Worbarrow Bay Blanket

Last year, in April, I was in a quandry about which colours to use in my Coastal Cosy blanket – and you dear readers helped me out – pinks or no pinks that was the question.

I finished the blanket back in the Autumn, but have been waiting for a suitable sunny day to take it to the beach for its Ta Dah! moment.

Yesterday was the day and we went on a fabulous walk at Tyneham before getting to the beach

there was a bit of resistance to climbing that hill but after seeing this sign

chatting about exploding cows got us to the top

walking through coconut scented gorse bushes towards Flowers Barrow and looking inland at Lulworth Castle

and then the most glorious view of the steep descent to the beach

oh my aching knees! but Oh! it was so worth it.

The blanket had found exactly the right place to be photographed

and because it went so beautifully with the colours there, it has been re-named the Worbarrow Bay Blanket.

Master R and Little Miss M were happy to help me with the photo shoot.

and came up with some novel ideas of their own …

blanket angels

“we are a rock”

“it would look good on this rock over here Granny”

and then back to hunting for sea glass

our haul after about an hour and a half

tiny pieces of treasure.

We walked 3.8 miles bringing the total number of miles walked by Little Miss M and me to 65 of our 500 mile target.

More details of the colour order and the edging of the Worbarrow Bay Blanket to follow in a future post.

Edit

In case you would like to visit Tyneham and Worbarrow – here are the Opening times for this year.

Click on any photo to see it full screen.

 

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63.5 miles so far

On Sunday, Little Miss M and I added 2.7 miles to our target of 500 miles.

The weather has been relentlessly wet and windy since I returned from Egypt on the 5th March, so it was a relief that the sun was shining at last. But still so windy!

We parked near Kingston and walked through the woods towards the sea

Little Miss M often likes to run ahead, and found a hill that she and her siblings wanted to roll down – but it was a bit steep for that! So on we went

pushing on against the wind

to be rewarded with gorgeous views towards the Isle of Portland

and a brief stop to taste some gorse flowers, in the summer they taste like coconut – not much taste on this cold and windy March day

but the colour! That yellow just glows in the sunshine.

All the colours looked crisp and clear after the weeks of rain we have had.

Click on any photo to see it full screen.

We were battered by the wind, but did our best to stop and breathe in the colours and the elements and the sheer joy of being in such a beautiful place.

We did not go right to the end, there have been a few scary cliff falls along the coast recently especially further west at West Bay, when this happened on 15 March.

Looking East over the dry stone walls, one could catch the sound of larks singing – extraordinary delicate silver tinkling amidst the bluster of the wind.

Larks say “Summer is a-coming” to me like no other bird does and remind me of hot sunny days lying on Dorset hill tops looking up into the sky trying to see their little bodies on the wing, dark against a clear blue sky.

No lying on hilltops on Sunday though – we turned back

and this time noticed Encombe House in the valley, much of it is hidden by the trees, but can you see the pavilion looking out onto the lake with a little white boat on it?

If you would like to know more about the history of Encombe House, click on this link.

We headed for the pub and a hot chocolate

but not before gathering some wild garlic so that my daughter could try a new Salsa Verde recipe.

In the woods Little Miss M also wanted to gather some moss and ivy and as many different leaves as she could find to take to school.

My son ( the running one) had told me about a new App that records walks and runs – so I tried it out for the first time – I haven’t quite mastered adding the photos properly, but it is a fun free App called Relive – here is our walk:

https://www.relive.cc/view/rt10004021559

The App seemed to run my battery down very quickly so I had to turn it off before we made it to the pub. My son recorded his 46 mile run around Bristol – (yes! that is not a typo – 46 miles!!!!) a couple of weekends ago, so there must be something wrong with my phone.

We went to the Scott Arms where you can sit in the garden as gaze across at Corfe Castle – what a view!

Do click on this picture and see it bigger – we could see for miles.

Little Miss M was thrilled that she could look through the telescope and ran to tell me that she could see a person in a red jacket walking around at Corfe Castle

There is a footpath, part of the Hardy Way, that goes from Kingston to Corfe Castle and we all decided we would like to walk it on a warm summer’s day.

