I'm all booked up here for the May bank holiday weekend. Hastings has many live music events over the weekend, mostly connected with the Jack in the Green festival (programme below.) It will get pretty lively there! Bookings are coming in for the summer here at Nab Cottage, so if you are thinking about booking, but haven't yet, don't miss your chance!

A few festivals near here:

Hastings Comedy Festival 10th-16th June: https://www.hastingscomedyfestival.com/   This festival has been running for a few years now and has plenty of comedy shows in various venues around the town.

A pottery festival takes place at Glynde Place 10th-12th May: https://potfest.co.uk/visit/potfest-glynde-place/  Glynde Place is an Elizabethan Manor House in the village of Glynde which is open to the public on certain days in May and June (see their website for details: https://www.glynde.co.uk/) They also hold concerts. You can take the train from Bexhill to Glynde and then walk 10 minutes to Glynde Place (I've never done this so I can't vouch for the route. It looks straightforward, just one road - Lacys Hill - but I don't know if there is a pavement or how steep the hill is.)

Glyndebourne - A must for opera lovers since 1934: A purpose-built opera house in Sussex, just outside the village of Glynde. The setting is fantastic, everyone dresses up to the nines, elaborate picnics are partaken of in long intervals (or there are indoor eating options), and the opera is world class. Their summer season runs May to August but they also have other events through the year. Glyndebourne is just 45 minutes' drive from here. They do run a coach from Lewes station (4 miles from Glyndebourne) at a cost of £10 return,  and Bexhill is on a direct train line to Lewes (48 minutes) so you could enjoy some champagne with your opera picnic!   https://www.glyndebourne.com/

I am not good with plants, so when a plant not only survives but thrives, I am amazed and so grateful! This one was probably only about 5cm tall, and in a tiny pot, when I got given it. Now look at it! Yesterday I realised it was in desperate need of re-potting so I have used a much bigger pot, filled with my garden compost, and crossed my fingers that it wasn't too traumatised, and that it will continue to enjoy this position with dual-aspect windows facing south and west.

This is my avocado plant, grown from the stone which germinated in my compost heap. It enjoys this position as well, facing south but with the west window next to it, for afternoon and evening sun. I think it is about two years old now. If it survives to ten years old it could produce avocados!

Earth Day was created in 1970. A day for appreciating nature, and looking at ways to save our planet. This year's theme is Plastics. I try to avoid plastic as much as possible and to recycle everything that I can. I'm sure I could do more. It's alarming how much micro plastic we are all ingesting regularly, and sending down our drains when we wash our clothes.

Earth Day also teaches us about sharing resources, like food. A friend of mine helped set up a community orchard in Hastings, near to the Church in the wood, and Trees for Cities have planted trees in Bexhill, alongside our local environmental groups, in grass verges and on open land like Bexhill Down. I'm so lucky to be able to walk in Highwoods with Charlie. The tree photos below show the back and front of a tree which has split and rotted in the middle but is somehow still standing!

The garden at Nab Cottage is a lovely, peaceful place to witness nature. Just this evening I saw 6 starlings pulling worms out of the lawn. I guess that wasn't so peaceful for the worms! There are so many bees out at the moment, mostly bumble bees. The fruit trees are in blossom. Every bit of the garden needs work and I get out there when I can. Yesterday I cut back a whole lot of brambles from behind a shed which I hadn't got to for over a year. It looks like they had started invading the apple store so I will have to check the inside of that. It is satisfying getting little bits of the garden sorted but there is never enough time for everything I want to do.

I'm a tea drinker, but just a couple of cups a day. I've never liked the taste of coffee but I like the smell, and I don't mind coffee in cake (especially tiramisu!)

