Summer?

Where has the summer gone?
Come to that where has the year gone?

Fortunately, one sunny September day in Dorset where someone else has kept their bit of the countryside tidy and done the gardening and made the beds, brings that wonderful loss of memory that wipes out the rainy days.








We are not far from Dorchester to visit Athelhampton House: it has been there since Tudor Times.

Take a walk down the garden and discover what lies around corners where some thoughtful soul has designed sights that make you go "aagh", or provides you with the means to sit and stare.








Turn left and here is my fellow explorer by a river. What more could you ask of a garden than a river that runs through it, with a name that has delighted schoolboys over the centuries: the River Piddle.





If  you like your gardens a little more formal, where you are not the one who has to climb a ladder to trim the trees and where you can walk in and discover a seat so thoughtfully provided in the shade, here is a fine example.










Peek through a gate and discover the back garden.
Ours was never like this!





Or even take a look inside at another kind of bed which also isn't like ours.

Or go round the front - which is something like ours in that it has windows and a door.

Whichever way you look at it, Athelhampton House is a pleasant place to visit.