A visit to Darkest Dorset

Nothing unusual in that because I work in Dorchester, right in the middle of Dorset!  But last weekend took a day out not only to show David around the town I've got to know a bit better having worked there but also to visit places that we haven't been to before that were nearby.  I was able to show David the Roman Villa at the back on the Country Council offices, as well as the lovely walk along the River Frome and also the Borough Gardens.

To my shame I have not read any of Thomas Hardy's books, but we have now visited his birthplace in Upper Bockhampton, a few miles west of Dorchester.  It is owned by the National Trust and the cottage was built by his grandfather.  The cottage has the most lovely typically English cottage garden with a vegetable patch and an orchard beyond.  This can be reached either down a lane (the easy way) from the car park or through woodland (the hard way), guess which way we went first!

There was a quilt opportunity here as the one bed made up had a quilt on it, so armed with camera (flash turned off of course) and a nice sunny day I had to take a photo or two.

After that we found a nice pub for lunch before heading off to Clouds Hill, the home of T E Lawrence, aka Lawrence of Arabia, who was in the Tank Corps, at Bovingdon near Wareham.  It is well known that he died near the cottage, having had a motorcycle accident on his way there.  He had unusual accommodation there with a room housing his 2000 books (though there is now only a fraction of his collection and a bathroom (with just a bath) on the ground floor. His room for entertaining was upstairs along with a bunk room.

 We went home after this to enjoy the rest of the afternoon in the garden, however I found afterward that had we turned left at the road junction near Clouds Hill instead of right we would have found a church with an etched window as a memorial to Lawrence, which can be found here.  A chance to go back again some time.

Yesterday David and I had a day out at Legoland, near Windsor.  As it is our grandson, Leo's 4th birthday tomorrow my son Jamie had arranged a trip for his family and we invited ourselves along too. Next post I'll share some pics with you.