Historic Costumes and Heirloom Sweetpeas

During a visit to the Weald and Downland Open Air Museum at Singleton today we were lucky enough to stumble (almost literally in my case) over a small exhibition of historic clothing.

These have all been made by hand by the museum's needlework group.



I particularly like these outfits in the photo below, which would have been worn in the 14th Century.

Also of interest was the display of the changes in women's underwear and corsetry covering a timespan of approximately 250 years.

June and December found a rail of clothes to one side and had great fun trying on lots of items from the different centuries, creating some interesting looking combinations such as a Victorian smock with Tudor waistcoat and mediaeval peasant hat!

After this we went to explore Whitaker's Cottages, one of the girls favourite exhibits and on the way out through the garden we noticed these beautiful and unusual sweetpeas:

Travels with a Trailer Tent #1

After several years of deliberations and discussions about the easiest (and cheapest) way for us to travel around the UK to visit friends, events and places of interest our new-to-us Conway Trailer Tent arrived in early July this year (with a lot of help from two friends - thanks Alex and Jay).

Freshly water-proofed trailer tent drying in very hot sun.

There were a few hiccups along the path to our maiden voyage, the first being the fitting of a towbar to my car. I had not expected this to be an issue, however on researching companies and costs it turned out that they were considerably more expensive than I had budgeted for and there could be a wait of over 3 weeks for fitting.

So it was a relief when, in mid- July, I found a company that promised to have my car ready to tow by the end of the 2nd week in August. Unfortunately, the company they contracted to carry out the work appeared to have other ideas when they called me a week after the towbar arrived at my home. According to them, they would not be able to do anything before the end of August. This was very worrying as we were due to leave by the 18th for our holiday, so I immediately contacted the supplying company who, much to my relief, found another more reliable contractor and so it was that the job was done on the 10th August.

This gave me a week to practice towing, which was a new experience for me, as well as ensure that the electrics on the trailer and car were compatible (they were); buy and fit a numberplate for the trailer (easy, thankfully); buy and fit a bulb for one of the brake lights on the trailer (very easy, thanks to the help of a nice young man at Halfords) and get the car and trailer loaded up.

Just two days before we were due to leave our eldest daughter decided that she now wanted to come with us, which meant we had to put a call out for a tent to borrow as we had lent ours to a friend! Another friend (thanks, Sharon) very kindly helped out and, after rearranging the back of the car to fit the three girls, we were off!

Silent Sunset