An early weekend...
Friday, 25 April 2014 09:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
byslantedlightIt feels like ages since I've made a post post here, but I had to take my weekend early this week, because my eyes were melting from work (and possibly also from the huge swathes of yellow rapeseed that surround us this year), and I could barely open my laptop without pathetic whimpers of pain, so yesterday I took myself off and out in the vague hope that it wouldn't rain, and I found some cool stuff in the east of England.
I found the Green Britain project, in Swaffham, which has the only windmill in the world that you're allowed to climb up - so I did. All 305 steps. Phew...
Nice view from the top - especially with the windmill blades swooping around, one after the other. They rotated around according to the wind direction too, though we stayed still. Oh, and you could feel the top swaying just a little - as if we were the ones swaying, but it wasn't, it was the windmill... *g*
Oddly enough, this was the view looking down the side of the stairway, as best I was able - it doesn't really show much, but I rather like the picture, in a... nuts and bolts kind of way.
And then I went and found a castle. I didn't really mean to, but it turned up in front of me, and what could I do but follow the sign?
It turned out to be Baconsthorpe Castle, which had once (500 years ago) been a moated manor house (not really a castle, but you can almost imagine that it was, from what's left). Not only is there a moat, but also a mere, upon which a swan was gliding - and beside which another swan (the partner?) was sitting in a nest. For the five minutes I was there before the arrival of the screaming kids playing hide-and-seek tag with their dad, it was the most amazingly tranquil place... this chap descibes it well, right down to the cattle grids - and the commenter adds the rest! I'm a bit spooked that the poster also experienced kids playing hide and seek running around - maybe they're not visitors at all, maybe it's a haunting... *g* Actually if it hadn't been so absolutely beautiful and... tranquil before they got there, I wouldn't have thought anything of it, cos it's nice to see kids having fun like that - but...
I carried on then, to my original destination - the seaside! It was nearly 5pm when I got there, but distraction's half the point of exploring, right? And the other half was to keep me away from a computer screen, and maybe even words in a book, for as long as possible...
It mostly worked - I ate my n'chips on the pebbly shore, and I couldn't resist getting my book out (the last time I did that was in Australia...), and it was lovely. I do like a nice seashore. Maybe I should move to the seaside... Oh, plus there was Turkish Delight ice cream (bottom of my scale in the Turkish Delight taste test, I'm afraid, but I also had a scoop of liquorice ice cream, and that was good). Actually there were two shops selling Turkish Delight ice cream - I'll have to go back and try the other one... *g*
And then, sadly, I turned my nose for home, and headed back into the - still daylight! In fact I got home around 8.30pm and it was still well daylight. This is at least a cool thing about summer, no matter what the weather's like! Though actually yesterday it was nice enough that I didn't put on my cardi until I was eating ice cream - and there was no rain!
Today I was faced with the same dilemma - woke up again with a headache, though not as bad as yesterday. I couldn't help but read with breakfast, but eventually I took myself out to see if I could find some non-computer, non-reading things to do - at a craft shop. Came back with a hookrug to do (I did loads when I was a kid - ah, nostalgia!) and a mosaic kit, cos I've always liked mosaics but never tried to do any. And of course here I am on the computer... But I've been good, I've lasted until now. My eyes are a little sore again as I look at the screen, which is not a good sign for the next three days of solid work that I need to do, but... but it's been a nice two days - I just wish my weekend was only just starting, rather than over - I feel all inside out!
Still - I'm on holiday in a few weeks. If I can decide where to go... I'm havering between Rome, and Ireland... or maybe something like Greece? Or...? I fancy a week away away again - Australia got my wanderlust on again... But where shall I go?! Please send ideas on a postcard... or, you know, reply below... *g*
Hope you've all got a nice weekend planned anyway - I shall live the next two days vicariously through yours, so make them good!
I found the Green Britain project, in Swaffham, which has the only windmill in the world that you're allowed to climb up - so I did. All 305 steps. Phew...
