Wow this year is flying by a little too quickly for my liking. I haven't done too well at capturing all the things that have been happening. I went to Germany (with a quick foray into the Netherlands). I went to Ireland. Both times I hung out with people that I met by chance on another trip and I'm so happy to be able to call them my friends. We found a house to buy, and we're so close now to actually owning it. Then my life will be Decorating. And possibly Destroying Walls and Building New Ones. Oh and Gardening! I'm so excited at the prospect of a garden of our very own.
Hugh and I also managed a very brief trip together, to Dorset to see his dad & stepmum (and Ollie the dog); while we were with them we took in a walk along Chesil Beach and a wander around Portland & Weymouth Harbour.
Then we had a few days by ourselves to unwind in Lyme Regis, which is one of my favourite places in England, a little town clinging to the very edge of the coast with steep winding roads leading down to the sea. We had beautiful weather, it was lovely to bask in the sunshine (did end up with a very red nose and cheeks after foolishly forgetting to take sun block out with me around Weymouth) but it did mean that everywhere was pretty crowded.
We walked far enough along the beaches to leave the masses behind though and only encountered one family while we explored the ammonite graveyard. We had an interesting morning at the museum but I was hoping the exhibition about their local heroine, Mary Anning would be bigger. I wanted to know more about her life other than the bare facts - I suppose I hoped they might have letters that she wrote, or that others wrote about her, smaller specimens that she found, things like that. She was remarkable and deserves to be celebrated. However the museum are currently fundraising for a new wing that will be named for her. We did stop off at the Church as we walked back up the hill to our bed and breakfast one evening, we found her grave, that she shares with her brother, Joseph. The upwelling of emotion I felt took me by surprise; maybe I'm just soft hearted, but it was like seeing a friend's name engraved there. We popped in to see the stained glass window dedicated to her, not only for her contribution to science, but for her faith, her kindness and generosity of spirit.
We are going back to see the town and the Jurassic Coast at its dramatic stormy best, at the end of the year and beginning of the next one. The local 'celebrity geologist' will take us fossil hunting. Who knows, maybe we'll find another of Mary's crocodillies.
