Setting Up For The Day

What do you do when you wake up with no internet on the first day of a gloriously sunny bank holiday weekend? And you don’t get it back until 5 p.m?

Speaking for ourselves, we were in the car soon after 8 a.m, beginning with a trip to Milford on Sea Pharmacy.

A blue clematis on the front garden trellis accompanies pink rosebuds.

Thrift, buttercups, and daisies line both sides of the coast road and the cliff edges,

which have suffered further erosion, as demonstrated by the barriers round the steps to the shore.

Jackie parked beside a marigold lined wall in De La Warr Road for me to photograph the thrift.

We anticipated that Mudeford Quay would be flooded with visitors today, but continued our journey to there hoping to be ahead of most of them.

Already, camper vans and many other vehicles were parked and arriving in steady streams.

Various groups were setting up for the day.

A trio of girls still had room to practise cartwheels.

While I was taking these photographs, Jackie couldn’t park, so had to keep moving. When she spotted me and slowed down for me to rejoin her, she was called “a fucking mad cow” by a following driver. It was perhaps a good thing that I didn’t hear this.

Afterwards we visited Ferndene Farm Shop to buy compost and more plants.

This afternoon I read enough of ‘Nicholas Nickleby’ to scan the next ten of Charles Keeping’s illustrations. I could do this off-line, but could neither write the captions nor put them into WordPress. That will have to wait until tomorrow.

This evening we dined on tangy basil-flavoured lasagne and plentiful fresh salad, with which Jackie drank Hoegaarden and I drank more of the Malbec.

80 comments

  1. I was going to offer you false sympathy early on because you live in a lovely place of wild ponies, donkeys, and flowers. But I have to offer you sincere sympathy for the wild asses you also have on your highways. We have them here too. Glad you all survived to be inconvenienced another day. 🙂

  2. I have been working on a number of inventions all my life – one is a ray gun that causes automatic disintegration of cars containing rude drivers and leaves them looking silly in the middle of a pile of smoking debris. So far it’s only in the planning stage, as is the Hemorrhoids Ray, which would, I think, be a fun way to teach such people manners.

    I hope the rest of your Bank Holiday improves. 🙂

  3. It’s good to see people out and about, we are beating this virus. I’m sorry that someone disrespected your wife like that, Derrick. No matter the country some folks just can’t be pleasant to others.

  4. It looks like a beautiful day there on the shore Derrick, though I am saddened to hear Jackie had to endure the insult from the other driver. I unfortunately see more of that sort of behavior here as well. It is sad.

  5. Someone once yelled at me F****** FAT COW… MOVE and all because I gave way to more than one car coming in the opposite direction on a narrow part of the village main street. He got out of his car just so he could shout this, I remain puzzled as to how he knew my weight when he was driving behind me!

    There was a plus side, the final car I gave way to stopped alongside me, holding up the irate driver even further, he opened his window, thanked me and told me to ignore the prat behind me; the polite driver was one of our local TV presenters!

  6. I love the fields of wildflowers. I’m sure that rude driver is not someone who stops to smell them. I’m sorry Jackie experienced that (and glad you did not). It puts a damper on a day when people are so awful, but I’m sure the plant buying and dinner helped. ?

    1. 🙂 Thanks very much, Merril. You are right about my not hearing the comment – but, just for the record, even when I was able I never resorted to violence – just my tongue.

  7. My husband and I headed for the mountains today, where people were also out in force. Fortunately, they were in the woods, so we didn’t have to deal with them. It sounds like the rude driver went to the Boston School of Bad Driving.

  8. I wish rude people realized how bad they make themselves look. Karma will get hat jerk. It’s good to remember that the good folks vastly outnumber the bad. Thanks for the pretty flowers and boats!

  9. What a gorgeous day and what a nice set of photos! I particularly like the little girl striding forward determinedly and the sailboarder fixing her hair. Your eye is magnificent. Glad you didn’t hear the jerk. I had someone driving too close behind me this week in stop and go traffic. Unnerving. Being shouted at like that is always unpleasant–one has been made the temporary target of irrational anger or scorn and it’s hard to shake off quickly.

  10. “Jackie drank Hoegaarden and I drank more of the Malbec.” I’m sensing a pattern here ; )

  11. It’s the day of small flowers and fantastic candid shots. You have had a field day with very interesting revellers. I’m sorry to learn what Jackie went through, perhaps the lout was exasperated by slow moving Modus, not that it entitled him to take such liberties.

    1. The whole point was that anyone seeking a parking spot had to be slow and there was no passing space. Most people were patient. Thanks very much, Uma

  12. These days a day sans an internet connection can be both annoying and frustrating – it has become an integral part of our lives. Yet, we have lived for decades without even being aware of its future existence – and were blissfully happy! On the plus side, it looks as though you made up for it by making the most of a beautiful day. The sight of those happy crowds alarms me a little – we are waiting for the rising ‘third wave’ to crash over us, bringing further social restrictions – yet fills me with hope that we too will be able to get out and about like that come summer. I too feel empathy for Jackie as it is not easy to brush off such an uncalled for insult. One can only hope the boorish driver gets his comeuppance one day!

    1. Thank you very much for these comments, Anne. It was alarming, actually. This was before 9 a.m. and the cars were still pouring in. Not a mask in sight. In a way, we are lucky that we do remember life without the barmy technology.

  13. What a rude man! 🙁 When people speak like that they are telling us a lot about themselves…jerk, impolite, impatient, unkind, ETC! I’m so sorry Jackie had to endure such a dolt and his insulting mouth. 🙁
    Extra-(((HUGS))) for Jackie
    Your photos are beautiful! I especially love all the gorgeous flowers growing wildly. 🙂
    (((HUGS))) <3

  14. I was going to practice my own cartwheels yesterday, but fortunately the weather changed in the afternoon and I had to postpone.

  15. As Shakespeare once said “The rankest compound of villainous smell that ever offended nostril”.
    What a horrible, ignoramus.
    x

  16. I was thinking that your photographs represented such a cheery bunch, especially the woman and child and the girls doing carwheels and that despite the crowds, everyone seemed to be accommodating each other. What a dumb thing to yell at Jackie. Very rude – I’m a big believer in what goes around comes around so I’m sure he’ll get his due.

  17. How awful that a driver was so impatient when Jackie stopped to pick you up. Now, had it been on the open road, I would have tried to rationalise such behaviour by saying their might be an emergency but I would have difficulty coming to such a conclusion on a holiday destination car park.

  18. I can’t believe how nasty some drivers can be. One was rude to my mother recently. You have to assume their impatience will be haunting them in other aspects of life. It was lovely to see the thrift drifts. Are the marigolds growing wild like that or have they been planted?

Leave a Reply