I must go down to the sea again!

I must go down to the sea again to the lonely sea and the sky

And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by .....

I didn't want to sail away like John Masefield in his poem Sea Fever but I did want to go to the seaside again before the school holidays when the beaches will be crowded with holiday makers.  So today having been to the weekly market at Dorchester and had some lunch it being only 2.30 we decided to catch a bus (bus passes at the ready) to nearby Weymouth some 8 miles distant.

Being a beautiful day the beach was already busy and the donkeys were ready and waiting for customers - I wonder if they know how many weeks of giving rides they have ahead of them now? 

and the Punch and Judy stall all set up.

I hadn't realised that this is one of the few remaining seaside Punch and Judy shows left and although I don't like them myself and was always terrified as a child by the cackling voice of Punch as he regularly beat up his poor wife it is sad that such things are becoming so rare. (click on the photo to read the info board).

We wandered round to the old harbour where we sat over a cup of tea in one of our favourite cafes before walking back to the beach and along the Front where we caught the bus back to Dorchester where we'd left the car and were soon home.

A lovely breath of sea air- I can wait till September to visit here again now!

Down the garden path - thoughts on gardening

A recent post by CJ on Above the River (a lovely blog do pop over and visit) started me thinking about gardening and how sometimes I love it and sometimes I feel overwhelmed by it all and can quite see the appeal of a flat with a balcony and a few pots of geraniums!  When we lived in France one of the things we thought we'd like was the huge garden which was mostly grass and lots and lots of trees and shrubs - a blank canvas we thought.  We soon discovered that retirement when suddenly there are fewer hours in each day or so it seems is not the time to take on such a mamoth task and unlike when we were younger and took on an allotment covered all over with blackberry bushes taller than we were we just didn't have the physical strength nor the energy and motivation we had back then and we were too busy trying to keep on top of it all to enjoying having so much space .  So one thing we wanted when we moved back to England was a smaller garden!  Be careful what you wish for eh?

We love the fact that our garden here is bordered by a wood both for privacy and peace - I love opening the back door early in the morning and smelling the fresh green smell and hearing the birds busy singing in the trees.  No need here to plant things to attract wildlife to our garden it's all there on the other side of the fence and the wildlife visits our garden too of course.  There are badgers, squirrels, birds of every kind including owls at night and woodpeckers of the green and black varieties along with jays, robins, blackbirds thrushes and so on.  There are bats to be seen on summer evenings and occasionally a frog in the garden too as well as all the insect life and creatures busy beneath the soil.  Now obviously having all that woodland just the other side of the fence means that it is impossible to keep that border neatly weeded (let's face it we find it impossible to keep any of the garden neatly weeded!) as we now of course have even less energy than we did in France so it is just as well that we are not keen on the sort of garden that has striped lawns with borders neatly clipped and tidy rows of flowers sitting in shaped beds.  I have come to the conclusion that working with Nature rather than trying to force our ideas upon it is the way to go and so our garden is untidy and rather unruly but if we are happy with it like this does it matter? We do only what is necessary to keep it from turning into a complete wilderness such as cutting the grass (we never "mow the lawn" since ours isn't lawn but a daisy strewn grass/moss/weed patch) cut the hedge, pull a few weeds and trim here and there now and again.  Then we sit and admire our handiwork over a cup of tea on the bench!

When I said working "with Nature" here is an example of what I meant.  Our garden in France had some lovely tall foxgloves and I brought some seeds with me when we moved.  I thought that they might look good in the woodland border - but they had other ideas and decided they didn't want to compete with all that other stuff so seeded themselves on the pebbled area where I have my rotary washing line.  So now I have rigged up a heavy stone and a piece of rope tied to the arm of the line to prevent it rotating as anything longer than undies or socks is liable to decapitate the foxgloves!

