Saltmarsh at Rye

They seem to have done a good job restoring the salt marsh at Rye Harbour.  And making the whole thing very visitor friendly.  There’s good information boards, a big visitor centre with a huge glass front and clear walks around the area with a hide to look at all the birds that visit the marsh.  We’d planned a good walk but were looking so much at it all that we didn’t get very far.  It was dry AND sunny and the whole place glistened.  I didn’t quite find the key detail in a photo that would illuminate the whole but this is out towards the west and shows the area, which had got very drained that they have managed to revive by allowing the sea water back.  

Reading Derek Jarman’s Modern Nature from the late ‘80s it is clear that some things have gone in the right direction. 

We hied off via a quick look at the home of Vikram’s childhood guardian in Bexhill before travelling on through glorious countryside to lunch at Dill in Lewes.  An extraordinary restaurant where, despite advertised small plates they were really quite large but it was such a creative meal.  We ate so much and wished we’d had room for more.  Highlights were gnudi with nettle and ricotta and confit of potatoes with garlic and mayonnaise. Stuffed! 

Home to discover carnage from crows and deer - a pelagonium that sits outside the kitchen smashed to pieces.   And the deer have added a whole new set of plants to their menu including alchemilla mollis which I’m sad about as it’s a simple fresh filler plant that I can’t really protect as there is too much of it.  

I fed and watered and then we watched the final, brilliant Ripley.