a bit more of Dorset all sorts

"Never seen rain like this" down here in Dorset.
You can see for yourself it's pretty wet. I have only included it to get your attention as you may be tiring of pictures of the natural beauty of this part of England.
You will have to click on this next picture to see the detail.


From time to time my late friend Wally Emery would collect his elderly mother from Reading and take her down to holiday at his home in the West Country. Such a scene as this always gave rise to the same inevitable comment:
 "I can't understand the price of mutton Wally with all these sheep about".


Remember "Last of the Summer Wine"?   Do you recall the two policemen out in the Yorkshire countryside who sat in their car eating their sandwiches and discussing nothing of great importance. They have been transferred here: we saw them; or is it just a thing policemen do everywhere!


If I told you the name of the villages hereabouts you may never have heard of them:Gussage St Michael, Tarrant Gunville, Tarrant Hinton, Tarrant Keyneston,
Tarrant Hinton, Tarrant Monkton and this gem, Tarrant Rushton.
Here is St Mary's Church, old and quite ordinary outside.


Inside, a joy of colour shared with village children in this corner.
The sunbeams have not been added; they really were there.

You may not recognise the person in this next picture.
It is Sir Alan Cobham who, in the thirties was renowned, for amongst other attributes, as the leader of his flying circus team of pilots who toured Britain and gave many their first thrills of aerial display. He worked out a system for refueling aircraft from aerial tankers that was first used off Ireland in 1939. His company, Flight Refueling, is based in Wimborne in Dorset, near to which is the very vibrant Cobham Sports and Social Club (membership full). He is buried (1973) in St Mary's churchyard in Tarrant Rushton. 

Snowdrops seem to like Dorset. Following this French style road  you may come across another delightfully named village; Gussage All Saints where the churchyard is a delight in February and where the locals are fighting to save their 'local' the Drovers Inn which, if you believe half of what you read in Tripe Avoider, was either packed to the doors or empty because the 'landlord' was drunk!

This is not an isolated problem in villages, or even towns, across England. It is difficult to understand how this pub has been classified by the District Council as an Asset of Community Value when most locals thought it so much of an asset they rarely or never used it.







Here's another mystery. Where in Dorset would you find this view?

I may have misled you at the start: it was not raining, I was in here. in here.

Winter peace and William Rodney

This is a bit more of Dorset countryside looking north from a viewpoint at Canford not far from our new home at Broadstone:

and this is the River Stour where it passes Canford School a stone's throw from Wimborne,












a placid scene even in February where single sculls grace the water.

I have the greatest admiration for the female of the species whose dress (click to enlarge) was not my idea of what to wear on a freezing cold day.

Just below the suspension bridge on which we stood the river changed character at a weir which turned the calm waters into a frenzy of foam and rushing waves.















Whatever the weather it makes a fine country scene,

to which is added Canford Church, by the school gates, which contains this wonderful bust of one William Rodney of whom I have yet to learn anything at all:

a bit of detective work for you!

a bit of fresh air

You may be forgiven for thinking that the title of this blog will find us in February walking along Poole Quay, or in a more rustic spot here at Arne.







We could even be enjoying sunshine across the fields here.


Unfortunately I did not take these photographs. Our fresh air was closer to home. So close in fact that I did not even need to go out of the front door to enjoy(?) it.






This is Andy and Richard fitting new sliding doors to the balcony. As I explained to Andy, apart from the actual price, they have cost me a fortune in that they have forced my wife out to the shops!

I supposed 'forced' is a bit of an exaggeration when it comes to ladies shopping.

Spring is on the way

Here's a view they don't see very often down here in Dorset. Mind you, it didn't snow until five in the morning and was gone a few hours later and that was a week or so ago now.





Back to normal today with bright sunshine. It is so bright it is a job to see where you are going at times.

You can tell this is so from the picture below which I took today.






For half an hour in between visiting and being visited we went off to nearby Kington Lacey.
This is the house, which we did not have time to visit on this occasion, supposedly filled with fine things including this picture of the Egyptian Darts Champion.

What we really went for was to see the snowdrops.






This is late afternoon and you can see how light it is with the sun shining through the trees.


The evenings are beginning to stretch out and Spring really looks to be round the corner.