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Lolling and Lulling
Jun. 10th, 2019 03:38 pmLast week my friend Haruka arrived in the UK for a six-week visit. Our house is too small to accommodate a guest for so long, having no spare bedroom, but of course my mother's is currently empty, so she is house-sitting for us, a satisfactory arrangement all round.
Anyway, I went to meet her at the station and stayed for a couple of days to see her settled in. We took the opportunity to visit Mottisfont Abbey, just up the road, where I'd not been for several years and which has got ridiculously expensive in the interim. That said, their famous rose garden was rather splendid, so I don't regret it. I always think of Mottisfont fondly, partly for toponymic reasons (there's a spring there, where moots were held in pre-Conquest days), and partly because it was the sort-of setting for my book, Death of a Ghost - although I moved it a bit nearer the Solent for the purpose. It was pretty busy, too, although everyone else was 70 plus. I guess that's what rich, retired people do - sit in the Mottisfont stableyard cafe and choose the next Prime Minister over cherry cake.
The next day was lovely, so we took the opportunity to go to the New Forest - where we saw a selection of stackable ponies of various sizes - before heading on to Wimborne Minster and the Cerne Abbas Exhibitionist. Also, Lulworth Cove and Durdle Door (and the rather steep walk between them), where amazingly I'd never been. It deserves its reputation...
It was a very nice break between marking and external examining, but now I'm back in Bristol, and just coming up for air to make this simple post, while outside the rain washes all away...
Anyway, I went to meet her at the station and stayed for a couple of days to see her settled in. We took the opportunity to visit Mottisfont Abbey, just up the road, where I'd not been for several years and which has got ridiculously expensive in the interim. That said, their famous rose garden was rather splendid, so I don't regret it. I always think of Mottisfont fondly, partly for toponymic reasons (there's a spring there, where moots were held in pre-Conquest days), and partly because it was the sort-of setting for my book, Death of a Ghost - although I moved it a bit nearer the Solent for the purpose. It was pretty busy, too, although everyone else was 70 plus. I guess that's what rich, retired people do - sit in the Mottisfont stableyard cafe and choose the next Prime Minister over cherry cake.
The next day was lovely, so we took the opportunity to go to the New Forest - where we saw a selection of stackable ponies of various sizes - before heading on to Wimborne Minster and the Cerne Abbas Exhibitionist. Also, Lulworth Cove and Durdle Door (and the rather steep walk between them), where amazingly I'd never been. It deserves its reputation...
It was a very nice break between marking and external examining, but now I'm back in Bristol, and just coming up for air to make this simple post, while outside the rain washes all away...