Who do you like to chat to when you go shopping?
Spent too long chatting? Better check the time.
Time for me to go on a traication with only my phone. Find out where next week.
Can you translate the Latin or tell the time?
Fun Friday – Jolly July
Month: July 2026
Monday Meander – Sun and Shade
Cool off on a Breezer open top bus.
But where are you going?
Are we getting off here at Boscombe Pier? No.
At Bournemouth Pier? No.
Where are we?
And who is this?
Find out later.
This way?
Or that way?
Feeling cooler?
Don’t get lost
Ah, here’s a sign post…
How did you get here?
With a long walk up the road.
And where are you?
Breezer Bus 70 dropped us off at Alum Chine Beach and we walked up Alum Chine then up to Westbourne shops. Don’t worry, there are plenty of buses home from here, or you can retrace your steps back to the beach.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cjdg1p97v0go
How soon did you guess the mystery statue?
Reblogged
If you are reading this I must have crawled out of the blog hole and my new computer has extended the digital hand of friendship to WordPress. Read about my Staycation soon.
In-between
In between what? Flowers don’t care what is going on in the blogging world as long as someone waters them in our ongoing heatwave.
In the meantime I’m between homes and computers so who knows what might happen!
Will I get out of the bloghole?
Will this unblog get posted? See you on the other side ….hopefully…..
Words from the Past
It seems lots of us have a stationery addiction, we can’t resist buying notebooks and journals, then can’t bear to spoil them by writing in them, or start a journal which only lasts a few pages. Judging by the cover design, how old do you think this notebook might be? At writers’ group we wondered how many of us had written long ago and if we still had our words of wisdom. I thought I had written ‘a few bits’ but found three full notebooks. This one was started in 1972 in Perth, Western Australia when I was nineteen and the handwriting neater than I remember. On the back it says Made in Japan – how long since you saw those words on humble everyday objects? How has it survived crossing the world and moving numerous times? I’m not going to start reading it all to you, but here are two pertinent snippets.
‘Our literature lecturer commented this morning that most writers of renown started their career by keeping a personal record. As I have aspirations to be an authoress of some sort I thought this to be a good idea.’
What took those aspirations so long?
My first entry for September, 1972 turned out to be very relevant.
‘Today was one of those pleasant spring days. The sun is still friendly and hasn’t yet become that hot enemy of summer.’
In the midst of our third heatwave in England, proof indeed that I never liked very hot weather. Too hot is too hot wherever you are, though in Australia we had the advantage of latitude with the sun dropping promptly down below the horizon. We have long warm evenings. The grass on the cliff will recover, grass always does and I am thankful for our sea breezes. The sky was hazy and the sea calm yesterday so come along and cool off. No pictures of being in the sea as my phone would get wet, but I think you should come in the water.
That is a person swimming in the middle of the picture, not a shark.
Have you words of wisdom preserved from long ago?
Hot and Bloggled
Yes it really is that blue…
But sometimes smart phones don’t capture the moment – What I saw as I arrived at the cliff top – a snowy white yacht gleaming on a sparkling sea… I had to zoom in to my picture to see if I had imagined a boat…
We have our own Mount Rushmore – who would you like to see carved into our cliffs?
Be glad you are not a cactus…
Two days of glory and attention…
Then it’s all over for another year or two.
When you fall down a blog hole...
In the unlikely event you notice some absences on my part in July it will be due to summer projects or some projects. Forty one years ago people said ‘Pregnant?! What do you want another baby for, you have a boy and a girl?’ The answer was ‘So when he grows up he can do every home improvement imaginable, sort out all my technical problems, install a new computer and cook dinners.’ When he brought home his now wife and said she was a lighting technician and pyrotechnic expert, we knew life was going to be fun and he would have someone to help him with every project imaginable.
As we pass the the halfway mark of the year have you any summer or winter projects planned?
Saturday Stroll Pooleside
Today we are not getting on a boat, unless someone welcomes you on board their super yacht or fishing boat.
The old lifeboat station, now a museum.
But we are bird spotting today, not boat spotting.
Cool off with a paddle…
…then keep walking.
Have you spotted any birds yet?
What historic landmark building have you arrived at?
‘A giant wildlife mural has brought new colour and meaning to a Poole Harbour landmark, turning a toilet block into a tribute to global conservation. Unveiled on May 23 at Baiter Park in Poole, the artwork celebrates the area’s ecological importance as a wintering ground for migratory birds.‘
‘The mural is a collaboration between illustration students from Arts University Bournemouth (AUB) and the Bird and Recreation Initiative (BARI).
University students transform Poole Harbour landmark with vibrant wildlife mural
And if the walk was too much for you emergency help is at hand.
Thursday Thoughts – Sports
Sport is an obvious subject for discussion or avoidance at the moment. Football World Cup, cricket and Wimbledon. You don’t have to be interested in sport of any kind to enjoy the drama, or at least get some entertainment out of finding the news and your viewing schedule totally disrupted. The teeming thousands who venture abroad to support their country’s football team may not have been able to get tickets for the match, but more fun is to be found on the streets of the host city. Taking in the ambience and the experience, saying hello to Mum or your wife if you get to be interviewed by a television reporter. It all looks quite fun from the comfort of my sofa, but I would not like to be part of that seething mass of humanity, might not be able to find a nice quiet coffee shop.
Cricket looks very serene and I like the idea of stopping for tea, no need for hydration breaks. Wimbledon involves queueing early in the morning for lots of fans, part of the tradition.
Meanwhile the players themselves provide drama, suddenly dropping out of Wimbledon with stress fractures or maybe just stress, missing your country’s match against the favourites because you have a stomach upset. I can sympathise, having been struck with watering can shoulder, putting Zumba Gold or a swim in the sea in jeopardy.
While some are out, others are making historic comebacks. It’s not just players who are in and out. Football managers seem to resign every week whether their team is winning or losing, thus heralding much discussion among the commentators in the TV studio, though not as much talk as the English cricket captain caused by resigning in the middle of batting.
Politics rears its ugly head in sport, though sport is supposed to bring people together and forget this country doesn’t let women play sport, that country is executing people back home and your hosts are going to arrest and deport you at any moment.
But it’s all good fun and if you don’t want to venture far from home, but are fed up with sitting at home, get yourself down to the nearest club or pub with a big screen and meet up with like minded people. Here you will be filmed for Breakfast Television giving your predictions, then filmed by the Evening News yelling and cheering and hugging everyone.
Our team won last night – at the last moment… I only saw the first kick and the end as I was watering the garden… but apparently I saw the best bits.
Have you enjoyed any big sporting moments lately or are you going into hibernation or aestivation for the next couple of months?