We have had a garden for over 40 years and yet I feel I know no more about proper gardening now than I did before and never plan what I want and then buy the appropriate plants to fit my plan but rather shove plants in wherever there is a space or somewhere that I can actually get the trowel into the soil- it's all so hit and miss but I love the fact that our garden is planted with so many things which have a story such as these beautiful sweet peas which came to me originally as tiny wee plants carefully wrapped in damp tissue in a plastic carton posted from a friend in Surrey and which this year seem to have shinned up the netting at a rate of knots and have already given me these lovely blooms  which have a divine perfume whilst her own are apparently still being coaxed up to the first rung of the netting!  Maybe my style of gardening works after all.

These weeny strawberries do manage to survive in amongst the undergrowth along the woodland boundary and came originally from the same friend this time as a little matchbook of sticks each with a seed which you stuck in the ground and hoped would grow - this one the only one that did!

A little indoor gardening here - my salad leaves growing happily in an old ice cream carton - they'd never survive in the garden I've tried but the slugs and snails devour them.  The red plant also reminds me of a friend - this time in France who gave me some of her plant and now I have 4 pots of them this is just one and in the original terracotta post and saucer she gave me and which also had a story behind how she came by it.  Life and especially gardening life is full of stories.

I have been reading a most fascinating book - A Slow Passion - which I can really recommend.  Do click on the link for a review of what it is all about.and do read the book if you get chance - you will never look at a snail in the same way again I can promise you!  The book was informative, interesting and humourous and although the author doesn't come up with any real answer to why the snails kept eating her plants she does like me decide that perhaps all is how it should be and so the garden doesn't change but her attitude does.  A really lovely book.

Many thanks for your kind comments on my purple hair - I might do it again some time but never fear the tattoo was only a joke! 

Bohemian or country mouse?

 Thank you all for your kind birthday wishes on my last post.  As I said I was feeling very positive and ready to start on my bonus years and to that end I decided that I would stop trying to be the person I felt everyone expected me to be and instead to do what I liked (as long as it didn't hurt anyone else) and be who I wanted to be and one of the things I did was to take a leaf out of a French friend's book and become a little Bohemian and to hell with what people think.

In my youth I had always shunned bright colours not wishing to be noticed and my colours were mainly subtle greys, olives and mustards.  I never had beige but I think I was a beige person if you know what I mean?!  I lacked the confidence to go for the modern 60's fashions and colours and I lived in Sherborne too which was very conservative with a small "c" as well as a capital one and several years behind London in fashions.

As I have got older I have gained in self confidence and gradually I have chosen more colourful wardrobe as the drab shades of my youth did me no favours at all and after my birthday I had mentioned to a friend that I was thinking of dyeing my hair as some kind of statement and she was all for it and egged me on to buy the purple dye.  So I did dye my hair - not all of it just a section and I was actually quite pleased with the new me.

 

The colour was meant to last for 6 - 8 shampoos but just a week later when I washed it for the second time this was all that was left of my "statement"!  Here I am my normal mousey colour with only the faintest tint of purple left!  I hadn't realised till I took these selfies just how much grey there now is in my mouse.  So what now?  Shall I go for broke and have a tattoo instead, get it permanently coloured at the hairdresser's or sink back into my country mouse personna? I'm joking about the tattoo as I would never have the courage to have that done - it took me two attempts to get my ears pierced and I am not keen on tattoos let alone on old ladies!

Blissful bluebell birthday!

 

On 5th May 1944 this little girl was born so in 2014 she reached her 70th birthday!  What a different world she sees in the twenty first century to that which surrounded her when this picture was taken!  At that time the UK was still at war, food was rationed and times were dangerous and difficult (and photos black and white!) but of course she knew nothing about all this all she cared about was having her mother's love and affection which she had in plenty.  How times have changed - perhaps more rapidly than in any previous 70 years it's hardly surprising that some of us can't keep up with it all!  I had intended to link this post with the last one and talk about all the changes I have seen in the past 70 years but then I thought you might prefer to join me in my birthday celebrations instead?

