Long Week-end trip to Aunty Judith & Uncle Peter

Aunty Judith was the girls’ warm welcome to Reading as she was their Mother, Grandmother, and Aunty all rolled into one during the first week whilst Colin was on his big Trek to Prague.

The girls formed a really special bond with her and have been eager to see her again.

Judith lives in Ferndown, near Bournemouth, which is only about 90 minutes from where we are and so we planned a trip to visit them over the bank holiday.

Saturday was a glorious day.  We left in the morning and drove to the beach of Bournemouth where the whole of South England had descended for the day.  Now, beach culture in England is something very different to that back home.  You will rarely see anyone actually in a bathing suite, and nobody actually swimming.  Mostly you will see people in jeans and shoes soaking up the “warmth” of the sand and sun.  Being a holiday week-end, it was flooded with school kids all trying to be cool.  It was a really sunny afternoon and there were many roasted English lilly-whites that were rapidly turning into lilly-pinks.

 

The girls braved the waves and the water eagerly while Colin and I sat on the shore enjoying observing the scene.

Sunday we planned some outings to Milton Abbas and to Cerne Abbas in the nearby surrounds.  Milton Abbas dates back to the 18th century and has an interesting history:

“Created in 1780, the current village of Milton Abbas has a history which has led some to consider it to be the first planned town or village in England. When Lord Milton (later to become earl of Dorchester) built his new mansion in 1771 beside Milton Abbey, he found that the local town of Middleton was obscuring his view (and the sounds and smells were offending his sensibilities). Lord Milton’s solution was to demolish the town, rebuild it on the other side of the hill, and give it a new name: Milton Abbas. Once the town had been removed, a lake was created on the site. All but one of the townsfolk moved to the new village and when the last resident refused to leave, the sluice gates were opened anyway to create the lake.

Designed by Sir William Chambers, the new village was composed of a street of thatched cottages with large lawns at the front and horse chestnut trees in between (these were removed in 1953). Today the cottages retain their original charm and character and the street looks much as Chambers intended.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milton_Abbas

We decided to visit the Abbey, which is about a kilometre from the town and a short walk past pastures and along little lanes:

Approach to the Abbey:

The Abbey is now a private school and so it is kept amidst immaculate grounds with cricket fields and lawn courts.

We did the walk through the Abbey and then turned to walk up the hill to Catherine Chapel, which is overlooking the Abbey at the end of some very romantic looking grass steps.  Unfortunately, we got to the steps only to find an iron gate across the path and a sign discouraging entry and use of the steps :(

 

We took a detour, and then another short-cut and found ourselves popping out onto the same grass steps only half-way up.  There was only 1 thing to do and that was to climb up the stairs fast before anyone noticed (given that they overlooked the entrance to the school and the cricket field where a practice was underway, not being noticed was not really an option).

Colin' didn’t really feel the same sense of urgency as Judith and I as we scrambled up and out of sight – he came sauntering up much later after casually photographing Sazzie in every position, from every possible angle on the stairs – well, he did get some really stunning shots…

Path up to the chapel:

Afterwards, we had lunch in the town and enjoyed a light snack in the sunshine:

The next attraction is the “rude giant” on the hill :)

“The origins of the Giant are a mix of fact and speculation. Some believe that he represents the Roman god, Hercules, and is over 1500 years old. However, there is no known historical record before 1694 and it has been argued the Giant is more recent and a caricature of any one of a number of possible historical figures. Whatever the truth, he is now a Scheduled Ancient Monument in the care of The National Trust.” www.dorsetforyou.com

 

We parked the car at a strategic viewpoint, but then Colin & I couldn’t resist walking up the opposite hill to get a better angle.

We hiked up into the public paths into the farmers fields and were just setting up camp to do some serious photo shooting when I turned around and noticed we had an gathering, curious audience. 

At least they were friendly, but it started getting a big much when they wanted to lick Colin’s tripod and he had to keep wiping it down with his last tissue.  Trying to balance a camera on the precariously unstable hill with bovines licking everything in reach was starting to get a bit overwhelming. Shooing a fly or ten is one thing, shooing a cow is quite another. At least flies don’t want their horns scratched.

We managed to create a bit of distance long enough to trust the camera to stand on it’s own long enough to take a pic.  Colin just noticed the strategic positioning of the camera ;)

We stopped for afternoon tea at the Giant Inn in town and left just after an action kicked off and the locals were in the midst of bid-wars over a 10p teapot.

Monday we bade farewell and made the trip back home.