Christmas Roundup

Early December took us to the first of our Christmas festivities. We went to lunch with our Portsmouth friends.

I won’t list everyone since you know who you are.

 

We’ve had some very interesting weather this December as has the rest of the UK. Here is a photo from one of the better days.

Ponies on Rockford Common

 

Peter and Sue -  chez nous

Sorry about the yellowy photo, but that’s what the ‘candlelight’ setting does for it. Not too good. the subjects make up for it!

Then the snow came for a second time. View from the bedroom window before the rush hour began. I went back to bed.

Out walking with ski sticks (walking poles) I thought I would never use them (Glyn - remember Lidl in France). They have had plenty of use recently.

Geocaching is very difficult with loads of snow on the ground, but we managed to do this one. We went to the pub (High Corner Inn) afterwards for a hot chocolate.

Snowy logs – just in case you hadn’t guessed

Ringwood in the snow

 Sue all togged up for the snow.

 We were very kindly invited to Jane and Ron’s for Christmas and Boxing Day lunches. We were very well fed with scrumptious food and I drank some very nice wines. We stayed overnight so that I didn’t have to drive back on Christmas Day. Thanks for a great time.

Jane and Ron

 

 Sue and I wish you all a

Happy New Year

This is the end of this year’s blog. Next year’s can be found at this address

http://thebuchans2011.blogspot.com/

Ringwood Roundup

We had a really nice few days in later November so we decided to go out for a walk that also finished off a geocaching circuit we started in the summer. Here is Sue half way around – she is standing next to The Gallops at Whitsbury. This is where they train some very expensive racehorses. We had a picnic nearby and saw 3 deer in close-up.

 

I’ve led a couple of rambles recently – here is the group on the Maurice Barker bridge in the middle of the New Forest. Look for that special hat!

I recently bought a new camera, Lumix TZ10, for our trip to South Africa in the New Year. I decided that my other camera was too heavy and so needed one which is lightweight, but versatile.

On a sunny afternoon we went into Ringwood to take some test photos. Here are the results.

Coxstone Lane

 

Old Cottage Restaurant, West Street

This was taken at 25mm wide angle - below

Church of St. Peter and St. Paul

and this taken from the same position with the camera set to 300mm telephoto – pretty good I thought.

I had said to Sue that there was a surprise for her on the trip. I had to employ some delaying tactics so that we arrived at the new CHOCOLATE SHOP as it opened. Who’s reflection is in the window?

Guess who was there first customer – we enjoyed the chocolates in the evening.

Lyn and David came for a meal so this was an opportunity to test the indoor capabilities of the camera. This was taken without the flash – I couldn’t work out how to turn it on – I can now.

 

 

At the time of writing we haven’t been out in the car for 3 days. We have had the largest amount of snowfall here in Ringwood for 10 years.

The neighbours engaged in mortal combat in the close.

Thomas trying to land or take off. He’s been reading too much Harry Potter!

Sunday - the snow has gone and despite the grotty weather forecast we had blue skies and sunshine. We went off to Mudeford for a walk and a drink at the cafe. Here is Sue amongst the lobster pots, some of them from Peterhead (PD) in Scotland.

Small motor boat struggling against the out going flow of water from Christchurch Harbour.

That’s it for the time being – just hope the snow doesn’t come back.

Deepest Dorset

For this Autumn’s outing with the caravan we went to Moreton, close to Dorchester. We stayed on the Camping and Caravanning Club site  which stays open until early next year.

One of first outings was to Weymouth, see below, it was a lovely day and it was unseasonably warm. There is plenty to do and see in Weymouth, but my biggest gripe is the cost of parking which is astronomical – do they really want tourists?

Weymouth Harbour

 

 

Bathing Machine – Out of Use

 

The Church of St Nicholas and St Magnus was a normal little church with the usual amount of local history attached to it until it was hit by a fleeing German bomber in WW2. Once rebuilt, the stained glass was not replaced – instead a series of spectacular engraved glass windows were created by Laurence Whistler, brother of Rex Whistler.

T.E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) is buried in the churchyard which is just up the road.

      

On a rather dull day we went to Portland. Looking out over Chesil beach.

Portland Stone quarry – quarrying has taken place here for 2000 years.  In 1619 when Inigo Jones chose Portland Stone to rebuild first the Banqueting Hall, London and then the original St Paul's Cathedral quarrying became very important for the area.

Portland Bill – it was rather windy and very bleak

 

Dorchester was founded by the Romans and by about 60 AD a town (mainly wooden structures) had grown up. It was called Durnovaria.

In the 2nd century AD stone buildings were erected. The town was fortified with a ditch and an earth embankment, probably with a wooden stockade on top. The town had a forum lined with shops and public buildings. There were also public baths. Water was bought into the town by aqueduct. Some rich people had mosaic floors and even a form of central heating.

Sue at the Roman Villa

 

Mosaic floor

 

Roman villa remains

This clock tower can be found in the Borough Gardens – it was presented to the Borough in 1905 by Charles Hansford Esq.

The gardens were really well kept and we thought a little gem being so close to the town centre.

 

No trip away happens without geocaching. We wanted a nice circular route which was not too demanding so we attempted these 5 geocaches called the ‘Shitterton Stroll’. Yep, you read it correctly!  We managed all 5 caches despite a rather demanding hill en-route.

The road sign for Shitterton became rather collectable and it kept disappearing, so various people clubbed together to have this immovable sign made in Portland stone.

 

Towards the end of our visit to Dorset we had some very interesting weather which rattled the caravan around during the night. Following this we had a day of sunny weather so we took the awning down. It is now packed away for the winter.

On the Tuesday the weather forecast was for rain so we went to the Tank Museum at Bovington camp, only 10 minutes drive away.

Inside a WWI tank

Read this – double click to enlarge

 

If you look closely you can see where the shells have passed through the tank.

 

Whilst in the museum there was some filming taking place – presumably in preparation for Remembrance Day.

Sue exiting from the tank – it’s very tight in there.

We were interested in this graphic which shows the demarcation zone between East and West Germany prior to The Wall coming down. We were in Berlin many years ago and we went up to the demarcation fence (The Wall) only to be shouted at by West German police. Apparently we were well inside East Germany and this graphic shows that we were 100 metres inside. Oooops!

 

We returned home on the only good day of that week so we were very lucky.

On arrival at home my newly repaired computer was waiting for me. After sending Dell a threatening letter they collected, repaired and returned the computer free of charge. The motto here is if anything breaks down out of guarantee and is still reasonably ‘new’ use the Sale of Goods Act 1979 to get satisfaction.

And finally – we have a new shop in the centre of Ringwood which certainly brightens it up…..