I chose to spend my birthday walking in the bluebell woods near Eype on the south coast near Bridport and to have lunch at the quirky little cafe at Down House Farm.  What a wonderful way to spend a special day - I can honestly say it was the best birthday ever!  Join me on my day out if you fancy a walk in beautiful countryside.

  

Having parked the car we set off on our walk through the village and then along the South West Coast Path - sometimes the sun came through and sometimes not as we made our way along the cliff tops - not getting too near the edge remembering what had happened to the coastline during the winter!

After about an hour we reached the cafe we were headed for - it was only just mid-day but we decided to eat whilst the going was good and the cafe garden not completely full of others out on the Bank Holiday in the fine weather.

Here is the cafe hidden amongst the plants.

It was hard to chose from the extensive menu...

...but we both chose the fish pie with salad and very tasty it was too eaten in the sunshine of the pretty courtyard.

After lunch we set off for the woods - I loved the way these pretty harts' tongue ferns curled at the tips as they unfurled as did the bracken fronds we noticed too looking for all the world like little sea horse tails I thought!

Our path led along here and we were thrilled with the bluebells we saw but another couple walking the opposite way said that they were even better further up the path.

And indeed they were!  I had never seen quite so many and all that indredible blue which is so difficult to capture and the faint perfume filling the air.  I got a bit carried away with the camera!

We walked for miles and always there were bluebells with an occasional glimpse of the sea a different blue.

They were of course our native bluebells not Spanish ones which are quite different and not this amazing colour see here for more on bluebells and how to tell the difference.

Some were flowering in the open as if they too wanted to enjoy the distant views.

And here and there a crab apple with its lovely blossom - in the distance you can see Golden Cap - not so golden in this picture as the sun wasn't shining on it at that moment - the highest point on the south coast of England.

Back into the woodland again and still the ground was carpeted with the bluebells.

Pure santosha - a walking meditation!

Until eventually we left the woods to come out onto a narrow road which we then followed noticing the number of different wildflowers growing in the verges.

 I noticed bluebells, cow parsley, buttercups, primroses, violets, red campion, purple bugle, yellow deadnettle, periwinkle,and celandines to name but a few.  Unless on foot one rarely notices just how many flowers there are alongside a road.  Somewhere however we must have taken a wrong turn and we came out onto a main road which we had to walk along for a while till we were able to get back onto a footpath - not to be recommended on a Bank Holiday Monday or at any other time I dare say!  Scary with no pathway and no verges either!

We reached home about 5.00 a little later than I had expected and I hastily set forth to ice the Half and Half cake I had made the previous day.  Half and Half cake since my favourite is coffee walnut sponge which Mr M doesn't care for so I had made up a sponge mixture and put half of the mix in one sponge tin and added walnuts to the remaining half to use in the second tin.  When cooked I cut each one in half to be sandwiched together with coffee icing for my walnut one and chocolate for Mr M's half - I'd never win a prize for my cake decorating skills and certainly not if done at great speed whilst waiting for the kettle to boil!

We enjoyed a well earned sit down with our cuppas and a slice of cake each - no candles but a little silver Happy Birthday plaque which I have had for years - no expense spared here when it comes to birthday celebrations!!!

Reaching 70 seemed to me to be more significant than any of the other "Big O" birthdays or even the 21st that had come before - not sure why.  It is definitely not the beginning of the end but bonus time which I intend to use to the full and it is with a positive feeling of new beginnings that I am moving onward and I thought how lucky I am to have reached my three score years and ten and be fit and able to walk for hours, to have my birthday in May the lovliest month of the year, to live in this wonderful part of the country with places like this if not actually on my doorstep then near at hand and to have Mr M who had his 70th years ago fit and well enough to be able to join me on my walks - lucky girl eh?!

Thank you all for your comments on my previous post - I am glad I am not the only one who finds computers a complete mystery!

