Oh, The Weather Outside is Frightful.....

Yeah. So. Bit nippy. I've been at my sisters place kitten sitting and all was going swimmingly....until it suddenly went all winter.  The rest of the country has been languishing under harsh blizzard and icy conditions for the past week, but so far the very south has been immune...much to my disappointment.

Then last night the disgusting freezing murk, which had been the weather condition of choice for the last few days, was happily replaced by perfectly formed crystals of H2O falling....and most importantly settling...we all got a little excited, apart from the kittens that is who were utterly confused.

Like a small child at Christmas I was up at the crack of dawn...after politely declining the request to go out the night before to build a snowman in my pyjamas at 11pm, as suggested by a certain Floridian...*coughs* Kim *coughs*...up and out shortly after 8am I wandered through Old Portchester Village to the Castle.

How about this for some stereotypical winter scenes

Unfortunately the gates to Castle were shut, but I managed to walk all the way round the outer wall.

And the snow was virtually untouched since it was so early...after I'd wandered around...not so much...meh

Stopped by this lamp post to see if Mr. Tumnus was about, alas no

I did manage to get a pic of the church through the gate, that sky looks a little ominus

I found a little wooded glen which had yet to be explored in the snow which was frightfully festive indeed.

Yet still no characters from Narnia....starting to think that it's not a real place y'know ;-)

 And then there was the village itself, ancient thatched cottages with rickety roofs and fences...how very 'Ye Olde England'

Unfortunately the snow was too powdery to attempt a decent snowman, but I did find enough to thrash my sister in a snowball fight, her partner's sudden disappearance as the snowballs started flying shows what a big wimp she is.  I did however end up, rather suspiciously I might add, with a self imploding snowball which covered my face and most of my upper body with snow....and that stuff gets everywhere, including the underside of my glasses, in my mouth and up my nose....good times!


Shortly after we retreated back into the flat to thaw out and I'm currently relaxing under a warm blanket with A Muppets Christmas Carol on the telly....even contemplating cracking open the hot chocolate, on the whole a un-sucky snow day.

The Portchester Piss Artists

Visiting relatives is not usually top of my list of favourite things to do, that is unless of course it's my Dad's cousin Ron and his wife Pat.  Dad and Ron grew up almost as brothers and so when we do have a chance to catch up it means I get to hear all the shenanigans the pair got up to back in the day involving various tales of petty theft and the day they almost shot a farmer after mistaking him for a fox.  Also stories of my Grandad, as he died when I was very young, such as his time in Egypt during WWII and his surviving being on board 6 bombed ships during the retreat from Dunkirk.

Yep, Ron is a larger than life character in every sense of the word

And a little adverse weather will not interrupt the pair and their beer.

Tales of Portchester

Ack, I appear to have post kitten sitting blues.  Yeah I know that they did drive me slightly crazy, ignored my every command and left my legs in a dismal shape from all the scratching...though I could always make up a slightly cooler version of events to explain the scars 'The scar? Oh I just got that from a fighting off wild boar while trekking in the rain forests of Australia'.  Anyhoo, those balls of fluff are just so cute and I kinda miss having the mischievous little critters about.

While I was staying in Portchester, and before the weather turned to total kack, I did venture around the local area and to the nearby remains of the 3rd Century Castle.  Not much is left, the outer wall, the keep and the church are the main attractions, but it's right on the waterfront and the view from the top of the keep, up a ridiculously tight and twisty spiral staircase, is certainly worth a visit.  The ruins themselves also enable some playtime with my camera to create some atmospheric/ arty farty piccies:

The Castle is a leisurely 1 mile from my sisters flat and is popular with families and pinickers.

The surrounding moat a popular place for local kids to have a go at catching crabs (get your mind out of the gutter...sheesh)

The arty farty portion of my post.

Various folk have left their mark around the site over the years...found these two older scribbles towards the top of the keep.

The view from the top looking towards the ancient church and across the water to Portsmouth.

Down over the site of the ruins

Looking north toward Portsdown Hill and the South Downs

Chloe searches for treasure down the well...apparently all that was sighted was a few coppers, a dime and a chewing gum wrapper.

The local village, the oldest part of Portchester, is full of some wonderful rustic cottages and a pretty good pub.