Hilary

Congratulations, Seagreen ~ as Libby says it is an intriguing story.  Wonder what intriguing challenge you will be setting us for September…

As usual, I loved all the very different and well written entries which embraced the theme so well.  So virtual medals to all!

Thanks Libby for the prompt and your kind words. Only as I finished writing my entry did I recall the only holiday spent with my parents was in 1973 , after chld#3 born. It was NOT a success (and Dovercourt still feels like home)

John on holiday

John.

This is the strangest holiday ever. Chris should have been here. She even did all the bookings for us, and now I have to explain to everybody why it’s only me. The weather is perfect. Not too hot, not too cold. She’d have loved it—walking along the coast, looking down on the seabird colonies. Salt, warm seaweed on the narro…[Read more]

The Space Between the Notes (334 words inc title)

It was more than a holiday; it was a ritual, starting with the drive north. The choice of music; what the kids called my soppy stuff – Savage Garden, Beautiful South and sshhh, don’t say it out loud, Barry Manilow – and the way I always packed the car with a hundred and one things I wou…[Read more]

Your thought about the V16 engine and the 1966 formula is indeed intriguing, but if anyone at BRM did seriously consider it then I think it would have come unstuck on the fuel question if nothing else. It is my understanding that one reason for the Alfetta’s inordinate thirst (1.5 miles to the gallon in its final form!) was that it relied on…[Read more]

Great blog as usual Richard. It’s a fascinating story. One of those that has so much promise of what might have been, yet also so typical of the often shambolic British way of going about things that one feels it could only ever have ended up this way. Look at the contemporary British aviation industry – much brilliance and yet so much avoidable c…[Read more]

Orientation

In July 1953 we  – Dad, mum. brother and me, left  our  now-echoing  and curtainless home on the edge of Dovercourt Bay – an Essex seaside town dominated by a pair of cast iron  lighthouses whose clean, and well-protected sands were sectioned by sea-slimy black wooden groynes within which squatted large black crabs. There was  also a…[Read more]

Good morning – thank you for the explanation!  I was hot and tired when answering so probably brain was not 100% either and I made some sort of mistake, but hey ho!!!

You are right – I am old enough to have gone through quite a few similar challenges in my time, so do echo your thoughts.  A lengthy training and practice of counselling and the p…[Read more]

Jill, the Den’s Activity Page posts extracts changes (replies, new topics etc) from the public sections of the Den. You replied directly to the Activity Page version of this thread – you can check by selecting “Activity” from the menu at the top of all the Den’s pages. It’s all still there, although you’ll need to scroll a *long* way as my…[Read more]

Not sure where our latest conversation has gone, but glad you are progressing slowly and coming to accept future limitations.  Good that you can walk by the coast.

I wrote quite a long reply, but cannot find it anywhere.  Blaming the heat or perhaps the computer thought my reply far too long!!!

Anyhow, thanks for asking.  We are coming th…[Read more]

Felt inspired and nostalgic by your prompt Libby!!  Happy carefree times …

Annual Holiday by the Sea

(Immediately inspired by July’s theme)

When I was a little girl the high point of the school Summer break was our family holiday by the sea.  It was only for a week and very often to Goodrington near Paignton in Devon.

Just writing that paragraph has immediately brought back so many memories of carefree, happy times…[Read more]

First, congratulations to Libby.  Look forward to reading what theme you are going to set us for August.

Secondly, I echo Sandra in the fact that childhoods now past have been vividly evoked here in rich words worthy of Denizens!  In addition, thank you Sandra for introducing me to a word I had never heard before and one which is impressive in i…[Read more]

Thank TOY Ath foc comp and commentryand well done to all of us for so vividly  evoking childhoods now past, I  particularly enjoyed Ath’s reference to radio – ours was a brown 18″B Bakelite cube which was only allowed into our bedrooms when we were sick (and often. it seemed. Luxembourg sicker. Looking forward to Libby’s comp for August.

Jill’s entry grabbed my attention straight away, because although my own childhood was a few years later, so much was the same. And yes, all the shops shut. In fact, almost everything shut on a Sunday apart from Church and Sunday School. “Hear the pennies dropping” for those who remember it. So much centered on the home back then. A wonderful…[Read more]

Don’t mind at all; hope fulfilling demands not too onerous.

A brace of fabulous entries this month. Real life has struck at an awkward moment with silly demands on time. I hope you won’t mind too much If I pinch a day from the next comp. and post the results tomorrow evening. So sorry about that.