Scorcio! A simple and extraordinarily accurate description of what it’s been like here over the past week. Scorcio!
I am afraid I must apologise once again – this week’s edition will be short. Again. We had a terrific three days in Dorchester & Dorset and now we are enjoying a cavalcade of visitors. Ben & Brex-Anna arrived yesterday for a couple of days – they’re off tomorrow to Dublin for a wedding. A very brief visit but we’ll take whatever we can get.
After we deliver them to Birmingham airport tomorrow, we’ll make our way to the railway station in Banbury to (a) drop Penny’s sister Judi for her journey to Gatwick (she files back to Toronto on Tuesday) and (b) collect my niece Karin and her two kids for a quick visit. They’re in the UK for a short spell and, for some reason, decided they would like to see us. Wacky! We’re taking them to Warwick Castle on Tuesday. Out of the many entertainment options I gave them, they opted for Warwick possibly because of the jousting and other activities they have going. The kids will love it.
I should just say, in passing, that it has been an absolute joy and pleasure to have Judi with us for these last three weeks. She’s a perfect houseguest – totally undemanding and willing to turn her hand to anything. She’d not been to visit since before the pandemic so it was lovely to see her and we hope it won’t be quite so long before we see her again.
Our trip to Dorchester & Dorset was excellent – it’s always great fun to get away with this group of friends. The weather was absolutely outstanding – hot, hot sunshine and absolutely baking temperatures. Dorchester was our base and we visited Weymouth to give the dogs an opportunity for a romp on the beach along with all the other canine beach-goers. Daisy and Maisy (Dave & Sue Walton’s golden retriever) had a ball, dashing around and splashing into the sea in pursuit of another dog, a ball, a seagull, whatever. We shuffled along and one or two even paddled (not me you will be relieved to know).
We also visited Corfe Castle which I was especially keen to see – another rotten old ruin. As it happens, there is a heritage steam railway which travels between Norden (just north of Corfe Castle) to Swanage which was good fun. We rode the train down one stop and alighted at Corfe Castle station. We had a lovely wander around and then boarded the next train to Swanage. The beach there, sadly, was not quite so dog-friendly – there was only one very narrow strip on which dogs were allowed but they still had fun and, of course, it served to cool them down on a very, very hot day.
On our last evening we had dinner at The Square Bistro in Poundbury. Highly rated but, sadly, our experience was somewhat less than excellent. Although the ambience and service was excellent, the meals were, on the whole, pretty average (and one of our party actually had to send her meal back to the kitchen – it was considerably underdone). Hey ho – win some, lose some.
Poundbury is “interesting.” It is a planned community on the edge of Dorchester on what was the Duchy of Cornwall land. Prince Charles (as he was then) was involved in the whole process and especially in choosing architects and urban planners. I’m sure as a planned community it’s very good but we were all pretty much underwhelmed by most of the buildings we saw during our brief sàn bù (散步) after dinner. A nice variety of styles but some “bizarre” amalgamations of styles which were just odd, as far as we were concerned. Nice idea, poor implementation.
On the way home we made a brief stop at a National Trust property roughly along the way – The Vyne – to give Daisy a chance to stretch her legs and to grab a quick bite and drink to sustain us the rest of the way home. Lovely property and I would have enjoyed touring the house but our schedule demanded that we press on.
And, that’s it for this week!
Meanwhile, keep breathing, keep happy, keep smiling, keep exercising, be good, be careful, and keep safe. And be gentle to wasps and bees – we need all the pollinators we can get.
Lots of love to you all,
Greg