Phew! - what a scorcher

The secret steps with graffiti artist Ben Eine's work

The weather has been beautiful all week and we've been loving eating out on our deck and doing a bit of gardening. We've also managed to get a few jobs done around the house but the glazier who is supposed to be fixing the window remains elusive still. Flo had two 'settling-in' visits at her new nursery school this week and will spend the whole morning there on Monday before starting 3 days from next week. She was surprisingly nervous and quite tearful every time she thought I'd gone (I hadn't) but we're hoping she'll be fine for her first whole day on Thursday. Our lovely new couch arrived on Thursday and the armchair is on its way. We are continuing to feel so settled and happy here, particularly since discovering some new bits of Hastings. We met Maria on Tuesday for walk up on the hills of Hastings Country Park, overlooking the sea. There are walking trails for miles through woods and along the cliff and stopping in at the Ranger's Hut I picked up maps of several other lovely woodlands and wild parks with nature walks. On Thursday I took the girls down to the White Rock Theatre to see a live show of Peppa Pig, one of their favourite TV shows. Huge puppets of the characters were operated by black-clad puppeteers and we had a good laugh and a singalong. Couldn't help noticing the leaflet for this year's panto - Cinderella starring Little Jummy Osmond - just try and keep us away. I was thrilled to discover that, via a hidden flight of steps and a laneway, we can walk to the seafront in only 10 minutes, cutting 5-10 minutes off  the other route we used to take. In doing so we stumbled upon the Trinity Triangle, three intersecting streets in Hastings with great little cafes, galleries, a knitting shop, music shop, the library and a designer dog shop, selling everything from high-end dog collars to dog beds and bowls, the latter being the sort of place we could imagine in Double Bay, but not Hastings. Also nearby, along the seafront, is a shop devoted to raising money to save the derelict, condemned pier. It was originally a gentlemen's clothes shop and is still fitted out with glass-fronted drawers and counters and sells fantastic 1930s' tourism posters for Hastings.

Hastings pier

Beachcombing

We had dinner at the Lary Spudkins last night, with Maria cooking the most fantastic cidered pork. Even though their house is walking distance from us, Rob drove as my leg is still very painful. I'm very disappointed that I might have to withdraw from the 10K run in Brighton in 4 weeks as I haven't been able to walk very far all week, never mind run. This morning, after Rob had called an old family friend in Christchurch, New Zealand, to check it was still there after yesterday's earthquake, we strolled, slowly, down to Trinity Triangle for breakfast. We stopped in a nice cafe for breakfast with passable coffee and good food (but terrible service and loos) before walking down to the beach to search for interesting stones. It was really lovely splitting up and heading off along the beach poking about for things. Someone was even swimming, which to us pansy antipodeans seemed very bold. Tomorrow we're having the first of what I hope will be weekly Sunday lunches, entertaining friends from London we haven't seen since last Summer.