What have the Romans ever done for us?

One of the jobs given to us by Jof was to clear the front garden of snails, the large edible variety that the Romans introduced to this country as a taste of home.

She hates their sliminess and the way they lie in wait to jump up and bite your neck. They also have stripped the dahlias from the plant pots by the front door so we went out there and collected as many as we could find. 76! Then, using only 1 half-brick and a compost heap, we made this noise: crunchcrunchflunchscrape

Like good little domesticated slaves we diligently put out every bit of laundry until the line was full. Then we had an early lunch and cycled down to the train station to catch a train to Portchester. I still don't have to pay for a ticket, and kids' bikes seem to go free. It was a pleasant bike ride to the castle past houses with ©1703 and stuff written over their front doors, one of which was below pavement level.

I liked the castle but headed straight for the internal moat around the keep where someone called Max and his friends were crabbing. I purloined a net from one of them and even caught 1 crab as we all perched precariously on the outflow pipe, it's amazing that none of us fell in. Somebody's dog did, though, and it churned up the water happily.

After a quick walk around the outer walls of this former Roman fortress with medieval additions, we entered the inner courtyard and keep. I found the spiral staircase straight away and that's how we got to the roof but we did explore every other bit as well.

After an energy-building snack we rode off to the swingpark off Castle Lane. It's small and drab and is rubberized not wood-chipped but it does have a couple of chain-based climbing frames. I was demonstrating to someone older than me when he wiggled it, I had a sulk in the corner until he called me a pansy princess and we continued on our journey. The next stopoff for swingpark play was by Hilsea Lido, I made Romanesque sandcastles with 3 co-conspirators while an unknown girl judged our efforts. More riding later and we reached the giant swingpark by St Marys' Church. That's when it started to rain so we did the last bit in time to retrieve the laundry just as it had re-attained its original wetness. Total bike ride today: 8½ miles.
When Jof got home tired from a long day at work I cheered her up by forcing her to play scrabble and looking through all the calendars from Granddads and so forth, for I am not tired.