What’s on your doorstep?

I am of course not meaning this literally, but in the vicinity of your house. We have travelled the world, and yet I’m constantly surprised by new discoveries nearer home. This past week has got me thinking about this both in terms of people and geography. Apart from spending every spare moment knitting the royal wedding to get finished in time for the big day (more of that later), we have found time to partake in the biggest political protest in Dorchester since the mid-1960s, and go on a couple of walks near the town.

The march was to voice our concerns over plans to build multimillion pound council offices and a new library, at a time when many council workers are facing redundancy. I accept that there is a need for new office premises as the current historical buildings are not easily accessible for the disabled, and there is a lot of redundant corridor space that is costing a small fortune to heat. My question is why the offices cannot be located in Poundbury, where there have been offices to let in new buildings for months, and why now. It seems odd that they have chosen now to move. At a time when we are cash-strapped it seems our priorities are wrong. ‘People not Premises’ as our main message, and I hope that our voices were heard. On the matter of a new library, I totally agreed with our local library campaigner that a new library would be wonderful, but not at a time when 19 rural local libraries are facing closure, and we already have a perfectly adequate library service in town.

All this community activism was a great opportunity to chat to other locals and feel a real part of the town in which we live. I left with a warm feeling in my heart for having done so.

We went for a lovely short walk yesterday a mere 5 minutes away from our house. I have lived here for almost a decade and M has been here since he was a teenager and never new we had a Bronze Age hillfort so close by. Obviously we have Maiden Castle the other side of Dorchester, but Poundbury Hillfort is it’s virtually deserted smaller cousin - I have a new favourite picnic and reading spot! We are very lucky to live across from the beautifully manicured Victorian Borough Gardens, but there are times when only solitude will do. Take a look at a few of the photos:

Continuing on the theme of new discoveries, during our trip to Montreal I picked up a copy of The Believer Magazine published by McSweeneys. I have a few issues of the McSweeneys Quarterly Concern, a quirky literary periodical edited by Dave Eggers which arrives in various guises variously as a pile of junk mail or a pack of cards amongst other designs. Every article was thought provoking and brilliant, with features including hyperbolic crochet and an essay on the difficulties of translating nonsense. I was completely taken and treated myself to a years subscription. Yesterday the Film Issue arrived, complete with a DVD of a silent movie from Berlin in 1930 ‘People on Sunday’. It is an early play by Billy Wilder who went on to write such things as ‘Some Like it Hot’. I would thoroughly recommend subscribing – thought-provoking and pushing me enjoyably outside my usual sphere of experience which is all you could ask for in a magazine.

Back to the important issue of knitting. I am getting a bit quicker, but these are still taking a lot of hours! I am really enjoying doing it though and the resulting giggles at he final ensemble will make it worthwhile! I have watched three series of the West Wing so far…