Saturday

Up and at 'em early today.

I stubbed my toe getting into the shower last night - the wall of the tub is about two inches higher than my knee!  It is a long and narrow tub with a shower curtain and one of those hand held shower positioned way up high - the shower head is probably located at about seven feet up!  Good water pressure though and plenty of hot water, so who cares?

There are heated towel bars.  I have never understood the whole idea of a heated bar.  Terry cloth is not conductive at all, so you only get two or three one inch strips of heated towel.  What's the point?

I remember hearing the expression "tickety boo" sometime in the past, and I know Foyle's driver Sam used it in one episode to mean that everything is just as it ought to be, so tickety boo!

I went to Weymouth today.  My father was in the civil service and was posted to Portland for about 18 months when I was about 10, and we lived in Weymouth.  I recognized our house right away.  It has been divided into flats sometime during the last 50 years and the front and back gardens have changed tremendously, but the house still looks the same.  I recognize the balcony looking across the street over the bowling green to the pebble beach and the English Channel.  There used to be a soft coal cellar and a hard coal cellar (both little rooms under the house) and one of them was given over to my sister and me as a playhouse.  That section of the house was rebuilt to provide a passageway for parking in the rear for the tenants of the flats, but one little door was still intact.  The garden where mymother planted vegetables (I remember rhubard plants and my brother teasing me with worms) Is not longer there, but there are still a couple of fruit trees in the back.  Same ones?  Maybe not, but I can pretend.

The gardens between the road and the beach have been changed, but the old bathing huts are still there and the mechanical clock is still functioning, although unfortunately it hasn't been set up for the season yet and just looks like a dirt circle - much smaller than it used to be!  This is the only mechanical clock still working in England!   It is about 10 feet in diameter, and the face was planted with different flowers during the year.  One of my strongest memories.  How nice that it is still there and I got to see the dirt circle but what a shame they didn't plant it and put the hands back on two weeks ago.  I'm sure they would have if they's known I was coming.

I drove around Weymouth and went across the land bridge to Portland, but didn't recognize anything else.  I couldn't find my old school.  I used to walk instead of take the bus to save a farthing to buy furniture for my doll house.  We wore uniforms with drtaw hats during the summer months and had rice pudding with strawberry jam in the middle every day for lunch.  Most of the students were boarders but my brother and I were day students.  I drove around for awhile, but didn't ask anybody about any schools because I don't really remember anything but the hats and the rice pudding.

On leaving Weymouth I went to Osmington and then to Sutton Poyntz so I could see the White Horse.  This is a huge horse carved into the hill in homor of King Edward (don't check my facts - they are just hearsay - no brochures to be tound).  It is several hundred feet tall, and the chalk makes it look very white against the green fields.  I couldn't walk close enought to get a good picture, but maybe somebody who knows how to do all the photoshop tricks can make my snapshot clearer.  I really enjoyed thinking all day that I was redriving the same roads my father must have driven over fifty years ago, looking for the best access.  I wonder if he was holding his breath the whole time like I am?

I ate lunch at the Springhead Arms at Sutton Poyntz.  I just gotta say it "Quaint, quaint quaint, picturesque over and over again."  Little stream running through the village, thatched cottages, lots of marked Public Footpaths and the whole works.  I walked along one of the public footpaths to get as close as possible to the White Horse, and I had to open gates and shut them again so the sheeps wouldn't get out!  I have several souvenirs of the field with the sheep in it - I hope I can scrape those souvenirs off before I get in the car again!

I came back to Dorchester and spent the rest of the afternoon in the Museum.  Thomas Hardy was born in Dorset and all of his novels are set here.   He was my favorite author for a while, and I am inspired to go back and reread some of his books now.

Oh no, the computer is sending me funky messages.  I hope I don't lose this post.