scotland is a long way from the south of england, especially if you go by car and have two little kids with you. our 7 hour journey stretched to 11 hours and we had many a happy toilet stop.
i was allowed to take a few shots on the way when i wasn’t driving. here’s one that jane took of the motorway split just before birmingham. it’s got a jaunty jiggle hasn’t it ?
we went to center parcs at longleat for the day today thanks to our friends andy and gill. i saw the dogs signs (here and here) again which was great.
their chalet was in a pine forest. i don’t know if i like pine. it smells like toilets to me.
these bags were all lined up outside a very posh hotel in the rain this morning. i think this sums up british holidays quite nicely.
i also saw a group of American tourists who were stuck crossing a road as their giant suitcases on wheels were preventing them from crossing a huge puddle which seperated them from the pavement.
i’ll see if they are still there this evening on the way back to the station.
here’s something outrageously british. apologies to any american’s still in shock from janet jackson’s superbowl outing ! It’s the Cerne fertility giant
It’s best seen from the air, but you can see it fairly well from a viewing point. unfortunately we went on a very foggy day.
notice the giant’s scissors.
Behind our holiday house was a wood where we went for an early morning pre-breakfast walk.
here is a sign to the lovely sounding puddletown:
here is a pond (highly reflective):
and a nice loverly path:
and here is kezia all dressed up puddle jumping:
here is kezia:
have you ever seen a sadder donkey ?
it rained one day on holiday so we went to a dinosaur museum in dorchester. it was a bit dull to be honest. the posters claimed it was a multimedia museum, but that meant a few computers with picture databases on which were built in the 1990s.
here is a dinosaur head:
in amongst all the factual dinosaur stuff they had these to scare little (and big) kids with some imaginary life sized people dinosaurs:
crazy 3D effects were courtesy of red and blue glasses (very 1980s):
and i was happy to see some jurasic computer history:
here is another comedy hotel (real this time). to encourage you to stay in their lovely hotel they had installed an ancient crumbly photo montage showing what the rooms were like. if the quality of the photos was anything to go by, they won’t be having many happy visitors.
left is the board for the board (and lodging) and right is the bedroom
last time we were here it was a bit warmer. compare and contrast jane nearly one year previous.
randomly, round the beach is a load of fencing. thankfully some of this has been kicked in by the locals (i assume) so there are a few holes where pensioners can see the sea through whilst sitting on benches.
who says the youth of today don’t care about the old folk ?
this ball is a glove showing the British Empire (as was):
a few metres away from this point was a really tame (wild) fox:
it even stood still so we could get a nice photo.
swanage beach in march is cold but good fun (if you are a kid)
and here is jane looking jolly:
there’s still a load of holiday stories to tell (we’ve only got up to last monday night so far). i’ll post them later in the week so as not to flood you all with new stuff today !
but for now, here is a falling apart rusty sign from falling apart rusty weymouth. we don’t know what award they won …
as seen by jane and i last year. it wasn’t as foggy then.
after the beach was the walk back (with me carrying kezia this time).
i just hadn’t got a clue about the Dorset coast before this holiday. It dates back to Jurassic times (it’s known as the Jurassic Coast) and dinosaurs roamed this very place millions of years ago. It’s also been the home to neolithic people and romans and everyone since. i just couldn’t get my head round the scale of history and geography involved.
here’s jane on top of the world (before the kezia swap).
after our long walk we finally reached the beach.
the sea was incredibly flat and sparkly:
so we had a picnic:
and refreshed ourselves with ice cool cans of coca cola (i’m hoping for corporate blog sponsorship):
esther and kezia inspected the thousands of small stones which made up the beach:
and of course i went in search of lost stuff:
There is a fantastic walk you can do from Lulworth Cove to Durdle Door. it’s quite steep. especially with a child on your back. i know cuz jane told me.
milestones provide excellent resting points:
Esther took this photo from the top of the hill:
and eventually you see the famous eroded archway:
we then climbed down to the beach
where do seaside buckets and spades come from ? they grow on trees of course. usually such trees are kept hidden away in factories, but this one was clearly visible from the main street leading to Lulworth Cove.
a strange trick of the light resulted in kezia appearing in TV as a reflection from the seat where she was sitting reading a book which she was very much enjoying. [what kind of a sentence was that ?]
click for big version
it’s important to eat well on holiday so you have enough energy to have lots of fun. i was delighted to be see the fridge contained nothing but beer and chocolate once we had unpacked.
my only concern was what everyone else would eat and drink. but i needn’t have worried as we went to Tescos for a greasy breakfast.
i love holidays !
happy thanksgiving to any american readers who may stray this way over their holiday period. i found this lovely music whilst researching what Thanksgiving was actually about. the music says it all.