Family gatherings, another project and some walks

Our 'relies' who emigrated to Australia when I was a child came over to see their enormous number of far flung family members and a couple of weeks back we went to my bother's and his partner Clare's house to have a meal together. My mother brought them up from the farm in Devon she house sits for people regularly throughout the year. My aunt and uncle were staying with her there for a few days. Alec, who is my brother's eldest son, was invited too. On a school night! It was good to catch up with Lyn and Phil (Phil is my Mother's youngest brother). Haven't seen them for a few years. They make fairly regular trips back but with their own Australian born children now grown up with children of their own and various difficult situations within the family to cope with their visits are usually quite intense, busy affairs. Alec was a tiny lad when they last saw him so they were pleased to catch up with him! When I spent a few months in Australia back in 1988 with a former boyfriend we stayed with them for a large chunk of time and they were very kind and tolerant! I rescued an abandoned kitten while I was there and asked them to keep him, which they did. He became quite a character and despite not having many teeth as a result of the malnutrition he was suffering from when I found him, he lived a good long life.

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I mentioned a pond a while back. I was right - a stone trough was hugely expensive (around £1,500 on average!) - so I bought a galvanised farm trough instead at a somewhat lesser cost.. It'll weather down eventually and, buried into the ground a little way, filled with plants and hopefully wildlife too eventually, it will create a really good place to sit and gaze into the water. I created two ponds in a previous garden and Iain always knew that, if he came home and the dogs greeted him but I wasn't in the house, he'd find me lying at the edge of the pond looking at the wildlife spinning around in the depths of it. This is intended to be a wildlife pond too and so I have built a stoney ramp up to it and the ledge in it will be a marginal plant shelf that beasties like frogs (amd perhaps the odd toad if I am lucky) can use as a stepping in or out area. We had a 'Mrs Toad' living in the hedge of our 'two pond' garden close to the pond. She would waddle out from her stoney home in the hedge (I'd put some big flat stones in there) look at me sat there waiting for wildlife to appear and blink, then make her way to the water where she would cool herself and then she would waddle back to her shady refuge, giving me another look as she did so. Fascinating!

Can't plant anything in it a) I am collecting rain water - started two nights ago with the rain and b) most of the native plants I want to put in it aren't available till late Spring..





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Walks! As reported the dogs and I had our last sea swim on the 15th October. We had swum with Mandy and her four on the Friday but I took Nellie and Arch down on my own for one last dip the next day before I headed home to go off to the place we had booked to stay the night before the WAO thing. The temperature dropped the following week and so we wait now til next year..

Been getting out and about for our various walks and I know some people who read my blog love to see the pictures of our walks so here are a few!

Cycling in the New Forest with Iain one Sunday a couple of weeks back:



A new engraved stone in the wall along the coast path above Chapman's Pool:



A couple of members of the Dorset Dry Stone Walling Association hard at work on the 15th October building yet another new engraved stone into the existing wall.



They tried to sound impressed when I told them I had done dry stone walling with the Dorset Countryside Volunteers a few years ago...but were impressed when I said we had built the steps down from Houns Tout across the bay. In the picture below Houns Tout is the highest cliff on the right and it is directly across from where I took the picture of them walling.



I took this picture on a different walk along the cliff tops from Worth to Winspit and along. It was beautiful with a nip in the air that afternoon after work.

These were taken further along below St Aldhelm's Head on that afternoon's walk:









Misty is here for the week so we went to the New Forest for her first adventure this time with us (I took them there today as well in the rain!)



We had originally planned to go to North Wales for some mountains for three days this half term but our hot water tank element decided to pack up at the end of last week and what with one thing and another and getting as much information from our electrician and then arranging the plumber, we decided to do three days of day trips instead. The first of these was to Lyme (Lyme Regis to non-locals!):



After walking halfway to Seaton on the beautiful undercliffs we found a route down to the beach that we have used many times before over the years and walked back along the stoney beach before the tide came up. There are no official routes off the Undercliff path to the beach according to tourist info but it is possible if you know the route well and are discreet. Misty needed to be carried for almost all the beach section. We have always liked Lyme. We used to walk here a lot when we lived in Dorchester and especially appreciated it in 2001 during foot and mouth. We would walk from Charmouth to Lyme with the tide going out and back again - even when there had been large landslips. Henry loved this part of the coast path. We got Arch the week we moved across to East Dorset.

We did our usual chips on or by the Cobb thing we always do and watched a rainbow forming after a brief shower, before the sun returned to dry us off. Looking down on the Cobb:



On The Cobb looking back onto Lyme:



There is something really special about The Cobb at Lyme. Its sinewy shape, stone blocks and fossil patterns combine to lift it beyond just being a stone sea wall. It is sculptural and organic despite being man-made. That appeals to me.

The next day - Stourhead - and we collected Alec for the day to join us for a few hours walk on the Estate there, followed by a very late lunch in the Trust cafe. Lovely sunshine again!



Today, with the horrid weather set in for the duration, Iain went in to work so he can take tomorrow off instead. We hope to head to Dartmoor for the day. Fingers crossed for the sunshine he insists is forecast just for Friday.....