Lulworth Cove and Durdle Door

Lulworth Cove is a very picturesque little village on a beautiful cove on the Jurasic Coast in Dorset County, England.







The next picture is of a tree in someone's yard. Hanging from the tree are children's sand buckets and shovels. We assumed that whoever lived here had been collecting abandoned buckets on the beach for a long time!






There is a big parking lot with a sign that points to the tourist spot "Durdle Door". What the sign does not tell you is that once you have climbed a very steep hill (it seemed more like a small mountain!), you have just barely begun the walk to view the natural limestone arch called Durdle Door! It is a very long and hard walk (at least it is for us---but it's not quite like Colorado mountains!), but when the "up-hill" part is done, it begins to be worth going, because the scenery is beautiful!
The next photos are of the walk up the hills.










Durdle Door is a natural limestone arch. The word "Durdle" is probably from an old English word meaning "pierced, having a hole".

The Foggy Day

Yesterday Ron was working 2nd shift, so we had the morning free and decided to go to the village of Lulworth on the coast. The morning temperature was below freezing, and there was lots of fog and frost. Here are some pictures of the drive.









The sun came out!


The pictures of the coast will follow in the next post........

Property Lines

The fence on the property line becomes the back wall of the garage. Would this meet city codes in Arlington?



There are very strict building regulations, however. There is a council that has to approve any building or remodeling project. The desire to keep the outside of the old buildings intact is very strong, so it is almost unheard of to tear down existing structures. The council even has to approve removing walls inside of a building.

"Good Manners" in England

One interesting part about having a meal with the English people is watching how they eat. Good manners here is to hold the fork with the left hand and the knife with the right hand throughout the meal. They turn the fork upside down from the way we do and push food onto the back of the fork with the knife. Then they put the food into their mouths with the fork upside down. Try eating peas that way!
I thought that maybe this was just done at home, but I see people on T.V. at fancy restaurants eating that way!
Maybe this is where we get the idea of placing the fork on the left side of the plate and the knife on the right! (That's what they do, too.)
When we were in Germany, we noticed the same way of eating, so maybe it is common in other parts of Europe, too----maybe we are the ones that are odd!

Another interesting thing that we always notice is the way people that we are around say "me sister", "me wife", "me arm", "me job", "meself", etc. It is extremely common, even among fairly educated people, although I don't hear it on news shows, etc., on T.V. I have seen it some in books by English authors, and it was in one song that we sang at church---but not in most songs. I have looked for that song again, but I can't find it----I think it said something about "me blessings" ! I guess the proofreader didn't catch it! What I don't know is if this is common all over England or just here in the southwest part.

November Scenes

There are still many pretty fall trees, but every week the trees look more and more bare. These photos were taken on the way to Bristol on Sunday morning.

Many hedge rows along the roads have been trimmed lately. Notice the freshly cut ones in the next picture.



The next two photos show Beryl and Alistair's car in front of us. They are making the hour-long trip to Bristol, too.




In the next picture you can see that sometimes there is little room for error in driving!

The next photos are in Bristol. Notice the way the sky has gotten dark since we began our trip that day. (The week before was much the same----in Martock it was bright and sunny, and the closer we got to Bristol, the more foggy it got.

Remembrance Day, November 11

November 11, in many countries, is a day to remember veterans. In the U.K. it is known as Remembrance Day, while in the U.S. it is Veterans Day. It was begun to recall the end of World War I on that date in 1918. So that day was the 11th month, the 11th day---- and the shooting stopped at 11 o'clock England time. Remembrance Day has been expanded to include the sacrifice of those in other wars. In the U.K. there is two minutes of silence observed at 11 o'clock on Nov. 11th. Yesterday at church, as in all churches across England, we observed that two minutes of silence.

It seems to be observed more in England than in the U.S. People in the U.S. have traditionally worn paper poppies in honor of veterans, but here many more people can be seen wearing the poppies, which are available for a donation at the post offices and other businesses. (The poppy symbol comes from the poem "In Flanders Field" which was written in 1915. Poppies bloomed across some of the worst battlefields of Flanders in WWI.) Many store windows have something about Remembrance Day. One business in Martock has a huge wreath made of poppies. The photo at the top of the post shows poppy wreaths underneath a war memorial in Yeovil.
All of the newscasters and reporters on T.V. have been wearing the poppies every day since about the middle of October.



There are billboards showing veterans. One that I think is especially touching shows a woman holding hands with her small child, and holding the child's other hand, is a soldier, whose whole image is made of poppies.

English Flag

I had been wondering about the three different flags I have seen in England, so I finally looked up some information.

The first flag is the Flag of England, which dates from the time of the Crusades. It has become the flag of the Church of England.
This particular photo is of the flag flying above the Church of England in Martock.



Another flag is a combination of the English flag and the Scottish flag. It was designed when the two countries were united. The Scottish flag had a blue background and a white "x" on it. When the two were combined the flag was blue with a large red cross and also a large white "x". This flag was called the Union Flag or the Union Jack. It was the National Flag of Great Britain.

The third flag, since 1801, is a combination of the English, Scottish, and Irish flags, so it is the Flag of the United Kingdom. The small red lines that make an "x" are from the Irish flag (which was white with an "x" made with small red lines). This has become the official flag flown over government buildings.
The following photo is of the flag flying at the Hollies Hotel in Martock, where we are living.