When people think of England they often think of London and, well, we’ve all heard about the English weather. But despite what the majority think, it’s not actually always like that.
I have officially been back in England for 71 days (Yes I actually just googled that), and although it already feels much longer, only five of those days have had rain. Don’t get me wrong about 1/3 of them have been covered with grey clouds, but when the sun does actually grace us with an appearance, you don’t care about the crappy days previous, because sun covered England is a little bit magical.
During my time as an expat I noticed that people in Thailand tend to hide from the sun, (for many reasons) which is understandable when it’s about 20ºc hotter there, but in England it’s embraced. And whilst that’s probably due to the fact that English people can never take sunshine for granted because it’s appearances are kind of rare… England makes the most of the sunshine.
Beach trips, countryside walks, picnics, random road trips, ice-cream vans, games of rounders and the nations favourite… Barbecues!
S and I found ourselves with no plans on such a day, but couldn’t decide where to go, so instead we got in the car and drove. We ended up at a spot called the “Trundle” which up until writing this post, I didn’t actually realise was an English heritage site (oops). I just remember it as a childhood memory, as this is where Mumma Toothbrush would bring us to walk the dogs. But although this is a place many frequent to walk their dogs, most people go to gaze out at the open spaces.
I mean just look at those views.
What many people don’t know is that what we call “The Trundle” is actually known as “St Roche’s Hill hillfort”, and the hill that overlooks Goodwood hosts the remains of an Iron Age hillfort, which in turn, lays upon some very rare Neolithic enclosures. The hillfort boundaries have been well preserved since it was built in the middle of the 1st millennium BC, but within those boundaries are the slight remains of a Neolithic causewayed enclosure c. 6,000 years old. There’s even two enclosed modern compounds, which are all that remains of an early warning radar system built during the Second World War.
Unfortunately, I don’t have pictures of any of this, (will update this post when I go back) as S and I pulled up a patch of grass and spent hours just talking in the sunshine, whilst I tried making a daisy chain bracelet.
Which I could not bloody tie!
So in the end I gave up and got an ice-cream.
Because that’s what grown ups do.
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