What a lovely Christmas time that was! I was so happy I never thought about the missing laptop until I wanted to play around with the photos I'd taken. Goodness gracious, who would have thunk it? A whole week without reading the online Mail, grumpy folks on football forums,
and spam merchants clogging up the web. Wonderful! Of course Mr Anonymous had left several thousand posts for me to remove but that has been done and the papers really don't need reading do they?
I started on the Monday in the hope of missing much of the weekend traffic, and bar a pair of women gossiping behind me forcing the aged Walkman out of the bag the train was quite enjoyable. Of course I had to change at the new interchange at Stratford and climb aboard the Jubilee line. How long since I endured an underground journey I fail to remember but little appears to have changed. Almost no English to be seen, which is not something to complain about, no smiling faces, no helpful gestures, no view out of the window after we left West Ham. Glancing around I noted the majority no longer read newspapers, now it is ipads, tablets and the like. My Walkman hid quietly at this point. At Waterloo the one real problem was the daft idea to buy a coffee before boarding. There I was suitcase in one hand, coffee in another, and no hand left to put the ticket through the gate! A smiling lady employee used her key, rushed through, smiled and let me wait outside! Grrrr! However I managed to balance the £2.05p worth of coffee (worth about 15p actually) on the far side of the gate, maneuver the ticket into the slot and barge through without spilling anything.
How lovely to stay in a clean house, warm, well fed, and not required to do anything but look out the very wide windows at the birdies squabbling among the feeders hanging in the garden. The Robins, Blackbirds, Finches and Tits fed happily undisturbed, bar the intrusion of a Buzzard which spent an hour or two hiding in the corner until we decided it was better chased off. Having found the garden empty on arrival, been fooled by a fluttering leaf to dive to the lawn the bird sneekily hid behind the garden shed and watched carefully through the windows at the feeders. You may find it difficult to believe how enjoyable the garden scene is but I assure you he and I spent many an hour, with her grumbling in the background, discussing the activities of the feathered folks. Of course it would have been better still if the sun had shown up a little more often, sulking behind clouds was it's major occupation most of the time.
Can you see the Buzzard?
Some folks have difficulty finding one family, I have two! How lucky to be able to find two families! Not only that I get on with them. I suppose I would not be there otherwise. Work and poverty stopped me getting down there for years and it was a week of restful tender loving care - for me at least! So much so that I spent hours watching the kind of TV I would normally abhor! More than this I found myself enjoying what was on offer and getting involved with the hero's problems. The feeble young Viking befriending the injured Dragon brought tears to my eyes. Quite why he and the girl hero had American accents and the older Vikings Scots accents escaped us. Do Americans not realise Vikings (who do not have horns on their helmets) come from Scandinavia Look it up on the map! So slouched on the couch, yet another mug of tea in hand, chocolates around, possibly home made fruitcake in hand, I passed the week amongst intelligent conversation and laughter. Made a change from talking to myself.
A trip to Poole Bay to be blown away and around the corner to watch the ferry and sit admiring the view of the sea. Gales of wind blowing folks hats from their heads while aboard the Swanage Ferry gave us a laugh. The view gave us reason to sit and stare for a while. There is something healing to the soul sitting and watching a view, either of the sea or the land. Some wrongly call this 'spiritual,' what they mean in 'tranquil.' We need deep inside to get away from the workshop or office, the sink or the routine and refresh the mind by sitting and just watching the almost still view. Try it today!
The view of 'Old Harry,' the rocks at the far end of the bay from high above on Canford Cliffs was well worth a look. 'Old Harry' is the solitary rock sticking up at the end of the land in the centre of the top picture. What a day to be there! This has been a favourite view of mine since the day I first came here in the late 70's. The beach below is clean sand, well controlled by the lifeguards, although only one dunderhead was actually swimming in the freezing water, and the long slow walk along the front is one I long to do once again, possibly next time.
The view in the other direction, to the left gave a clear view of the Isle of Wight. The chalk cliffs reflecting the sun. Wonderful! The flats behind us along Cliff Drive in Poole have this vista daily and I want it also. Please lend me half a million and I'll pay it back as soon as I can.
Now I am back in the smelly home with a bagfull of dirty laundry. Rejoice, rejoice...... On the other hand I have dozens of the other photos to post, can you wait....?
I hope your Christmas week was a good as mine!
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