I took my camera out for a walk yesterday because a Spanish galleon leaving Poole Harbour isn’t something you get to see often, and this time they hadn’t set anything alight, which is always nice. Only, of course, this is a replica and it was here as a floating museum and the Spanish are lovely people. They probably always were but war does strange things, doesn’t it?
I was disappointed that it didn’t have sails up, but amazed by the sight of it. It doesn’t look real, does it? But I haven’t touched the picture. Instead, I went racing across the grass because it left earlier than announced. I saw why it had had to when I reached the Quay to see that all the pleasure boats that take people to Brownsea Island, which you can see in the background, and around the Harbour had been held back to give it a clear passage and me some amazing pictures.
And you know the lovely thing in this sad old world we’re living in? No one seemed to mind and everyone was talking about it and the mega yacht that’s in harbour (nothing like as beautiful as a simple sailing ship in my opinion, but each to their own.) A lifeboat was on a proving cruise, little sailing boats were out and about on the water, including my favourite one with the red sails. I don’t know why it’s my favourite. Perhaps because it’s so visible and it seems to be heading off with such an air of ‘whee! Off to find adventure!’ So, of course, am I, but I’ve got a keyboard instead.
The Harbour was bustling and alive yet everyone was being nice to each other. No raised voices, instead people enjoying the crabbing. So was the crab who ate the bait and then scuttled away when he was scooped out of the water and went back down the Harbour wall amazingly fast. I could have sworn he was grinning, and I’ve long suspected that our crabs down there take advantage of the tourists as a food supply. There’s a great big one with barnacles on his shell who I’ve seen in buckets for the last couple of years, so I’ve been wondering if he should have his own Trip Advisor style page where he rates his food and temporary accommodation.
Yes, I am being daft, but what is happening in England at the moment frightens me because it strikes me that this is what happens when we forget that people are still people when they don’t share our views. There’s a lot of that about and has been for years, so my Simple Pleasures and my writing both focus firmly on the people who do care about each other and who don’t get so caught up in the darkness that we forget how much light there is.
It occurred to me yesterday as I watched people heading for the boats to Brownsea that I was seeing more scouts than there’d been people arrested. Youngsters doing good things. Being polite. Caring about others. Led by volunteers. That’s the real world, and it’s going on quietly beneath the surface. So today, assuming it stops raining, I shall go and cut back the brambles from the council planter at the top of the road which are trying to take over the path. I don’t agree with the Council's priorities or feel that they listen to people who don't agree with them but I want people to be able to walk past without being caught in the face or having clothes ripped so I’ll make it happen in my little corner of the world. Tomorrow, I’ll take my litter picker, gloves and plastic bag down to the beach along by the Harbour and clear up as much as I can to protect the creatures I love and who seem to have so much more sense than we humans.
They’re not big things, but I will make a small difference and I believe that if we all did it, we could change the world!
Alternatively, you could read a good book and avoid the darkness of the news. Or better still you could do both and I just happen to have some books on offer so here goes…
There are four books from my Shadows series, which I write as Eleanor Neville, which feel both very appropriate and very comforting. The Shadows are a shadowy group of agents of MI16 who exist to work behind the scenes to stop things the bad things happening. Oh, how I wish they were real right now! These books are Fallen Angel., Haunted Angel, Running Home and Running Scared. They’re a little bit darker than Tia Brown, and a bit sexier but the same underlying theme is there, which is that either all of us matter or no one matters. The Shadows believe that everyone matters and so, strangely enough, do I.
Things could be worse though. I could be widowed mum Lucy Williams who’s caught up in trouble even though she was told to keep her head down when she was given a new identity. She’s done her best, but now trouble seems to be intent on finding her. Luckily, the skills she’s learned as a work from home mum and those she was trained in in her former life as a spy come in very handy. These are Child’s Play and Fete Worse than Death and are variations on a theme that fascinates me. What do spies do when they stop being spies? How do they juggle work and home? And in this case, what would it be like to have to change your identity and deny such a big part of your life? How alone must you feel?
Take care till we meet again, and please try to remember the simple pleasures no matter how dark the world seems and how hard this is to do.
Comments