Tent pegging is a race, usually a team race or relay, where a rider and horse aim to knock down a peg with a stick, or pick up a peg on a lance, as fast as possible. This historically emerged from the attacks by Arabian Muslim cavaliers on enemy camps at dawn or late night, where they would gallop to their tents and pluck out the pegs of their tents and setting them alight, so that these would collapse on them, thus causing havoc and terror in the camp.
The RHS Chelsea Flower Show, formally known as the Great Spring Show, is a garden show held for five days in May by the Royal Horticultural Society in the grounds of the Royal Hospital Chelsea in Chelsea, London. Held at Chelsea since 1912, the show is attended by members of the British Royal Family. I always enjoy the South African contribution...
The Lizard is a peninsula in southern Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The most southerly point of the British mainland is near Lizard Point at SW 701115; Lizard village, also known as The Lizard, is the most southerly on the British mainland, and is in the civil parish of Landewednack, the most southerly parish. The Minack Theatre is an open-air theatre, constructed above a gully with a rocky granite outcrop jutting into the sea. The theatre is at Porthcurno, 4 miles from Land's End in Cornwall, England. The season runs each year from May to September.
Swanage is a coastal town and civil parish in the south east of Dorset, England. It is at the eastern end of the Isle of Purbeck and one of its two towns, approximately 6+1⁄4 miles south of Poole and 25 miles east of Dorchester. In the 2011 census the civil parish had a population of 9,601.
The New Forest is one of Europe's most important locations for nature and conservation. Its unique mix of landscapes including ancient woodlands, wetlands and bogs, and open heathlands means it is home to many rare species of plants and wildlife long since lost from the UK and Europe. The New Forest pony is one of the recognised mountain and moorland or native pony breeds of the British Isles. Height varies from around 12 to 14.2 hands; ponies of all heights should be strong, workmanlike, and of a good riding type. They are valued for hardiness, strength, and sure-footedness. Hurst Castle is an artillery fort established by Henry VIII on the Hurst Spit in Hampshire, England, between 1541 and 1544. It formed part of the king's Device Forts coastal protection programme against invasion from France and the Holy Roman Empire, and defended the western entrance to the Solent waterway.
Highclere Castle is a Grade I listed country house built in 1679 and largely renovated in the 1840s, with a park designed by Capability Brown in the 18th century. The 5,000-acre estate is in Highclere in Hampshire, England, about 5 miles south of Newbury, Berkshire, and 9.5 miles north of Andover, Hampshire. The first written records of the estate date back to 749 when an Anglo-Saxon King granted the estate to the Bishops of Winchester. Bishop William of Wykeham built a beautiful medieval palace and gardens in the park. Later on, the palace was rebuilt as Highclere Place House in 1679 when it was purchased by Sir Robert Sawyer, the direct ancestor of the current Earl of Carnarvon. In 1842, Sir Charles Barry, who also designed the Houses of Parliament, transformed Highclere House into the present day Highclere Castle. During the First World War, Highclere Castle was converted into a hospital for wounded soldiers run by the 5th Countess of Carnarvon. Throughout the Second World War, Highclere Castle was home to children evacuated from London. There are between 250 and 300 rooms in the Castle! There is an Egyptian Exhibition the 5th Earl of Carnarvon's discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun. It is the set of the famed Downton Abbey Series and we were fortunate enough to be hosted here for our annual school ball.
The BIG 40 - we had a great party at home celebrating with family and close friends!
