Saturday 30 April 2011

Nasty, brutish and short

Later in the afternoon. The knight is in full armour and about to practise on the quintain.




Meanwhile, Evan has qualified as a knight.




To be honest, I'd rather he were a merchant or monk for health & safety reasons.

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Alright squire?

Today we are at another new place, Bolsover castle, watching displays of medieval chivalry. My plan was to join English Heritage so we could spend the summer getting out to new place. So far it's great fun. This afternoon we picnicked whilst watching a display of horsemanship and have just watched a sword display.






There's nothing better than a bloodthirsty educational day.


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Friday 15 April 2011

Counting in Devonshire

Today finds us in a New Place Altogether. We are in Exeter, a town I've never visited before. It's lovely.




The afternoon was spent in the Cathedral. I was supposed to be looking at bosses and learning about Bishop Leofric but it was MUCH more exciting doing the Easter egg hunt round the cloisters with Evan. We counted 35 but there might have been more. He won a Cadbury Creme egg for handing his entry in and I got nothing despite looking plaintive and pleasant simultaneously.

Afterwards I tried to kill Evan to death by taking him into shops that sell clothes for women which led to a plaintive 'can I go in the corner and read a book?'' I relented and we have ended up in the cathedral close trying two types of lemonade. He has Fentiman's Victorian lemonade and I have homemade with ginger and a Secret Ingredient. I was hoping it would be gin. But I don't think it is.




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Thursday 14 April 2011

Anyone for croquet?

Today finds us in the 1950s. Or, at least, in the Corfe Castle model village which was built in 1950 and which is a great afternoon out. Evan


and I have been playing croquet. I won. Later? Dorset apple cake and clotted cream. Smashing.



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Location:East St,,United Kingdom

Wednesday 13 April 2011

Jolly days in Dorset


We start this blog where I started my life, in Dorset.

I always claim that I am not from anywhere and have no interest in nationalism or in regionalism. In fact I currently live in Leeds and often find myself feeling quite queasy at the Leedscentric ways of the people from there. But this holiday is proving to me that I am from somewhere and that place is Dorset. I was born here and I rather love it. The beauty of the Isle of Purbeck is undeniable and it is a great place for a 1940s style childhood. For starters, the Queen of old-fashioned childhood pusuits, Enid Blyton, lived here for a while, dispensing mad adventure and mad racism in equal measure. It is a landscape rich in those childhood pursuits denied to those locked indoors with Playstations: you can hunt for fossils on the beaches and pretend to be a knight in the castles. There are cream teas and dreaming villages.

Yesterday Evan and I had a fantastic day. We visited Dorchester County Museum where he completed the Roman trail and dressed up as a Roman and Ancient Briton. Afterwards we went to Portland castle where we pretended to fire cannons at the French. Finally, we went to Portland Bill and Chesil beach where we climbed up huge pebble mountains to hurl other pebbles into the sea. It was a fanastic and enjoyable day. It was just like a 1940s day out in Dorset or, at least, how I imagine one to have been.