Life's about experiences. These are mine.
For the last six years (2014/5, 2015/6, 2016/7 (either didn’t do it or forgot to write about it that year), 2017/18, 2018/19 and 2019/20) we have always got out over the Christmas/New Year period to blow away some cobwebs and maximise our investment in our National Trust membership. This year it was a bit different …
Continue reading “Three Days, Two Counties, Two National Trust Properties”
Someone asked me recently why I haven’t been blogging as often as I had previously. The reason is simply that at the moment every day looks pretty much like every other and there’s not much to say. However, the end of the second lock down in the UK neatly coincided with my wife’s retirement. Normal …
Ah, the fickle English weather. Yesterday has wet and miserable and today is sunny and bright! This was good news as it allowed us to get out and explore more of the amazing Dorset coastline. We headed off to Lulworth Cove and Durdle Door. The intention had been to drive from one to the other …
Continue reading “Dorset 2020 – Day Four – What a Difference a Day Makes (Part 2)”
Following on from yesterday’s glorious weather it was back down to Earth with a bump today with torrential rain. Before we saw the forecast the plan had been to walk to Swanage along the coastal path and then get the train back. As a contingency we had decided to book a return train trip and …
Continue reading “Dorset 2020 – Day Three – What a Difference a Day Makes”
We’d booked to go inside Corfe Castle today. When I say “inside” I mean inside the grounds as there really is very little left to go inside of the castle itself. Given the angle of some of the walls they really seem to be defying gravity and it’s amazing that they haven’t tumbled down the …
There’s been a few polls running on Twitter recently asking what people considered to e a ‘staycation’. The options being a holiday where you go places from home or a holiday in this country. I am clearly at odds with the results of this poll as I consider a staycation to be being based at …
Continue reading “Dorset 2020 – Day One – What’s a Staycation?”
The weather has been incredibly kind to us this week choosing only to rain once we have completed our daily exercise. This is very generous of it and, as I said yesterday, unexpected by both us and the weather apps. All this meant that once again on opening the curtains while there wasn’t clear blue …
Continue reading “Staycation 2020 – Day Five – California Country Park”
Weather apps can be deceptive and wrong. Yesterday it looked as if today was going to be a write off in terms of being able to get out for a dry walk but as we drove over to Basildon Park it was still dry. Basildon is probably the National Trust property that we have been …
Continue reading “Staycation 2020 – Day Four – Basildon Park”
The irony of taking a weeks holiday when the weather turns after ten weeks of glorious sunshine is not lost on me. Therefore, to make the most of the calm before the storm we headed out early this morning for a walk around Dinton Pastures. Dinton is a series of lakes formed during gravel extraction, …
Continue reading “Staycation 2020 – Day Three – Dinton Pastures”
While many place still remain closed the National Trust has opened the grounds of a number of its properties. In order to limit numbers you have to go on to their website the Friday before and make a booking. Given that we are off this week we’d decided that it would be nice to go …