everywhere there's a shop!

.

This just can't be true can it?

This can though. This is what all shops should look like - right next to a bar! 
As an added bonus the bar is right next to a restaurant and all of it is within the walls of a bowls club; the Dolphin Indoor Bowls Club in Poole which - wait for the next piece of unbelievable news - is six minutes from our new home in Dorset, which includes getting in and getting out of the car!


They have even put pictures on the wall to show you what's outside - if you ever feel the need to go outside.





Poole Quay







Sandbanks:

where you can buy a house currently on the market at £7,500,000.  Too far away from the bowls club for me. And why spend that sort of money when you can be a member  here and stay in all day and play for a membership of £75 per annum.

11 rinks of glorious technicolour and comfort;

here's rink 11 where we played this morning: already members you see.


And I think  we have discovered why many people here are so friendly and ready to chat. This quote may sum it up.

"Other things may change us, but we start and end with the family". Anthony Brandt

This may explain why everyone living around here seems to be doing so because, like us, age has persuaded them to move nearer their families. In so doing we have discovered what other joys surround us, which we can enjoy while our families get on with their lives.

And there are no stairs to climb and no gardening to think about. 

Paradise just keeps improving!

" . . . down to the seas . . ."

I must go down to the seas again, for the call of the running tide

Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied;

And all I ask is a windy day with the white clouds flying,

And the flung spray and the blown spume, and the sea-gulls crying.

    There is not much running tide, neither wind nor white clouds flying. As for flung spray, blown spume and sea-gulls crying you could say John Masefield did not write his poem after looking at a seascape like this:

    

    

    or this!

   

   
   Nevertheless, we are by the sea - Poole Quay to be exact: less than 15 minutes from our new home and the first time we have been down to the sea since our arrival in November.

    But somehow or other, I get the feeling we really only came down to see a view of a different sort not far from the shore!

I wonder if Mrs Masefield had this uncanny knack of finding such views wherever they went?

The blasted heath

Another gloriously sunny day and a bit more of "Exploration Dorset", although to be honest there is so much to see within a few minutes of Broadstone, Dr Livingstone would never have got to Africa had he started from here.



Canford Heath, like a lot of other attractions, is just down the road from us and part nature reserve with a little tough walking in the winter, although these pictures were taken today.

Lots of trees











and plenty of opportunities to get your feet wet










but what serenity without people.

If you ever decide to visit us, ensure you get the right Broadstone. This is not ours!

Is everybody happy?

For those old enough to know, the heading of this post was coined by an American dance band leader in the thirties - Ted Lewis.
This is not his picture. These are old work colleagues taken in 2008 at the sort of work they did many years before: John Ellis and bespectacled Eddie Harley. It is here because Eddie rang me today to ask how we had settled in our new home in Dorset.

We have settled in well in spite of two unfortunate happenings. The first was our gas boiler expiring on New Year's Eve: we were without central heating until a new one was fitted on the 12th January. People without electric blankets don't know what they are missing when such a crisis occurs. 

The second will be much more difficult to ovecome. I now discover the design of our kitchen wallpaper is taken from Eddie's tie. If you click on the pictures the enlargements will show you what I mean.

Back to his question.  Here, right, is where we walked today. You will see the brilliant sunshine through the trees. This is ten minutes from home. 

And when we returned home we were entertained by the local wildlife that appears most days on the lawn in front of our flat: 

better seen perhaps in close-up; on the left from our balcony.

"How many bedrooms do you have" asked Eddie, who has always had an interest in bedrooms.

       "Two! There were three but one is now a study", pictured below.

.

Ignoring the bedrooms, I can show you the entrance hall and lounge. Not bad is it?

Come and see us Eddie; but change your tie because we might not see you if you are standing in the kitchen!

Before you come buy a copy of daughter Alison's book. You can buy it on Amazon in paperback or Kindle. If I tell you it's good I am biased - 

but it's good!

Can you only please some of the people some of the time?

This is 'our local', 

The Blackwater Stream, Broadstone.

 




It looks like this with people in it - at 6.15pm on a Tuesday evening! 











Same day, same time; taken from where I sat. Comfortable enough for me and many others.








Referring to Trap Avoider which, if you read every single review would mean you would never go anywhere, there are some who like it and some who seem to think that for two very good steaks and two large glasses of red wine or two pints of decent beer for under £18 in total served by very pleasant and polite young people, you should be receiving five star hotel service.

So, it has become a bit worn in places. So have I at my age. You would you be too if you had to accommodate the many customers who throng here every night. I imagine Master Wetherspoon will do a bit of refurbishing before too long!
I haven't written for Trap Avoider, but I have eaten here more times in the six weeks since I moved to Dorset than I have in any pub in the last twenty years - and I spent most of my working life in the Brewery Trade!

Pubs wouldn't be closing at the rate they are if they provided what the Blackwater Stream offers its customers.

Here we are, or part of us, walking in the glorious Dorset sunshine yesterday.




But something has gone wrong today with the weather.
Something has also gone wrong with our boiler which means we have had no central heating since New Year's Eve.
Today the man and his mate came to install a new boiler and water cylinder and all the bits that go with it. We went to get out of the way in search of glorious Dorset and found ourselves in Blandford Forum.



This picture will give you some idea of why you may not want to follow us there in the wind and rain. It is a bit like Daventry High Street at rush hour!








At least we saw this in a shop window: it will certainly bring comfort to some!