Summing Up Sunday: Week 3

We have been reading: 'Americanah' for book group. Positive all round, particularly when listening to Whispersync for Kindle to hear the nuances of each accent. Also very interesting and exciting to hear Adichie speak in TED talks: 'We Should All Be Feminists' and 'The Danger of a Single Story'.

We have been planting: Dahlias - lots of them! Pots: lobelia, gazania, Busy Lizzies and various other bits...

We have been going: Visiting Lacey and her Kit-Kats at the RSPCA. J and A to Lyme Regis this weekend for a well deserved seaside break, whilst E has a weekend with M and Little B. Beautiful Saturday sun for planting.

We have been making: kitten blankets! And very slow progress on E's cross-stitch...

Best Bananagram words: flawed, oxymoron, zeppelin, usurper, catabolism...

Guardian Quiz: 8/15 for M, Little B and E, but only 6/15 for J and A. Competition?

And back

That was a very good weekend. Thirteen lovely people. And what makes them so? Thoughtfulness, liberal attitudes, good sense of humour and willingness to laugh, caring. Is caring the same as thoughtfulness? Closely related, certainly.

So what happened after I last wrote? More walks, more meals, more chatting, a visit to Uplyme Quaker meeting, and more entertaining of D-J. This was very easy, as she was content to be in the company of attentive people in a warm room, and didn't seem bothered whether she was following the conversation or not. M was especially good at stopping periodically to update her on what the conversation was about, but actually she didn't mind. I'm sure she appreciated the attempt.

Quite a lot of belongings were left, to be found and brought home by the last to leave. I left my coat, which had the new tiny camera in the pocket, so my Lyme photos will have to wait to get added.

And there are the photos. As you can see, I don't know how to rotate photos on the iPad. It's probably very obvious. Look how cold those poor pigeons are!

Coombe Cottages away

Lyme Regis, Queen of the coast! And I often say that the sun shines more in LR than anywhere else. This weekend that's not so. I gather that it's snowing in many other places in the UK today, while here it's just dreech: cold east wind, not quite drizzling, heavy grey sky.

And wonderful! As I looked out of the east facing window at 730 this morning, to note that the cliffs above Charmouth were wreathed in fog, it wasn't possible to tell what colour Black Venn was, and Golden Cap was invisible, a flock of gulls greeted the spring (they could tell) wheeling about the town, interweaving a dense pack of pigeons.

Our group are making full use of the town, cake and coffee shops, walking along the beach, picking up Victorian debris in the landslip, and best of all, the reliable Town Mill Bakery. This supplied our breakfast croissants, and six of us went back there for lunch. It has trestle tables, so groups mix and jostle, and the mugs are hung from planks suspended above the middle of each table. Stand and reach for a mug, and eight people along the bench all go up and down by as much as several inches. Once you're used to it it becomes more fun than alarming.