We were able to hire Mounts View on the Speke’s Manor estate in East Sussex where five years ago we rented The Oast House for Lisa’s 70th.
Lisa and Tim were able to arrive and settle in on Thursday, 2nd April before the Easter weekend. Jonathan and family joined us on Good Friday afternoon and Diana arrived in the early evening.

Saturday was spent enjoying the facilities, a little tennis for example, around Speke’s manor and Diana collected Louis from Lewes train station in time for supper. A large jigsaw puzzle emabarked on early in our stay was already showing significant progress from the team of ‘workers’ employed:

On Easter Sunday, Lisa’s actual birthday, we drove over to Herstmonceaux Castle and enjoyed a walk around the gardens before a light lunch in the excellent cafe in front of the house.


In the afternoon we moved up to the Royal Greenwich Observatory at Herstmonceux and enjoyed several fascinating hours there including demonstrations of reflecting and refracting telescopes.

One of the attractions was a short talk on materials with lively demonstrations. Here is Lucas, Louis and Jonathan acting as unpaid assistants
So it was back to Mounts View, birthday cake and more challenging games

On the Monday Tim and Lisa were left to enjoy the surroundings on a fine sunny bank holiday:
They motored happily and gently home on Tuesday along the A272 with a lunchtime stop at Uppark House
