fun and games

What are we doing in the winter at the seaside?
A host of things that are easier to get at when summer visitors are yet to make up their minds where to holiday.

If you like walking or simply looking, what about this?
High up in the Purbeck Hills looking north towards Poole with much of this land all yours courtesy of The National trust.

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Or, if you fancy something more energetic, a step away with this view from the clubhouse lies The Isle of Purbeck Golf Club, open to the public to play or just wine and dine.







To be fair the ground is never flat, but you can hire a buggy and you couldn't get a much more picturesque ride than this.





If you prefer a golf course with fewer but possibly more frightening obstacles, you could always move on down the hill to Swanage and try this.






And, you have to go no further than next door for the main Swanage mode of refreshment while the others amuse themselves in London!















And then take two steps across the road to a gloriously sandy beach like this, with part of the cliffs of the Jurassic coastline beyond. If you are really fit you can walk along the footpath that extends right along the coast.







Surrounded by glorious Dorset countryside, Swanage is one of those lovely old-fashioned seaside resorts where it is still possible to discover the type of shops you thought had disappeared years ago.



Just look at this selection of "take home a souvenir for Grandma" treasure which fills this shop window and makes the day a more colourful and brighter place.

And if it is a souvenir to remind you what a great time you spent here, you can always have your picture taken with one of the locals!

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.

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?