{"id":197,"date":"2013-02-15T18:05:29","date_gmt":"2013-02-15T18:05:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesumpnersagain.wordpress.com\/?p=197"},"modified":"2013-02-15T18:05:29","modified_gmt":"2013-02-15T18:05:29","slug":"back-in-business-steep-1-3-february-2013","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesumpnersagain.com\/?p=197","title":{"rendered":"Back in business – Steep 1 to 3 February 2013"},"content":{"rendered":"

Finally back in our home from home! Paul’s back operation was a success and whilst still not 100% it was good enough for a getaway. We chose somewhere close to home because it was a part of\u00a0Hampshire\u00a0that we\u00a0usually\u00a0drive through and we wanted to have a bit of a mooch round. The\u00a0camp-site, Ridge Farm<\/a>\u00a0was a CL and thus had only very basic facilities. It wasn’t that easy to find \u00a0– given that our SatNav has a nasty habit of taking us down narrow lanes – \u00a0but we made it after one false start and quick call to the very helpful owner. To be honest, when we arrived we nearly drove straight past, mistaking it for a car park, but it was actually a very\u00a0level\u00a0site with amazing views. It was\u00a0also\u00a0very quiet indeed aside from one or two very vocal owls, which I love. The first picture below is when we arrived and the next is the next morning, a beautiful crisp sunny day. Perfect. But I’m getting ahead of myself.<\/p>\n

\"P1010331\"<\/a> \"P1010330\"<\/a><\/p>\n

First came the obligatory trip to Waitrose (after we had set up) \u00a0which was very handy for this site,\u00a0being\u00a0in Petersfield, which was no more than a mile and a\u00a0half\u00a0away. \u00a0It was a chilly night but we were warm as toast.<\/p>\n

The next\u00a0morning\u00a0revealed\u00a0a flock of very pregnant-looking sheep in\u00a0the\u00a0adjacent field and we had splendid views across to Butser Hill.<\/p>\n

\"P1010335\"<\/a> \"P1010333\"<\/a> \"P1010332\"<\/a> \"P1010334\"<\/a><\/p>\n

See what I mean about the car park?<\/p>\n

We had our usual slow start and discussion about exactly where we were going to go and eventually set off at around 11-ish. Our first stop was Selborne<\/a> –\u00a0famous\u00a0for being the location of \u00a0naturalist\u00a0Gilbert White’s<\/a> home – The Wakes<\/a>. It is also\u00a0home\u00a0to the Oates<\/a>\u00a0Collection, which is all about Captain (I am just going outside and may be some time)\u00a0Oates and\u00a0his\u00a0brother. Sadly, they do not welcome visitors with dogs so we pressed on. The countryside was beautiful , with signs of spring starting to emerge everywhere.<\/p>\n

Or next stop was Alton<\/a>, a historic market town in North East Hampshire. We had a stroll round the town,\u00a0which\u00a0has a nice collection of upmarket charity shops (no purchases!). We stopped for a very nice cup of non-chain coffee at Bottega dei Sapori<\/a>. Nice to see somewhere like this thriving against the onslaught of Costa et al.<\/p>\n

Our final visit of the day was to Chawton – home to\u00a0another\u00a0very famous resident, Jane Austen<\/a>. We had a tasty lunch at the pub opposite her house, the Greyfriar<\/a>, which was dog friendly. Unlike the Jane Austen museum.<\/p>\n

\"JANE<\/a><\/p>\n

After lunch\u00a0we went for a walk down by the river. Very squelchy underfoot but Archie had a great time. We had a quick look at Chawton House, <\/a>which\u00a0belonged\u00a0to Jane’s brother. It’s\u00a0beautiful\u00a0as you can see below.<\/p>\n

\"P1010337\"<\/a><\/p>\n

It was very busy in Chawton – partly\u00a0because\u00a0it was a nice day and partly\u00a0because\u00a02013 is the 200th anniversary of the writing of Pride and Prejudice. \u00a0“It<\/em>\u00a0is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife” <\/i>Nothing changes then, eh?<\/p>\n

We made our way home to Steep and read and snoozed until tea-time. We walked the dog up to the top of the drive to drop in the money for our stay, and then\u00a0spent\u00a0the\u00a0evening\u00a0watching a couple of episodes of the first series of\u00a0\u00a0“Being Human”,\u00a0which\u00a0we’ve decide we like.<\/p>\n

On the way home:<\/p>\n

\"P1010338\"<\/a><\/p>\n

After another peaceful and chilly night, we made the most of the fact that the owner was very relaxed about\u00a0departure\u00a0time and read and relaxed until mid- afternoon. Bliss. Roll on the next\u00a0trip, which is to Bransgore in the New Forest in March.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Finally back in our home from home! Paul’s back operation was a success and whilst still not 100% it was good enough for a getaway. We chose somewhere close to home because it was a part of\u00a0Hampshire\u00a0that we\u00a0usually\u00a0drive through and we wanted to have a bit of a mooch round. The\u00a0camp-site, Ridge Farm\u00a0was a CL […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-197","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesumpnersagain.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesumpnersagain.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesumpnersagain.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesumpnersagain.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesumpnersagain.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=197"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thesumpnersagain.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesumpnersagain.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesumpnersagain.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesumpnersagain.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}