I went to Salisbury

.... for a change of view

I’ve just got back, and it is pouring with rain again, but I missed it and am home and dry. The little girl who lives in the house on the other side of the square has just set off, very importantly striding through puddles, clearly on a mission. She has navy blue waterproofs on and is a small bundle of determination. She is accompanied by her father. He is looking slightly resigned. He knows when he is in the grip of a higher authority.

Salisbury is about an hour away on the bus, which goes round about everywhere, so I’ve seen a lot more of Wiltshire than before, and some of it is lovely and some of it ISN’T.

She is BACK, they have been to the CoOp, and there is discussion about taking boots off. She has taken them off outside. Her socks are now very wet. There is hopping about going on and a LOT of dripping and the beginnings of a drama. I think it is time for tea.

Anyway, Salisbury. I bypassed shops (bored of shops). Except, except this:

Captive Worlds

They do Terrariums “For Office And Home” (and aquariums, if that is your thing) and they had the sweetest little teeeny weeeeny terrariums for the desk area, I imagine.

They provide a “relaxing visual wonder in your home” and if you were very stressed they might just be calming, but they have sold out, so I didn’t get one. The website has things for sale to build your very own creative terrarium such as:

This is “Elderly Stone”

I know how it feels to be "Elderly Stone” because the ferocious cream I am applying to various areas of sun damage on my face has done something similar to the above except red. I just hope it calms down by the time I head to Dartmoor (more stones) in 10 days time for a family gathering. There will be questions.

Well, then into the Close and there was the Cathedral, looking just like itself, amazing and, despite its vast size, somehow ethereal in its setting. A nice, efficient person sold me a ticket for £12 and gave me lots of pieces of till receipt and told me to keep them because the ticket is valid for a WHOLE YEAR. So that is pretty good, I think. Very chuffed by this I then went in and was thoroughly suitably awed.

There are very good guides (they have nice green sashes on - so you can identify them) and you can join a group and get super information, but for this preliminary visit as an adult (as children we visited often) I had an independent meander. The memorials are deeply moving, too many young men finished too soon.

There is also the skeleton of a rat, although that does require the eye of faith, because it is rather squished up and could well be an “elderly stone”. It seems that the presence of the rat skeleton MIGHT indicate that someone in a tomb MIGHT have been poisoned, but this is inconclusive evidence. The jury is out on this one. Richard Osman might have a think about this as a plot.

This is a pillar of a highly ornamental monument - I can’t remember who it commemorated but I am taken with the gold vine on black background and spent quite a lot of time admiring and wondering where I could work the idea into the flat, perhaps in the kitchen? Being fruity.

In the Chapter House (brilliant floor tiles - replicas of originals made by Minton) is the MAGNA CARTA - there are only four copies in the whole World remaining, and one of them is in a rather amateur tent affair (staple gun in evidence) to protect from the light in the Chapter House.

During WW2 the Chapter House was used to provide shelter for bombed out families and a false ceiling was installed to make sure that if the windows were shattered the glass wouldn’t fall on them. There is an example of a modern day pack of basics for refugees, and basic it is indeed, but I can see that it would help in dire need. There is a chapel specifically dedicated for prayers for victims of war, or really, victims of anything at all, which is the point.

Then I had another walk about, going the wrong way round, but they were very forgiving, went to the shop and bought Adam Nicholson’s “How To Be”, which I thought would be useful, and skipped (for the time being) the books about Green Men and Stone Circles, but I will get on to those soon.

On to an early lunch, steak frites and a firm red, and people watching. Back onto the bus, having waited for it sitting on a bench under the plane trees on the edge of the Market Place.

All in all, a good day was had, and no dealing with NHS complications. They can wait.

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Now I am going to watch “Inspector Ricciardi” on Channel 4 World Drama - I am fascinated by the curl on his forehead which escapes his swept back hair. He has soulful eyes, which is useful because he doesn’t talk a lot, but the eyes have it. Italian and dramatic.