“O, wad some Power the giftie gie us, To see oursels as others see us!

Robert Burns said it all!


Great grandson and Great grandfather.

Harrison and me.

I'm the one on the right.

Hide

The title of this post is not an instruction; but a place where you can stay hidden to watch the birds. You knew that anyway.

This one is at Holton Lee, not all that far from Arne.




If you get lost you need to know that it is on Lytchett Bay, part of which is beyond the blasted oak near to the Hide.









While you are there you may as well look at the stones.

But you really came to look at the birds.



The woodpecker was here last time, but here are a few goldfinches to add a bit more colour.







 As you can see,  they are well fed.







A little more colour from the fine cock pheasant keeping an eye on his relatively drab wife. From the feathers on the ground it seems a fox has been visiting

But here, making our visit worthwhile, a specimen I can't recall seeing before

 - a golden pheasant.

Arne

I suppose the heading of this post will be meaningless to most. 

It is a place name. Not one you will see in passing; you have to go there to discover it - like Captain Cook and Australia.

Arne is a village in the Purbeck district of Dorset, but is also a great area controlled by the RSPB.

Here is a map that may help. As you can see, Arne pushes itself right out into Poole Harbour.

You can be in the woods like this: 

















or walking a footpath

to where strange looking faces eye you up












or where deer graze under the watchful eye of a strange tree animal with a long snout,

Or you may climb a small hill to look out upon Poole Harbour

while your fellow explorer Captain Cook goes ahead to seek more wonders of this fabulous land 

and discovers someone with foresight has been here before to provide what all explorers need!

Just in case you cannot read the sign on the fence:

Well behaved children welcome.
Failure to comply will result  in clamping
(at parental cost) or being sold as slaves.
                                        Thank you.

a long weekend

What do you do at the seaside in Poole on a long weekend?





Firstly you see the sea - that's if you could see it through the smoke last weekend when families brought their infants and themselves!










to ride on mini steam engines along Poole Quay.



 Who wants toys when you've got the real thing!

And if you are happy to leave them to it you can always nip in the Poole Arms for a quick one.









Please note, down here they do not just put up any old piece of tarpaulin when they are redecorating!








As a change from the sea you may choose the River Stour at Canford School near Wimborne and watch others doing the hard work.





If it is beauty and peace you need, there is nearby Kingston Lacy where you can admire the work of the National Trust gardeners.

That's my sister up there, the reason for the long weekend, having a chat while I look at the colours of rhododendrons ands azaleas before we stroll on to the Japanese garden.

We did all this but, like Thomas, you can get properly dressed for the occasion and just stand and look at the sea!

More Dorset Colours

To those who replied to recent blog abour Dorset colours, thankyou. Here are just a few more remarkable sights from where we live

Spring blossom is one thing, but have you ever seen such a colourful tree trunk as this?




Here is a close up of another nearby












                                                                     


   And even the knitted bollards are something else

And Alison's grass doesn't need to be cut.

It just doesn't grow!

more than a bit more !

May in Dorset with colour today to prove it.
Not our garden but nearby.

And if you like messing about on the water
this is what a bit of Poole Harbour looked like this morning with kayakers ready to go.








Wasn't too bad last week: 69th wedding anniversary all dressed up for going out to eat .

30th April if you want to send us a card and a £70 postal order next year: forever optimistic!







This is our new mascot - Charlie Chicken.








You can't get to my age without some idiosyncracy!