Jo here. My husband and I took a short break over into Dorset to visit the coastal visit of Charmouth on the Jura
ssic Coast. This stretch of coastal cliffs shed rocks under the influence of the sea, revealing fossils from the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous periods, so we thought we'd go fossil hunting. We didn't find a great deal, but it's always pleasant to wander about at the sea edge.
We realized we were almost half way to Stonehenge, so we decided to leave early on the third day and go there. The delights of living in a small country with a lot of interesting old stuff.
For one reason or another, we'd never been, which was a shame as people used to be able to wander about the stones at will. However, we were curious about the new set up there and it was only about 90 minutes further. There's a new visitor center over a mile from the stones, and shuttle buses running continuously to take visitors there.
In my opinion, the trouble with really famous places is a) that there are always a lot of other people there, but b) that we see and know so much about them that we don't get the impact that others did in the past. However, the organization is now very smooth, and the stones are impressive, no matter how you look at it. Of course, people are fascinated by how prehistoric people moved such stones from far away and arranged them in a purposeful design. I'm more interested in why, especially with a place like Stonehenge, where people went to great effort to create structures over millennia. The stones are only the last of many effortful layers.
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I'm delighted to have as my guest today my friend Alissa Baxter, a South African romance writer who has written a trilogy of sweet Regency romances with heroines who have unconventional interests. The first, The Earl's Lady Geologist, has just been released.