You may have seen that we have just had a very lovely holiday in Dorset. We have been house sitting for just over a week for some friends of ours who live in a very cute, quaint little country cottage. It is picture postcard pretty but also a little run down with cracks in walls and damp ceilings and TONNES of spiders!
It is also in the most gorgeous setting, on a farm in the middle of the countryside. The farmer’s (massive) house is nearby along with a few holiday cottages they rent out but otherwise it is just surrounded by fields, trees and rolling hills.
Being on a farm there are lots of animals around too, cows, horses, sheep, dogs, a”barn cat” who is a mouser that lives in the barn. She’s also about 1010 yrs old, very gentle and so good with the kiddies! The little ones have loved stroking her and even when LM has gotten a little over excited and pulled her fur (eek) she has barely flinched! Lovely pussy cat.
We had the real extremes of weather, from blazing sun to torrential rain and we obviously had some highs and lows. Some highs of the trip include gorgeously sunny days out to the coast and on steam railways to castles (posts about those to follow) and actually a wonderful day at Stonehenge which was in parts disastrous but also lucky and just good fun, despite being a very wet day! More of that to come in another post.
We did have some lows too, including the most disastrous trip to the beach ever. I was on my own with the kids while hubs got his head down to do some work and as the forecast was for sun headed to the beach. It rained a little on the way but hoped we were headed to blue sky. I had researched and found what I thought was a sandy beach not too far away. Then we arrived and saw this mountain of stones at the edge of a completely stony beach.
Walked around a little and could find no sandy beach so at the lowest point I could find proceeded to make a few trips up and down the hill of stones to get me, 3 bags, buggy, both kids and a wind shield onto the beach. Only to be faced with an evem steeper decline on the other side of the hill towards the sea.
LM decided she didn’t like the noise of the sea so I didn’t want to get any closer, though it was blimmin windy at the top of the hill! I started to set up the wind shield,and the heavens (which had been darkening but I had been ignoring in my task of just getting up the hill) opened. So we ended up huddled behind the windshield, both LM and Monkey crying because they were cold and wet,trying to eat a picnic. Then the rain stopped, a few more trips back down the hill later, more screaming from the kiddies,and I packed them back in the car. Disaster!! Talk about best laid plans!! My feet hurt so much after all the running up and down the stones barefoot (my flip flops made it even worse so had to go with bare feet) and that was by far the low point of the week.
Some of the best bits though were seeing my kiddies having a whale of a time on the playpark on the farm (which had an awesome boat swing that I want to get for our swing at home) and just in running around the cottage garden.
Oh and watching Monkey jumping in muddy puddles on the very wet days!
Lots of happy times and though hubs was working a lot of the time we also got a lot of time together as a family which has been very lovely. By the end I both didn’t want to leave and get back to normality, but was also looking forward to getting home and our creature comforts, family and friends.
I love this post! We have had many ‘interesting’ trips to westbay ourselves! The ‘sandy’ bit s more like fine gravel and is further along, (if you stood with the sea to your left and the rocks in front of you you would be headed for it! #letkidsbekids
What a lovely place! It’s unfortunate the beach trip didn’t work out, but looks like you had a good holiday 🙂 #letkidsbekids
What a lovely house and location to house sit. We’ve just got back from a family holiday too. Again, like you we had mixed weather, some sun, some rain and too much wind! Sorry your beach trip didn’t work out.
Oh that looks like a beautiful idyllic cottage in gorgeous surroundings and it sounds like you all had a fantastic time, except for the beach trip ( there always has to one disaster).
Thanks for linking #LetKidsbeKids
Sounds like a real mixed bag hon, but lovely break and nice change of scenery. I know exactly how you feel about the stones, my hubby and eldest are both obsessed with the idea of finding a sandy beach. We’re off to Whitstable next week, and Hubby thought it was sand but it’s not and my eldest is going to be devastated. Just hoping it doesn’t rain as well xx
Wow, that really is some contrasts in weather! Gotta love England for that! Looks amazing though….bar the spiders *shudders*.
Sounds like you had a wonderful time apart from your rainy day at the beach!! You have some beautiful photos here too!! You just can’t beat holidays with the kiddies! Treasured memories! #twinklytuesday
Argh – such a shame about the weather but so typical! At least you got enough sunny days for fun in the garden. The whole place looks sooo beautiful! I feel for you with that day on the beach though – thanks for sharing it looks like it was mostly a great week Xx #thetruthabout
I think I want that swing for my house too. What a lovely break and Dorset is so stunning!
Looks picturesque and you got some great photo memories there. You lost me at the spiders though *shudder*
#sharewithme
It looks idyllic — even with the cracks and the spiders!! What a beautiful time away — although my heart would have absolutely sunk, seeing that big mountain of stones on the beach!!! Thanks so much for linking up with #TwinklyTuesday — hope to see you again next week! x
Caro | http://www.thetwinklediaries.co.uk
Love this, how beautiful…although the spiders can do one. Typical English weather keeping you on your toes! Thanks for linking up to the #bestandworst 🙂
Despite the beach issues, it looks the picture of beauty! I just love being tucked away in the countryside! Great photos and glad you got some family time together! #countrykids
It looks like you all had loads of fun exploring the Dorset countryside and meeting all the friendly animals. Monkey and LM look so happy in all the pictures of them, especially on the swing, that’s a great idea. That sounds like the beach trip from hell, it’s such a shame the weather turned, I’m sure you would’ve had a great day if the weather hadn’t been so bad. Thanks for linking up with me on Country Kids.
We just returned from Dorset too, feel free to take a look at my last couple of blog posts on it! Was that Chesil Beach by any chance? It really looks like it. We went to a spot on Chesil beach and it is insane – just moutains of stones like nothing I have ever seen, and terribly painful if you go in sandals. I had a similar short-lived and bad trip to Chesil Beach but it was me that was crying (nearly) not my little man – he was oblivious.
Kat x
#CountryKids
OH your dorset holiday looks amazing and glad you had so much fun and a great time together. The kids looked like they were thriving and so happy. Lovely photos. Thank you so much for linking up to Share With Me #sharewithme
Wow what a stunning location – we’re going to Dorest in September and I’ve never been before so I was intrigued to read and now I’m really looking forward to it! Love that you’ve chronicled the beach disaster – I think I should do more accounts of our many disasterous trips, it helps to know you’re not alone in planning a glorious family day out and it all going spectacularly wrong. Hopefully now you can look back and laugh and you’ll look back on it with much fondness in years to come! #whatevertheweather
I’m Jealous! Cows crossing the road, sheep, and Stonehenge! This looks like the best holiday ever….except for the weather and sore feet. Thanks for sharing #WhateverTheWeather
A lovely place to visit! It must be so lovely to see all the animals and have terrific views around you.
Really cute pictures of LM and monkey, love the big smiles at the park and the puddle jumping.
A shame about the gravel’y’ beach, it’s always much more difficult when doing these things on your own. I can imagine how much it must have hurt with flip flops on. At least you had lots of good days as well.
Thanks for linking up to #whatevertheweather, could you please add the badge to your post though please? Thank you! 🙂 x
That boat swing looks amazing. I’m sorry you had such a disastrous beach trip. Hopefully there will be many more lovely ones to make up for it. What an idealic holiday though. It looks so beautiful and peaceful where you stayed, although I really couldn’t deal with tonnes of spider. But it must have been so lovely running around and having all of the farm animals to see. 🙂 Especially for your little ones. Thank you so much for linking up to #whatevertheweather x