Nice view from the top - especially with the windmill blades swooping around, one after the other. They rotated around according to the wind direction too, though we stayed still. Oh, and you could feel the top swaying just a little - as if we were the ones swaying, but it wasn't, it was the windmill... *g*
Oddly enough, this was the view looking down the side of the stairway, as best I was able - it doesn't really show much, but I rather like the picture, in a... nuts and bolts kind of way.
And then I went and found a castle. I didn't really mean to, but it turned up in front of me, and what could I do but follow the sign?
It turned out to be Baconsthorpe Castle, which had once (500 years ago) been a moated manor house (not really a castle, but you can almost imagine that it was, from what's left). Not only is there a moat, but also a mere, upon which a swan was gliding - and beside which another swan (the partner?) was sitting in a nest. For the five minutes I was there before the arrival of the screaming kids playing hide-and-seek tag with their dad, it was the most amazingly tranquil place... this chap descibes it well, right down to the cattle grids - and the commenter adds the rest! I'm a bit spooked that the poster also experienced kids playing hide and seek running around - maybe they're not visitors at all, maybe it's a haunting... *g* Actually if it hadn't been so absolutely beautiful and... tranquil before they got there, I wouldn't have thought anything of it, cos it's nice to see kids having fun like that - but...
I carried on then, to my original destination - the seaside! It was nearly 5pm when I got there, but distraction's half the point of exploring, right? And the other half was to keep me away from a computer screen, and maybe even words in a book, for as long as possible...
It mostly worked - I ate my n'chips on the pebbly shore, and I couldn't resist getting my book out (the last time I did that was in Australia...), and it was lovely. I do like a nice seashore. Maybe I should move to the seaside... Oh, plus there was Turkish Delight ice cream (bottom of my scale in the Turkish Delight taste test, I'm afraid, but I also had a scoop of liquorice ice cream, and that was good). Actually there were two shops selling Turkish Delight ice cream - I'll have to go back and try the other one... *g*
And then, sadly, I turned my nose for home, and headed back into the - still daylight! In fact I got home around 8.30pm and it was still well daylight. This is at least a cool thing about summer, no matter what the weather's like! Though actually yesterday it was nice enough that I didn't put on my cardi until I was eating ice cream - and there was no rain!
Today I was faced with the same dilemma - woke up again with a headache, though not as bad as yesterday. I couldn't help but read with breakfast, but eventually I took myself out to see if I could find some non-computer, non-reading things to do - at a craft shop. Came back with a hookrug to do (I did loads when I was a kid - ah, nostalgia!) and a mosaic kit, cos I've always liked mosaics but never tried to do any. And of course here I am on the computer... But I've been good, I've lasted until now. My eyes are a little sore again as I look at the screen, which is not a good sign for the next three days of solid work that I need to do, but... but it's been a nice two days - I just wish my weekend was only just starting, rather than over - I feel all inside out!
Still - I'm on holiday in a few weeks. If I can decide where to go... I'm havering between Rome, and Ireland... or maybe something like Greece? Or...? I fancy a week away away again - Australia got my wanderlust on again... But where shall I go?! Please send ideas on a postcard... or, you know, reply below... *g*
Hope you've all got a nice weekend planned anyway - I shall live the next two days vicariously through yours, so make them good!
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Date: Monday, 28 April 2014 10:20 pm (UTC)Thanks for the tip about f.lux - I'm having a go of it now, and although it's a bit strange getting used to the peachy look of it at night, and I'm not entirely sure it works for proofreading, where some of the print is in red, but maybe with a bit of fiddling it will! My eyes are feeling a bit better after a couple of days rest, and I've managed to extend a deadline so I can take it a little easier over the next week, so hopefully they'll be fine!
What Hambel (and Mr Hambel!) said about the wooden barriers, though I'd forgotten they were called groynes! They do look odd, don't they - not quite the seaside, to me, although they're not entirely unpicturesque either...