Once upon a time

Photo from Google images

Once upon a time, not so long ago, an elderly lady decided to purchase a portable computer since she enjoyed keeping in touch with her friends by e-mail and writing her memoirs too and fancied a laptop which she could use in the kitchen, in the garden or the conservatory or elsewhere rather than being tied to the desktop computer which she had heretofore shared with the little old man who was her husband.  Now this old lady was never one to rush into things especially the purchase of something quite expensive so she thought about it a great deal before going to a shop and making enquiries.  Sadly the young man in the department which sold computers and such like spoke a language she didn't understand and she left the store saying to herself that she really didn't need such a thing and perhaps a new pen and some notepaper might be a better bet for someone like her.

Some months later however she was in another store and egged on by her husband she spoke with a delightful young woman who actually talked in a language which she could understand and although, as I said, not one to rush into buying anything she said that she'd give it some more thought and come back tomorrow - which she duly did.  However not only was the young lady not there that day but the computer which had been more or less decided upon was not now in stock at that branch although another branch not far away had several.  Once again the old lady wondered if this was a sign that she should put her credit card safely back in her purse and forget about having a computer of her own.

However encouraged by the old man they went to the other branch where they did indeed have several of the make and model she wanted but they would not be able to set it up for her which the young lady had told her could be done for an extra £30 and which she had wanted done thinking that it would be really "hers" if she didn't have to ask anyone to help her get started..  So yet again she said, "Let's forget the whole idea" whereupon the young man obviously scenting a lost sale dashed off and spoke to the technical manager who said that they could do it but just not straight away since their own computer system was "down" but since the old lady didn't need it straight away, and indeed didn't need it at all, she agreed that it could be sent to her when it was "done".  She naively thought that it would be all set up and ready to go just needing to be switched on and had indeed said this to the man who said that the virus checker and the Word program (plus a couple of others she'd never use - she did wonder why these programs couldn't be sold individually and not in packages as she knew she'd never use Excel but might have liked Publisher) would be installed and ready to use. The lady felt guilty when she left the shop having paid with her credit card for the computer she still wasn't sure she truly wanted especially when she saw the numerous homeless people begging on the pavements outside for how many hot meals would the cost of a computer buy even though she knew that she probably wouldn't have given that amount to the homeless anyway. 

Eventually the parcel arrived and she attempted to figure out how to use the machine.  Of course it didn't have the necessary program for downloading her photos even had she been able to figure out just where to plug in the camera!  Neither did it link to the wifi system at her home, it didn't have Firefox which she was used to but only Explorer which she wasn't.  The Word program was quite different to the one she was used to not to mention the integrated mouse being difficult to use.  Not being a very patient sort of person she became so frustrated and cross that she turned it off and shoved it in a cupboard in a fit of pique saying she wished she'd never bought the stupid thing, that life was too short to spend messing about with it and that she'd get rid of it unless the old man wanted it.

A few weeks passed and she often lay awake at night thinking about the computer and wondering why she had been silly enough to buy it being too stupid to understand the first thing about it and how to load all the necessary stuff on to it without help.  Why was it that it seemed everyone else knew all these things and why was technology of any kind such a mystery to her?  One day she came home earlier than expected from an outing to find the old man playing with her new toy and loading the required things onto to it but she still wasn't interested and didn't want anything more to do with it - how childish for an old lady to behave in such a way!

During these passing weeks the old lady felt as if she was under some kind of cloud and although the computer wasn't the only problem life was putting her way at this time she somehow blamed all the other things on it.  She was, let's face it, a bit afraid of the thing - it lurked in the cupboard like some menacing beast which might attack her should she open the cupboard door.  Of course this situation couldn't go on for ever for after all her motto for life was "waste not want not" and surely it was wasteful to have the thing not used especially as by now the credit card bill had been paid.  So one day when the sun was shining and she was feeling more positive about things she decided that she must take the bull by the horns - a very apt metaphor - and attempt to make use of it now she'd got it.

