dealers wanted
henley-on-thames is a posh upper class town in the south of england. i was therefore surpised to see that a new shop has opened selling opium to the masses (or equivalent).
brown sauce
brown sauce is a strange thing. tomato ketchup is sometimes called red sauce, because it is red. and it tastes of tomato which are also red.
but what is brown sauce meant to be ? it’s not described as anything other than brown. sometime’s it’s called daddy’s sauce, but that doesn’t help much.
i put brown sauce in the same culinary hole as marmite. yuck yuck yuck.
please admire the 70s lighting on this photo. it was a happy accident (like most of the 70s)
tree trap
here is a funny thing. it’s a tree trap. i’ve read about them, but never seen one in operation before so i sent esther and jane in to demonstrate.
a carnivore tree bends itself flat and reveals its roots. foolish animals (as demonstrated here) then step in to the giant hole left behind. when the moment is right, the tree snaps itself back up vertical thus crushing its prey.
luckily this was a slow one or had already just eaten. either way, nothing happened.
moss
there’s a lovely nature reserve near Henley On Thames called the Warburg Reserve. There is a lot of moss there at the moment. Some of it is growing up smaller plants making little moss-trees which look like mini rainforests.
minors and canines
i’m happy to lump the two species together.
i have included a Venn diagram here for your convenience:
corfe castle
as seen by jane and i last year. it wasn’t as foggy then.
bizarre toilet
if you go to lulworth cove and go to the gentlemen’s toilets you may be lucky enough to see this bizarre thing. it’s the pattern on the wall by the sinks. it does very strange things to your eyes when you see it full size (it went from floor to ceiling if i remember correctly)
no photography
someone had scraped the ‘no’ off but i think this still applies.
jurassic gloves
here are a couple of beautiful glove pictures. we were so lucky find them set amongst such beautiful scenary. jane took the shot on the left and the challenge was on for me to find a glove to compete with this shot.
i did find a glove (two actually) but her shot was better. everyone loves a good lost glove photo duel.
jurassic coast
click for big versions
car on top of the world
i love this picture. it was at the highest point of our cliff walk. and it was just there, all silver and unmarked in the middle of field. it contained a man eating a sandwich.
it’s obviously a space ship.
durdle door to lulworth cove
after the beach was the walk back (with me carrying kezia this time).
i just hadn’t got a clue about the Dorset coast before this holiday. It dates back to Jurassic times (it’s known as the Jurassic Coast) and dinosaurs roamed this very place millions of years ago. It’s also been the home to neolithic people and romans and everyone since. i just couldn’t get my head round the scale of history and geography involved.
here’s jane on top of the world (before the kezia swap).
Durdle Door
after our long walk we finally reached the beach.
the sea was incredibly flat and sparkly:
so we had a picnic:
and refreshed ourselves with ice cool cans of coca cola (i’m hoping for corporate blog sponsorship):
esther and kezia inspected the thousands of small stones which made up the beach:
and of course i went in search of lost stuff:
Lulworth Cove to Durdle Door
There is a fantastic walk you can do from Lulworth Cove to Durdle Door. it’s quite steep. especially with a child on your back. i know cuz jane told me.
milestones provide excellent resting points:
Esther took this photo from the top of the hill:
and eventually you see the famous eroded archway:
we then climbed down to the beach
bucket tree
where do seaside buckets and spades come from ? they grow on trees of course. usually such trees are kept hidden away in factories, but this one was clearly visible from the main street leading to Lulworth Cove.
ferruls
have you checked your ferruls recently ? they may need replacing. especially if they have perished.
dog sign
it’s good to see pictures of dogs some of which aren’t already in my collection. here are a selection of dog signs seen whilst on holiday.
luckily this dog is heavy enough to keep this floating man from blowing away:
small dog on silver plaque on brick wall:
dog eager to leave the scene:
life ring supplied in case of real emergencies:
kez on TV
a strange trick of the light resulted in kezia appearing in TV as a reflection from the seat where she was sitting reading a book which she was very much enjoying. [what kind of a sentence was that ?]
click for big version
holiday food
it’s important to eat well on holiday so you have enough energy to have lots of fun. i was delighted to be see the fridge contained nothing but beer and chocolate once we had unpacked.
my only concern was what everyone else would eat and drink. but i needn’t have worried as we went to Tescos for a greasy breakfast.
i love holidays !
