Evening walks around the hills of West Dorset open windows onto valleys and further hills, bluebells swaying gently in the wind, catching the last light of the setting sun…
Category: West Dorset
Hunting pink in my village
Never mind the rain, when the local hunt meet in the village all gather and life goes on.
Beyond rural infinity
Hurrah! Fibre broadband has landed in my village. Is this the end of slow Skyping yokels? Or is there a catch?
Rampisham Down, and Lady Shed
I have joined a couple of writers, Maddie Grigg and Sophia Moseley and together we are The Lady Shed, a weekly blog where we discuss current affairs, local matters, and … Continue reading Rampisham Down, and Lady Shed
Summer, West Dorset
Morning sun, blue skies, birds tweeting…
Let the sun shine
Yellow fields in the sun, dark trees in the shade, purple bells playing hide and seek with the light…
What a glorious time of year when mother nature lets the sun shine in.
Rampisham mast coming down
A few months back I went to see one of the last BBC Worldwide masts being taken down on Rampisham Downs. They were used them for 70 years until digital came along and the massive metal monsters became redundant.
A little video of the last days of the Rampisham Masts.
January 2013, a winter to remember?
Went down to Beaminster this morning, few people around but all said “hello” in a cheery way.
“Isn’t it beautiful?” they said.
“I remember the winter of 1963” said an old boy. Does make me wonder, come Monday will we feel the same?
It was easy enough to get down, carefully. Driving back up however, was a different story.
So the car got left at the bottom of the hill, and the shopping was carried up.
Well it is beautiful and lots of fun was had by many today. I just went around with the camera…
and loved every minute of it!
Hope you’re all enjoying your winter walks.
Weymouth and West Dorset, oh so quiet Olympics?
I took friends and family to Weymouth on Saturday 28 July to see the Battle of the Winds final extravagganza of aerialists, the 2012 torches wade into the sea, the pyrotechnics and generally start enjoying Olympic atmosphere. I mmm’ed and rrrr’ed it would be a bit too crowded, but hey it’s a once in a lifetime, so off we went.
There was plenty there, but not quite what I expected. An empty Monkey Jump Park & Ride welcomed us mid afternoon. A brand new double decker took all seven of us into town on the shiny new bypass that we are being warned not to use. Many more empty buses were waiting to Ride elusive Parked punters back to their cars. We strolled along the spacious promenade to the Bayside Festival where our Somerset friends learned about the Jurassic Coast wonders. My kids loved being taught a few tricks by the ExtremeSports team, great guys under the tatooes and dreadlocks. At 6.30 pm Bayside eating area had all of ten tourists having tea listening to the Acoustic Stage. At 7pm the long expected queue to get into the enclosed “Weymouth and Portland Live Site” was painfully tiny…
Great news as a visitor, plenty of space, unexpected free entry to Bayside; not such great news when talking to the locals who have invested money and worked hard for months. Why the big signs in surroundings counties of how busy it may get? Put them up when it does get busy, not before. These are the days of mobile phones, twitter, facebook, information is fast. Does St Tropez warn tourists in Lyon? NON. They let them all come, get stuck, take their money and let them queue. Tourists do come back, every year and it’s still a nightmare to get to St Trop.
I got cross with dorsetforyou. Stop caring people off I said on twitter.
“@natamagat Just informing people about changes and road closures. We want to encourage people to come down, but plan their journey 1st” they replied.
Well, West Dorset looks awfully quiet. The dreadful recent events due to floods and landslides are still fresh on people’s mind but it does not mean the whole area should be avoided. Local businesses that rely on Summer visitors need help, not scaremongering tactics.
Tell everybody how easy it is to get here (I’m told there’s even a High-Speed train from Weymouth to Bristol but it’s not advertised, go figure), that there’s lots to do in Weymouth, that Bridport has a fantastic Festival of Culture in August, that Beaminster has lots of great shops and brilliant restaurants all year round with perfect presents to take back home despite the Tunnel being closed.
Hello world, this is the year to visit West Dorset, it’s quiet and if you fancy art, culture, food (of course) oh and the small matter of Olympic sailing along our beautiful Jurassic Coast, well there are plenty of events that locals have been organising for weeks. It’s not too late to book a few days in West Dorset…
Photography on this post from Saturday 28 July in Weymouth.
