And my poor eyesight. No, blame it on the view primarily.
I had another amazing opportunity to head out for an adventure around country park in Swanage. We started the day uphill before popping into my optician. Almost 25 mile drive to get a professional advice on the type of contact lenses I should be wearing while having many stores just at the end of my nose must be a weird decision to maintain a good eyesight. We were never uncertain about how to tie ourselves to this place - the more strings attached the happier returns. So we moved away to a crowded town but the plan has always been simple - to feel comfortable away because of things to come back to. And if optician is what has tied us here, let it be wholeheartedly. Each time we visit we pick up fragments of things that are changing and yet they're timeless to our hearts.
We are thrilled to the point of jokingly browsing the listings of properties for sale near the house we used to live. There's never a sign of activity here so we knock on the door to make sure we don't surprise anyone. Rarely someone opens it. The door either stays flung open or we greet our friends as they appear from nowhere. On early days of our visits we were leaving notes on scraps of paper, looking around the house for snippets of new things, the mid-afternoon lull in quiet murmuring of the fields, petting cats on our way out. We peaked into our room, shared a few memories or surprised gasps and went to greet the downtown. We did it again this time but the view was altogether different. The newly built house of our ex-landlords and friends' daughter has been placed where our space used to be. From a double vintage styled room there is only a little nook with sofa and hundred old wardrobe leaning towards the wall. Despite the new layout there was everything to be admired about this wild garden again - nothing really reduced it to give new building a life but it naturally embraced it from all angles allowing the old house shyly admiring its tall next of kin. We kindly examined the new addition - freshly build with all the technological facilities, even 'loo with the view' breathtakingly facing the moor.
I still prefer the old building, wooden floors echoing our late footsteps, long grass seducing the bricks or being beaten down by the rain. I could see Nadia gathering cats to her arms and chasing butterflies, saying hello to the postman making his way to the back door fighting with benches and carrying packages and magazines I subscribed to a long time ago. What
if Nadia was raised here, with the symphony of the sea and clashing of
trees, everyone knowing each other and being eager to help. Is
it better to dash away from the bustle of the city once in a while or
rush to it from the peacefulness of the sleeping village?
And then we returned home to rise to another day of the same views and chores. But here in this place,
the stone, the sea were cast in a palette of different tones. There's
no rush in nature, no hurry in exploring it. And that makes Andrea and her family our relatives in a way. I love the idea of it. Definitely.
