Rats!

A nice day today. We started off in Richmond Farmers’ Market, buying hot flatbread and mint tea from the Algerian stall for our breakfast. We carried it down to the river and sat there gazing at the water, with our bellies getting happily warmed while our heads slowly woke up. Afterwards, Charles gave me a bunch of beautiful, golden-coloured tulips. Flowers for no reason– blimey! That put a smile on my face for sure!

Then off to Poole for the afternoon! We drove into the town and tried to find the beaches… round and round we went, following the brown sandcastle signs. Suddenly the sandcastle signs stopped and so, with the water close by on our right, we found a car park and got out of the car. There was a lone ice cream van in the car park, so we bought the obligatory seaside ice creams, and wandered off in the direction of the water. Disappointingly, it wasn’t very beachy. There was a low, concrete wall running along the shoreline, and on the other side of this the water lapped gently at the mud and pebbles. But we ate our ice creams and took some photos of the seagulls anyway. Eventually we decided to get back into the car and see if we could find somewhere nicer further along the coast.

Off we set. And soon came across sand and people and proper beaches – we had been nowhere near the beach before! Dur! And to think that we might have driven away, thinking that a bit of grass and mud was all there was to Poole!

Anyway, we spent hours wandering along the beach. We paddled in the (icy) water, took photos, collected shells, felt the sand between our toes (and the odd sharp stone!). A dog stopped her walk to play with me at one point. I was throwing pebbles for her to retrieve – not that she was picking them up, but she liked chasing them into the water, watching them go splash, and then waiting for the next pebble to be thrown. Eventually I spotted her owners in the distance, calling and waving, and as doggy wasn’t keen to finish our game, I took her on a little walk back to them.

We finished the day eating fish and chips in a picnic area on the cliff top, watching the sun set, with a rather cute rat looking wistfully at our chips from the bushes! After we stood up and moved away from our picnic table, Charles paused to take some photos of the lights across the water, so I stood beside him and watched the rat snuffling around. Suddenly a noise startled the bushes, which shook all over – and I realised just how many rats must actually be hidden in there! Glad I didn’t know that when I had been sitting just six inches away! One rat = cute, whereas 50 rats = bloody scary!