Picnic
It was my turn to drive and the girls wanted a picnic so I chose Porlock Weir – one of the prettiest places I know and an easy drive – apart from the bendy narrow road betwixt Porlock and Porlock Weir. It was a glorious day so I wore t-shirt and skirt and didn’t don my anorak all day.
The day before I vacuumed the car – hateful job - and cleaned the windows. I was not best pleased to find my bottle of Windolene useless – it left the windows smeary but Mr Muscle – Window and Glass - did the trick (their Shine is great for keeping showers sparkly.) Like the good consumer I am I tried to contact Windolene but it was too difficult.
I asked the girls to bring a small deck chair each and packed coffee and biscuits and a bottle of
We stopped in a leafy lay- by for coffee and the gods smiled and we travelled behind the local bus on the tricky bit – so all the oncoming traffic gave way and we sailed through.
The car park opens onto a grassy sward which becomes the beach and there are picnic tables so in the end we didn’t get our chairs out of the car. It was early so we set off on an amble. It was sad to see the lovely hotel where MTL and I have had many anniversaries had closed, but there is still a decent pub and a good restaurant with rooms.
Engrossed in snapping - the girls shouted to me and indicated that I should join them where they were chatting to some young builders - I have to keep a close eye on them but apparently the boys were converting an old building into a magnificent house for letting and they wanted to show off their handiwork.. They didn’t seem to mind us stepping over them as they carried on working and it was going to be fantastic. With the hills behind and the beach and harbour in front the setting was perfect. There were lots of skylights, pillars, super bathrooms and great floors. I was hesitant about taking photos but they didn’t seem to mind a bit.
More later
18 comments:
Tsk. You see! You live in proper countryside! I live downwind of Tunbridge Wells... where grazing fields are bought and transformed into ornamental gardens... [I kid you not].
Sx
Sounds like a great day in a very beautiful place.
That steep, bendy road was where I first found out about escape roads - I asked my dad what it was - and also learned that my grandfather used to be part of a crowd who would ride their motorbikes up the hill in tyhe days before it was tarmacked.
"... and they wanted to show off their handiwork."
I must try that one on my next renovation project in the city centre.
Concerning the photo of the weir. How high are the tides there? I noticed the boats have bottomed out and see that they all have double fin keels to keep them upright at low tide. Very interesting.
Cheers.
Porlock Weir looks just my kind of place. The house reminds me of my sister's house: off the peg-pristine.
Sounds like you had a perfectly lovely day. One day I hope to have friends who have time for the odd picnic, I'll remember the watercress.
Water-cress has the rare property of being similar to grass, but with less taste! Why anyone would want to eat it is beyond me!
Still, I don't do salad - unless it comes with the kebab and I'm to drunk to negotiate it's non-inclusion - so I'm probably not the best person to ask. :-)
Scarlet: I hope it hasn't changed irrevocably. I lived in Southborough and had a shop in Tunbridge Wells for aeons. Most of my friends were in Tonbridge and socially life was a ball.
Debra: that's it exactly.
Kim: I wonder if those escape roads really work. They look on the skew to me. There is a toll route for chickens like me.
Jimmy: sadly there wasn't a Jimmy amongst them.
Randall : you'll see more with the next photos. When the tide come in it's a creek in between those rows of boats. Turning to the right is looking out to sea.
Eryl: it will be clearer in the next lot of photos, but that is a row of cottages. It's quite a confusing lay out. I should have taken an aerial shot but my wings were clipped:)
Sounds idyllic!
RS - We got lots of tide. Hinkley Point is the nearest tide station. Max tidal range of 12.24m - see link...
http://www.tide-forecast.com/locations/HinkleyPoint-England/tides/latest
Andrew: gee thanks. I almost rang to ask:)
Lynx: because it is so un- appetising it has to be good for you in some way. Iron? I vaguely connect it with sewage farms.
Jon.g: have you ever been to Somerset? I know you know Dorset.
I love hearing about picnics, I love hearing about food, and I love hearing about the countryside.
Perfect!
We went up and down Porlock hill on a very old open top bus once, that was scary!
I think watercress has a lot of iron in it.
Oh, yes! Lovely county!
I'm interested about the tide and the boats. Are they unusable most of the day?
I am use to lake docks and living by the ocean we had harbors.
Lovely pictures. I am getting a map so when you mention places I can know where your talking about.
Leah: you get a lot of that around these parts:)
Lom: we did that about a year ago and nearly froze on the way back. Iron is good - makes stools black.
John.g: both lovely - in different ways.
Parsnip: I hope the later photos will make it clearer. It is very tidal and the tide was out whilst we were there and the height of the tide varies according to the time of the year. The tide times are given out daily - like the weather forecast. Some of the boats will only be afloat when the tide is in and some will be dragged up - in the winter months so they are in dry dock. Hope this makes sense.
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