The persistence of historical beauty
So what do I sit here and do? Another day, another post. Although sadly I have been terribly remiss in posting. What is that all about? Exploring human nature and the mind I guess. Sometimes I might get too deeply involved in that. But anyway, I digress.
A representative drawing of this historical place
So I have spent the last little while here in the south of England. I have been here before and my girlfriend has been so kind to offer me accommodation during and in between my constant moving about. So I have come to know the Bournemouth, Christchurch, Southbourne etc. area a little better. I really quite like Christchurch. It really is quaint and quite ideal. It is located right on the ocean with lots of history and a lovely high street with historic pubs. A couple of marinas populate the coast line. Sailboats and power boats, plenty to look at. Rivers run deep inland and you are able to run or bike along paths following nature’s flow.
The old Norman House Castle - wait - can I say that?
Even though I have been here before and posted about the Priory and other interesting ruins, I had missed the castle. Well cycling about to check out a local fitness centre, I stumbled across the old castle and I found it so interesting in its compromised and crumbling state. Why does history never cease to stir me?
River boundary with the section of the old water closet at the far end
I try to imagine what it might have been like here, back in the day, back where there was a castle and fortifications, right on the coast at the mouth of the river. There are times I feel homesick for the newness and wildness of Canada, but it is so different because you would never run across ruins or history such as this. The history in Canada is there, but as it is First Nation’s history for the most part, and they did not tend to build structures that would not eventually return to nature, we do not have the same persisting evidence of man’s presence. Middens although interesting for what they represent, are really just what they are – a pile of shells. How really interesting is that???
Looking through the windows of the past
So here sits this aged castle, no roof, no floors. Right on the edge of the river giving you a sense of a moat which might have surrounded it. And I love the vestiges of the old water closet, with it own collection area walled off from the rest of the building. This would have fallen straight into the river in the day. Ahhhh, true luxury and modernity, a toilet in your house. Granted it was really just gravity and a hole. But I love it.
Yet the buildings of yore persist ... if only they could talk.
Some days I long for the simplicity and think what would life have been like then without all the distraction. No radio or tv so if you were just looking to do something you read or did something physical, or maybe like a dog, you just sat there and existed in the present. That I think is a gift that we have lost with all our distractions … our inability just to be, to exist in the present doing nothing but being. Ah but I think I digress.
Anyway…