I own a sea facing cottage on an unmade road<\/p>\n
It is about one hundred years old<\/p>\n
And was built as a summer retreat of a London solicitor<\/p>\n
It is said that he brought his mistresses here<\/p>\n
And there are written accounts of them swimming naked in the sea<\/p>\n
In 1968 when clearing out a cupboard my father found some pornographic photographs<\/p>\n
Some of which hang in my study and the guest rooms and cause great amusement<\/p>\n
My grandfather purchased this cottage in 1938 but rarely used it because of the war<\/p>\n
He gave it to my father in 1960 and my father in turn gave it to me in 1985<\/p>\n
I have owned it with Jane ever since and we use it as a permanent home<\/p>\n
Many people tell us how lucky we are to live in such as lovely area<\/p>\n
And I agree with them but note that winters are not as idyllic<\/p>\n
As we are often battered by gale force winds and are exposed to the full fury of the sea<\/p>\n
Eight years ago whilst walking nearby I found the body of a yachtsman who had fallen from his boat<\/p>\n
This upset me greatly and for many years I did not really feel settled here<\/p>\n
But I prayed to God for guidance and slowing he granted me release<\/p>\n
Although I still keep in touch with the poor mans family who I count as friends<\/p>\n
The cottage has three bedrooms and a box room which Jane treats as her space<\/p>\n
I use one of the sea facing bedrooms as my study as I write poetry and minor fictions<\/p>\n
We sometimes alter these arrangements when we have guests and I also have a large shed in the garden<\/p>\n
Which I have converted into a summer house and this doubles in emergency as rustic quarters<\/p>\n
Whilst highly organised we are also very flexible in all our arrangements as it is better not to be rigid<\/p>\n
About two weeks ago I purchased a metal table and chairs which I have painted light blue<\/p>\n
I have placed these on the hinterland of the beach overlooking the ever changing tide lines<\/p>\n
These replaced the previous table and chairs which were becoming more fragile by the year<\/p>\n
I have given these to the two Anna’s who are planning to create a beach sculpture<\/p>\n
Both Jane and I are very happy here and on the long summer days wonder if we\u00a0 have found paradise<\/p>\n
But we know that paradise is a state of mind and nothing else and that others vary<\/p>\n
Occasionally we are asked by passers by whether they might photograph our cottage<\/p>\n
I do not have a problem with this as I only own the physical and the visual is for all to share<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Stanley & Jane\u00a0<\/em> <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I own a sea facing cottage on an unmade road It is about one hundred years old And was built as a summer retreat of a London solicitor It is said that he brought his mistresses here And there are written accounts of them swimming naked in the sea In 1968 when clearing out a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11535","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11535","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11535"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11535\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11539,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11535\/revisions\/11539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nAugust 2022<\/em><\/p>\n