A bundle of Tarrants

This signpost will give you an idea of how many Tarrants there are - seven on here for a start; although they have saved a bit of cash with not repeating the Tarrant too often.

And they all form part of glorious Dorset and England at its best.

You may need to navigate a ford for some of them, but the River Tarrant is easy on the eye as you can see from the  ford here - unless you are unlucky















You are unlikely to see the second one here unless you go up the wrong country road like us.








When you get round the corner of the first the view is worth the trouble.







The Langton Arms is not entirely your typical village pub but - as you may discover by going to their web site - it's worth a call.

The church up in the top left hand corner is also worth a visit, especially to see the elegant stained glass windows.







But a stroll round the village in June brings the best sites of all.

I thought you might fancy this one on the right Jack:



your name is already on it, as you may see if you click the close-up below!

Blandford Forum

Forum is an old name for Market; nothing Roman about it at all. That's got that out of the way.


Blandford is the name of a town in Dorset: a place of parts which is at one moment a typical old fashioned market town; an army town; a place of unusual beauty mixed in with the two -
if you turn the right corner.


                   I said it was old fashioned!

A bit like the army camp when racing took place there a long time ago.

 Here is the beginning of the beautiful bits - a view of the River Stour





with the old railway bridge in the background




















 certainly not devoid of wildlife right in town!




















If you look to your right another beautiful view -
a brewery, Hall & Woodhouse by name:







and here,     
one of the most terrible sights you will ever see in your life -








the brewery on fire!










But, back to the good bits -
 a heron doing a spot of fishing

Swans and Cygnets being fed,

the ducks lined up on the weir awaiting their turn 











and, of course, the greedy gulls turned up in numbers











but the real beauty is the river itself

how many shades of green can you count?

















and so it goes on, almost in the middle of town.













But if you need refreshing after your stroll along the banks of he Stour

there are other beautiful sights just up the road where you can relax with a sample of the local brewery which, fortunately, was never burnt right down!

Dorset on a dull day

Even on a dull day Dorset still has many an attraction.

This is the River Frome at Wareham, with my 'guide' looking downstream.

Looks fairly empty of traffic until you turn round and face the other way which is looking up towards the back end of Poole Harbour.

On the left is the riverside garden of the Priory Hotel.
Look up its restaurant on the internet and read about the chef alone to gain some idea of the class of establishment it is.



Next, look to your right, and you can see just how rural Dorset is, even when you are on the edge of town.
The Purbeck Hills are in the distance, over the other side of which is the sea.

But, if you like buildings, here they are on the other side of the river near to the bridge;  all restaurants and pubs with except the church.


Good choice of more reasonably priced eating here, unless you pour your soup all down your front which my assistant did.

Can't criticise.  I fell over walking up the bridge. A man ran across the road to pick me up while his wife remarked on the difficulties of life when you've had a sip or two. 
Both accidents even before we'd had a drink.
That's the problem with age. Hate to think what we shall be like when we reach 40.