Cloud Hill


It was Sunday and Father's Day. Susan wanted to know what I wanted to do on Father's Day? Difficult question as I really did not know what she wanted to do, or had planned. Also there was the tricky question of Robert being home, did he want to do something, he is my son and I am his father and as no other children where about to add some advise, I decided to go to Cloud Hill, last home of Thomas Edward Lawrence, CB, DSO , war hero and later to become a subject of a cinematic picture, known as Lawrence of Arabia. Cloud Hill is very close to Bere Regis and is maintained by the National Trust.
We never know when the reaper comes for his reward. Lawrence lived a very daring life, in the war when he worked with the Arabs to fight the Germans and later with all his dreams. He met his death on a simple country road in Dorset. He actually hit a bicycle with his motorbike. In all fairness to Thomas, there was a dip in the road and he had to serve to avoid them. A glancing blow for the bicycle and the nod to a troubled soul by that stage of his life. Lawrence was taken to the hospital and died 6 days later, without regaining consciousness.

A writer of some very good books at the time and still read today, the most well known 'Seven Pillars of Wisdom'. Now this is a book I do not think I have read. I will, maybe one of two of you will join me and give your views. Let's form a book club, why not. Now there is a dilemma, what to call this most prestigious of learned circles? 

His good friend, Thomas Hardy, once said. 'A story must be exceptional enough to justify the telling. We tale-tellers are all ancient Mariners, and none of us is warranted in stopping Wedding Guests (in other words, the hurrying public) unless he has something more unusual to relate than the ordinary experience of every average man and woman.'
Hopefully the Seven Pillars of Wisdom will live up to his friends advise.

In the end, it was Sunday afternoons and this is were I can cope. That great feeling of rest which starts to set in at about 2.55, when you know that you’ve had all the walks and outing you can usefully have that day, that however hard you try, you just want to get home, to that long dark teatime of the soul.
The air was clear and scented, the breeze flitted lightly through the grass around the garden, the birds were chirruping at each other, the butterflies were flitting about prettily, and the whole of nature seemed to be conspiring to be as pleasant as it possibly could. I had just fed the birds with the recommended National Trust, wild bird feed but I am sure that had nothing to do with it.
I read about the knack of flying. "The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss.’  That explains the bruiser on my knees and elbows.
Susan was busy in the garden today, cutting the lawn and watering the flowers. Before all that, we did a trip to Poole to buy some clothes for Susan. On Monday Susan will be meeting a Chinese delegation and then on to a formal dinner. What to wear? As we were going to Poole to buy clothes for her to wear, she took the opportunity to buy some clothes to wear, with the Chinese in mind.

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