday Old Hastings Preservation Society (OHPS) free guided walk of Hastings Old Town (website). If you wish to take part, meet up by the top of the West Hill Lift (lower entrance at the west end of George Street) by 2.30pm. An OHPS volunteer will guide your exploration of the historic buildings of the old town, the twittens and cat creeps, and tell you why 'celebrities of their day flocked to Hastings' and many still do!

The walk proceeds gently downhill, with some steps, and lasts about 2 hours. It is provided free of charge, though the OHPS would be grateful for any donations made, many thanks. Wearing comfortable walking shoes is sensible, and the weather forecast is for a bright day, though it's a wee bit overcast right now, anyway, please be prepared, particularly, if like me, you catch the sun quickly, hat and/or Factor 50 could be appropriate, and enjoy yourselves!

East Sussex Parking Charges Consultation

East Sussex County Council are holding a consultation about parking charges (website), this closes on 11th August 2019, key changes proposed:

• standardising the price of residents’ permits across Lewes, Eastbourne and Hastings for the first time.
• linking the cost of residents’ permits to the CO2 emissions of pollution from the vehicle the permit covers, with owners of low emission vehicles paying less than those with higher emissions.
• we propose that the cost of visitor and day permits should be higher in all three scheme areas to encourage people to make more sustainable travel choices.
• increasing the cost of on-street Pay and Display charges to encourage people to use alternative sustainable forms of transport, which will help reduce congestion and improve air quality in our towns.
• targeted increases in on-street parking charges in a small number of locations where nearby off-street car park prices have higher charges than on-street prices. This will help encourage people to use car parks first and minimise the pressure on on-street parking in these locations.

Give your opinion at the council website, or should you require a paper copy email at parking.consultations@eastsussex.gov.uk or call 01323 464102.

The Jerwood Gallery is no more...

Long live the Hastings Contemporary! To reopen this weekend (ITV) following an anonymous donation of £250,000 and a grant from the Arts Council, good luck!

Hastings Street Cleaning & Bin Collection

From this week, the contract with Kier has come to an end, and street cleaning will be brought in-house by Hastings Borough Council, and household refuse and recycling will be dealt with by Biffa (website); good luck with that!