The bluebells of Winterborne Houghton

That’s where my data says this picture was taken! We had to quit the cottage at 10am today, and the weather was too dreich to warrant driving west along the coast to Abbotsbury subtropical gardens. We decided instead to visit the Thomas Hardy birthplace visitor centre at Bockhampton as it was more or less on the way home. So far, so good but on arrival it turned out to be closed (as was Hardy’s cottage) and only a group of elderly walkers was in evidence.

I picked up a leaflet, and proposed a visit to Milton Abbas, a village I’d read about where the thatched houses were transplanted from another village to improve the view for a local dignitary! We drove there along country roads and when we got there, it reminded me of Port Sunlight, so we kept on driving via the scenic route to Shaftesbury, where we aimed to pick up the main road again.


Five minutes later we passed a fantastic bluebell wood, so stopped for snaps. Got to Shaftesbury via the other steep hill (St John’s hill, not Gold Hill, the famous one), proceeded to the edge of Warminster , then Google maps set us off on the wrong turning and we ended up going home via Bath, which was looking springlike (the weather had brightened up).
As we drove into Stroud, the sun burst out from behind the clouds !

Our cat sitter Ali had looked after the cat AND hoovered! We were very happy. Indie the cat was asleep.

Long call with Elspeth this evening, the friend with whom I went to India. We’ve planned our next joint adventure: Musicport festival in Whiby in October!

PS we went through many counties today: from Dorset to Gloucestershire via Wiltshire, Somerset, BANES (Bath and North East Somerset combined authority) and South Gloucestershire.