It would be nice to be able to say that she has now trained the beast but sadly that is not true and she still gets frustrated with it as she can't do some of the things she wanted to do and still wishes she hadn't bought it but at least now that the old man has given her a normal mouse to go with it she can use it to write although as yet she hasn't found out how to print what she writes!  And at least when the elderly couple want to watch a TV programme they have missed on i-player they can sit comfortably on the settee and watch it on the laptop rather than perched on stools in front of the desktop computer.

One good thing to come from all this was that feeling so fed up with technology altogether and thinking that she was obviously born in the wrong century and how much simpler (not easier for of course life was hard and is still hard at times for everyone) life would have been a hundred years ago she gave up using the desk top computer too or at least not as often did she check her e-mails or look at blogs or the internet and she realises just how much time - which she surely has much less of now that she is almost 70 - she was wasting on what had become an addiction or OCD  and how much better it is to spend time outside in the fresh air with Nature.  But sometimes she does miss all that writing and maybe one day she will be back posting if only she can find a balance and keep the time she spends on the thing to a more acceptable level and if she can actually tame the beast to work for instead of against her!

A walk in the park

Thank you so much for all your good wishes and kind comments on my last post - I had written it earlier and scheduled it for the end of the month as we were going away for a few days.  I did wonder if I would be able to summon up the energy for our little holiday which had been planned way back at the end of last year, when we got a very good deal on both hotel and train fares being so far in advance, but I am pleased to say that having had some good nights' sleep by the time Wednesday 26th arrived I was feeling a bit better and up for a change of scene - we went to London where we stayed in a hotel just off Kensington High Street. The following are some photos taken on our last day when we took the bus to Green Park and walked from there through to St James' Park.  How can I have reached my advanced age and never been there I wonder?  It was beautiful as you will see.

Fluttering and dancing in the sunshine were thousands of daffodils - you could quite forget you were in the middle of London.

 Across the lake we looked back towards Buckingham Palace which we had walked past from Green Park before reaching St James' Park.

 And in the other direction to what looked like fairyland but what was in fact Government offices!  Do click on any of my photos for a better view - this one in particular looks better enlarged.

Not only daffodils but plenty of crocuses too.

 At the end of the lake we came across this delightful little cottage - what a contrast to Buckingham Palace but I bet you can guess which I liked most and which one I'd rather live in?!  It was apparently built in 1841 as the home of the bird keeper for the park.  The design was intended to be a contrast to the architecture of the government buildings nearby - it certainly is!  It has been altered  several times and its use has also changed.  It was once a store for bicycles confiscated in the park but is now used as offices.

 What a lovely garden it had and I could just imagine it in the summer months - I want Mr M to make ours look like this - right now!!

We strolled on towards Horse Guards Parade past beds filled with polyanthus in all sorts of colours.

Eventually we ended up on Whitehall and Downing Street before making our way to Covent Garden where we had lunch in a little greasy spoon cafe since being a fine Saturday all the cafes and restaurants seemed very busy - the jacket potato I chose was good and Mr M wanted a full English breakfast also good and both washed down with a cup of builders' tea!  From there we retraced our steps back through St James Park and Green Park and got the bus back to the hotel to collect our cases and then made our way to Waterloo for the 6.20 train home.

I never tire of this view taken on our way to the station.  If you are interested in seeing other places we went and more of my photos I have put those on a separate page - see "London 2014" on the section headed Pages on my side bar.  Didn't want to bore you to death but wanted somewhere to put them for my own benefit to remind me of what we did and where we went!

I had really enjoyed our few days away in the city but I was happy to be going home as I always am after a holiday.  I am not a natural born traveler and even whilst enjoying being somewhere new I am usually counting the days till I will be home again!  Since my return I seem to have been fully occupied with this and that - why do the days all seem so much shorter now I am getting older? - and I haven't been round Blogland much so forgive me if I haven't visited you lately.  I hope to remedy that soon.