Silent Sunday

The Tor

‘We will walk 500 miles’

Today Little Miss M and I reached 60.8 miles of our 500 mile goal.

We walked up Glastonbury Tor – can you see that pink speck nearly at the top? That is Little Miss M (6) racing ahead to get there first.

What a glorious day it was with magnificent views

stretching far and wide……

looking back at the town of Glastonbury

and from the top

so good to stand together when I finally got there!

looking back at how far we had come

We were with my daughter, Miss E and Master R. The children were touchingly concerned about the modern carvings, but enjoyed the “love heart” as it had not damaged the stone

Having enjoyed the Spring sunshine, the breeze and the views it was time to go back down

with many others enjoying the climb

some leaving tributes or prayers in the trees

On the 85 minute journey home, Miss E (11) was a bit bored and invented Car Yoga to keep herself and the rest of us amused – with demonstrations of the Eyebrow Pose, the Upward Dog and the Squash-the-Person-Next-To-You Pose – Happy Days!

Click on any picture to see it full screen.

Joining Son of a Beach’s Which Way Challenge

 

Walktober

Inspired by Eliza’s post, I set off with Miss E, Master R and Little Miss M to record our walk yesterday, a glorious October morning.

This Autumn is truly deliciously spectacular.

Little Miss M reminded me to put Strava on so that we could record our distance to add to our target of 500 miles.

This is one of our favourite walks and we have been doing it since they were all babies, but it has been a long time since we were here  ….

….. imagine their delight when they spied the river and remembered the swing!

Miss E was first to get there

But of course they all had a turn  I think we could have stayed there all day

whilst they explored in their own inimitable ways

walks are never dull with this lot!

But we had to cover some ground if Little Miss M and I are going to reach our goal – onward.

and upward.

Whilst they were looking at the cows and chatting together I went up ahead

wait for us Granny!

There is something magical about sunken lanes lined with old knarled trees, contorted by their history

is this one a camel?

or a hare?

Fairy fungi everywhere – we had to look up the name of this one – Fly Agaric

and do you think this one might be the rare: Iodine Bolete

It looked the perfect home for an evil elf!

At the top of the hill we found coconut-scented gorse flowers to nibble and were treated to some glorious views

Here we sat for a drink and a snack. We all thought of three words each to describe our walk so far, and as we walked on the children composed little poems using the words – it all got very giggly as they created weird and wonderful rhymes.

And then we found ourselves in a prickly gorse tunnel where the path had become overgrown

I was hoping it would end and we would come out on clear path so we battled on for quite a way getting stabbed with prickles and feeling like badgers in the undergrowth. We sent Master R ahead to see if there was light at the end of the tunnel – but no – we had to turn back and make our way back the way we had come.

Our batteries fully recharged by the wonderful views, the sunshine and that blue sky

Oh the joy of autumn sunshine through trees and walking the sunken lanes.

Happy sigh!

Back to the car and Little Miss M and I checked Strava. We had added 2.4 miles to our total. We have now done 54 miles – only 446 to go!

I hope you enjoyed scampering along with us.

I’m joining Robin at Breezes at Dawn for her annual Walktober Gathering

500 miles with Granny

This Summer it’s all about finding shade

Last Saturday I took Master R and Little Miss M to Kingston Lacy, where there is a lot of shady woodland to explore

I just love their enthusiasm for finding leaves and bugs and beetles and the conversations they have about nature interwoven with fantasy, dragons, monsters and fairies.

And they way they burst into exuberance when faced with a long stretch of path to run – “Race you!”

Joyful days

The promise of ice cream

An iced coffee for Granny

Slow meanderings

And

Dappled light

Joining in with Cee’s Which Way Challenge

And Little Miss M and I clocked up another 2.5 miles towards our target of 500.

Other posts tracking our progress are  here, here.

and here

We have done 31.5 miles, only 468.5 miles to go! Can we do it!??!

It will be fun finding out!

I use Strava, an app on my iPhone, to record our distances. It is brilliant as we can see the map of our walks at the end of each one. The children have fun tracing our route and working out where we were.

Will you be going on any walks this weekend?