When I first started the B&B back in 2019 there was all this hooha about tea bags not composting because they were being sealed with plastic(!!), so I bought organic loose leaf English Breakfast tea from the French company Les Jardins de Gaia (because I love their teas, and the looseleaf tea came in a large, recyclable paper bag.) However, it was very expensive to get it sent to the UK, and it was fiddly for the guests to use the loose tea as it involved an infuser tea pot. I was very relieved when the company Clipper announced that they would stop using plastic to seal their tea bags. I now buy their tea bags for the guests, as they sell them in bulk, and I also support the small company Hampstead who sell organic tea bags. I provide their Indian Chai, and Rosehip & Hibiscus, on the guest beverage tray, alongside Clipper's  English Breakfast, Decaf, Earl Grey, Peppermint, and Green tea.

Personally, I stuck with loose leaf organic tea, instead of the bags, and I buy my tea from Steenbergs. It is their organic English Breakfast tea that guests get at breakfast. I also buy Hampstead organic loose leaf Earl Grey for myself. My special treat tea is organic looseleaf Lapsang Souchong, which I buy when I go to France as it's not sold over here very much now.

Hastings holds the annual Jack in the Green Festival over the May Day (3rd-6th) weekend. This is a joyful event with Morris dancing, music and fantastical costumes. See the programme below, and find out more here.

There is also the Charleston Festival, held annually in May (16th-27th this year) at Vanessa & Clive Bell's house at the foot of the South Downs. Vanessa was Virginia Woolf's sister, and Charleston farmhouse was a meeting place for artistic, literary and political figures of the time. Berwick Church (St Michael & All Angels church)  nearby has frescoes painted by Vanessa and her lover Duncan Grant, who also lived at Charleston.

Bexhill Horse & Dog show is on Monday 27th May, 9am-5pm at the Polegrove.

My internet has been patchy the last couple of days, and its still slow today, so I haven't been able to write my blog! Yesterday was National Banana Day and I do use a lot of bananas as they have a lower carbon footprint than other fruits because they come here by boat. In the summer I rely heavily on the fruit from my garden: Apples, pears, Victoria plums and greengage plums. Occasionally there are cherries, if the birds leave me any, and  the same with the currants! Unfortunately last year's apple harvest was poor and I couldn't store any of the apples so I didn't have any for the early part of this year. Let's hope this year is better. Getting back to bananas, they might top your porridge, accompany your pancakes, or end up in a dessert. Are you a fan? I love a banana milkshake (banana, soya milk and swedish glace vanilla ice cream blended up.)

Getting great reviews, especially like the one below which was written in the guest book today without me even mentioning that there was a guest book to write in, means so much to a business like mine. It makes all the hard, exhausting work worth it, because at the end of the day I enjoy providing a relaxing, eco-conscious stay for guests and cooking them food that's made with love and organic ingredients. I look forward to welcoming many more guests to my 'little gem' of a cottage.

The bluebells are out in force now. It's always such a joy to see them and smell them. This photo was taken in Highwoods on our walk this morning.

My guests decided they wanted dinner tonight so I've made the dessert (banana cheesecake) for them, and some olive bread for myself. Now I get a little writing time before having my dinner and then making the guests' main dish and the starter.

This year I've been feeling very creative, and wanting to share my writing with a wider audience. I'm entering competitions and sending work in to a wonderful literary magazine I began subscribing to earlier this year. The first copy I got was their 100th edition, which felt very special. I'm finding it very freeing, writing in my 40s. When I was in my 20s and 30s I wasn't brave enough to enter competitions or share my work with many people, but now I am happy to do that. I've got three potential competitions to enter by 30th April, if I get the time to write. I'm also working on a challenge piece for the monthly writing group I go to.

My garden is sadly neglected but hopefully I'll get a few hours out there over the next few weeks, tiding up the flower beds and cutting back brambles.

Getting ready for new guests always involves cooking. I make chocolate chip cookies for the guests' beverage tray, and bread, tofu patties and pancake batter for the breakfast. Tonight's guests aren't having dinner, and are arriving later this evening, so I had time to mow the lawn this afternoon. The other photo shows the uneven, very rustic, covered seating area I created a few years ago by moving two sheds to the other end of the garden, and adding a few odd, broken paving slabs to square it off, before my carpenter, Paul, put together the canopy for me. When I have the money I will get the patio levelled and professionally paved. It has lights around it which change colour and make it look festive.