I went to Dorset and saw the sea.
When I was a kid we went on holiday to Dorset every year, Weymouth, for two weeks to stay with my father's relatives. As kids we loved it. I can understand now, why my Mum was less enamoured. For us it was all about buckets and spades, donkey rides and running to see the man who made sculptures out of sand, pockets full of pennies to play the machines in Alexandra Gardens, ice-cream and crab sandwiches, collecting seaweed and searching rock pools with the bamboo handle of my shrimping net, collecting eggs from my Uncle's chickens, beetroot fresh from the garden turning the salad cream pink and zig-zag cut tomatoes which we never had at home.
For my Mum it was cooking on someone else's stove, washing up in someone else's sink and finding things for us to do when it rained. Which of course it did quite a lot. Coming from Sussex, we had to get up when it was still dark in order to 'beat the traffic', and eat a picnic breakfast of food we never normally ate for breakfast: scotch eggs and cold sausages and tea from a flask which we would spill in the back of the car, while my Dad shouted at either my Mum for telling him to take the wrong turning off the Stonehenge roundabout or us in the back for fighting. And then there was always, at some point, the endless hours waiting for the man from the AA to come and fix the car.
This time I went by train, in daylight, it only took a couple of hours. I went to the Watch House Cafe and drank good coffee, we shared a dish of scrambled eggs and smoked salmon and Eggs Florentine. I walked by the sea at West Bay and the sun shone.
Top tip: go to the sea, the sea and blow away the cobwebs, the cobwebs.
Hello:
ReplyDeleteDorset remains one of our very favourite counties with Lyme Regis a place which, over the years, we have visited time and time again. But this post brings back such strong memories of childhood 'bucket and spade' holidays at Swanage for one of us and Newquay, Cornwall for the other. Your mention of the sand sculptures at Weymouth, seen perhaps fifty years ago, and not thought about until now. Happy days!!
The sea is a great healer and restorer, isn't it? No matter where, I think.
ReplyDeleteWe live so close to Dorset but never go ! We often holidayed in Wales. Mum would get out this huge deckchair which had been her grandmothers & relax. She was a teacher & holidays for her were about relaxation !
ReplyDeleteJust been down to the beach to blow away my headache...it worked !
I live by the sea and I love beaches - they are best in winter.
ReplyDeleteThat egg florentine looks good.
The feel and smell of an onshore breeze has so many unique characteristics, all of them good.
ReplyDeleteI'm a seasider myself so I love to go to the beach. One of my friends lives in Weymouth & it's high time I paid her a visit, could do with some cobweb-blowing.
ReplyDeleteI was expecting an Iris Murdoch review! It looks lovely. You travel to so many interesting places.
ReplyDeleteI wish I lived nearer the sea. We are treating ourselves to a few days in Norfolk soon - I can;t wait. xxxxx
ReplyDeleteLooks beautiful! and breakfast looks delicious
ReplyDeleteI grew up in the pacific NW where you throw on a sweater to go down to the beach. I miss that. Air is fresh, wind blows hard ... certainly clears the cobwebs
It looks wonderful! I'd go to the seaside like a shot but with the crippling price of petrol it'll be India before I see the sea next! x
ReplyDeleteI've never once been to Dorset but do have the sea at the end of my road and know how lucky I am x
ReplyDeleteI love Dorset. It was the first place - or one of them - that my wife and I had a holiday away together before we got married. And then after getting married it was a while a common site of family holidays whilst the kids were growing up. The last one there was about 6 years or so ago - we went to Swanage or Corfe Castle normally. But it hasn't been on the list in recent years. I had at one time thought about moving down there but that all seems a long long time ago now. Must at some point revisit
ReplyDeleteChildhood memories are ever so lovely, but I think revisiting as an adult is even more fun.
ReplyDeleteNina x
ps. love the idea of you polishing off a bag of madeline cakes... naughty, but nice.
ah the refreshment!
ReplyDeleteAloha from Honolulu,
Wishing YOU the Best
Comfort Spiral
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Dorset gets my vote too. The Isle of Purbeck is entirely associated with Husband - the first place to which we went away together and where we take our family at least once a year. It was the pebbles of Hythe in my youth: holidays at grandparents'.
ReplyDeleteWhat a beautiful part of the world where wI spent many happy holidays as a child with my family ..... and what delicious food .....I'm afraid that food and drink is what I think of most of the time !!!! haha
ReplyDeletePS: You couldn't slip your name in somewhere could you ? I don't like not addressing you ........ it seems so unfriendly but don't worry if you don't want to. XXXX
Love the childhood memories. We beat the traffic, too! And drank tea and ate lots of stuff that wouldn't be allowed at home. Such as grits.
ReplyDeleteI think the only thing you left out was the way we kids would torture each other in the backseat until one of us screamed, and then Dad with, "You want me to turn this car around right now? Because I can do that, we can end the vacation this very minute if that's what you want."
Thankyou for coming to my blog. :) It's led me here to yours and very nice it is too! I love the sea, I need it and get quite agitated if I haven't seen it for a while. A lovely post!
ReplyDeleteJess xx
That first photo is so so glorious, it really is a spectacular dramatic landscape down there. And those eggs look delish. Love your line: "For my Mum it was cooking on someone else's stove, washing up in someone else's sink and finding things for us to do when it rained. " Same for my Mum, sometimes even in a campground on a communal stove and she did it with much better humour than me (mind we entertained ourselves back then much better than my kids do...)
ReplyDeleteTook my breathe away! Gorgeous
ReplyDeleteOh dear. As I have entered the jam making years and some, I think I had better join in and learn.
ReplyDeleteGlad to have stumbled across you in my dotage.
Jessica.
Everything about this day looks delicious
ReplyDeleteThank you for visiting my blog.
ReplyDeleteHeartwarming read here.
Oh, such beautiful memories you have, my Dear! Thank you for sharing them...Lovely photos!
ReplyDeleteHugs,
Anne
This was a wonderfully evocative post: I too remember the bickering in the back seat of the car with my siblings. My father actually pulled up once and made us get out and stand on a roundabout! I am laughing now at the thought of his fury. (We did loooooong trips from Warwickshire to the north of Scotland, so there was a degree of boredom in the back seat!).
ReplyDeleteGorgeous photos. Didn't everyone fight in the back seat with their siblings. And my mother scolding us, over and over.
ReplyDeleteOh my! This post makes me a bit sad. I grew up on an island and LOVE the ocean. Now I'm living far from it and I really miss it. Nothing quite like it :)
ReplyDeleteTasia