As many of you may know, Dorset is where I lived and grew up from the age of ten to nineteen. I was born in London but my Mum was Dorset born and so during the first ten years of my life we frequently travelled from the city to the coast to visit her parents/my grandparents during school holidays. I have many good memories of holidaying there as a young child and when the decision was made for us to move there permanently, well, lets just say I thought that my ten year old heart would explode with joy. I had the best kind of childhood living a few miles from the sea, and rural life gave us so much more freedom than we'd had living in a very busy urban environment. Pedalling my old bike down to the beach in the summer holidays is one of my favourite childhood memories - I was telling my own Little People that I really hated wearing anything on my feet when I was younger and often rode my bike (and walked everywhere) with bare feet. I guess it's one of the reasons I love wearing flip flops as an adult, as it's the closest thing to being bare foot in the summer.
I left home when I was 18 after taking my A levels and moved 45 miles along the Dorset coast to Bournemouth to spend a year doing an art foundation course. Living there was even more dreamy as my student accommodation was a mere five minute walk from the beach, oh I loved that year of my life so, so much. After that year I moved north to undertake a three year textile degree at Manchester, and my trips back to Dorset happened three times a year during Christmas, Easter and Summer break. I still loved my summers by the sea - each year of my student life I worked full time at an ice cream shop just a stones throw from the beach at Lyme Regis. Such happy memories for sure. Two years after graduating, I met J - we were both 24 years old and from that point on he always came with me on my trips back to the south coast. The Dorset coast calls to me like no other place on Earth, I always say it's where my soul is at peace and I honestly do experience this as a physical thing. My heart feels it for sure, but I feel like my whole being relaxes with the relief of being back where I belong. It's home.
Sadly, the rest of my family don't have anywhere near the same level of connection as me, and that's OK, I do get that it's a very personal thing. In years past, we would make the 300 mile journey twice a year (Easter and Summer) but in recent years it's become an annual summer jaunt. I try and journey down more often if I can, taking the train and travelling solo. Since my Mum and her partner both died, I feel it's more important than ever to make the most of the time I have left with my Dad. He's 75 and has aged considerably in the past year so I really do want to visit as often as I'm able.
The first morning when we're in Dorset I always experience a huge pull to the sea, specifically the pebble beach and little fishing harbour at West Bay where my childhood memories reside. I love to literally "ground" myself there, sitting directly on the beach to feel it with my whole body. The sound of the waves breaking on a pebble beach is one of my most favourite things to listen to, gosh I could spend hours just sitting, watching the waves and drinking in the coastal sights and sounds. And the smell of it too, the air smells sooooooo good in Dorset, especially in Summer. It's a beautiful mix of salty sea air and sweet meadow grass and I absolutely love love love it.
That first morning we were down at the beach pretty early, I think it was about 8.30 or so. It wasn't planned that way but we all happened to be awake and up early and as Little B declared he was "staaaaaaarving" we decided that a walk on the beach followed by breakfast in a beach café would be just the thing. And it was, it was wonderful!
The weather wasn't all that great at the start of our holiday, but then we'd been expecting a mixed bag. Often by the coast there is a persistent "mizzle" (a misty drizzle) - we get it inland here in Yorkshire too, but it's especially common by the sea. It rolls in from the shore and descends on the landscape like a damp grey blanket, obliterating views and generally making the day feel a bit miserable. We did try to make the best of it, wrapping up in waterproof coats and setting out to walk along a pretty deserted Burton beach.
We came across these rock towers which looked amazing on the empty beach....
.....and Little B added a very, very small stone to the highest tower as his contribution.
One good thing about a mizzly day is that the huge amount of moisture in the air can often settle itself in a surprisingly beautiful way....
....these feathers on the shingle beach literally stopped me in my tracks, they looked like they'd been decorated with sparkling jewels.
Our general plan when we were in Dorset this time was to get out and about in the mornings so that by mid afternoon we would be free to spend time with my Dad and his partner and enjoy an evening meal with them. Because the weather wasn't really any good for sitting on the beach (or sitting for any length of time outdoors anywhere really), we were a bit stuck for things to do. Little B is at an age where he's pretty hard to please, as nothing seems to be of any interest to his eleven year old brain (with the exception of food). On day two we decided to go for an afternoon walk, following footpaths around Hardy's Monument which are part of the South Dorset Ridegeway. This is high ground with far reaching scenic views....
.....it was just a shame that the views were very wet and non existent.
Water droplets were plentiful....
....but as much as I loved seeing these jewelled spiders webs, they didn't really make up for the miserableness of the weather. Surprisingly, Little B took it in stride and was in good spirits, he's always been a great walker ever since he was small and toddler sized and that's something I've always been thankful for.
Day three and the weather was dry at last, yippeeeee! It was still very grey and murky, but the damp was gone and so we set out to visit one of our favourite places - Abbotsbury Subtropical Gardens. We've been visiting these gardens for many years, ever since the Little people were very small. It was as beautiful as ever, it's such a well maintained garden with truly stunning areas of planting, a great mix of ancient woodland and different garden areas with winding pathways to explore.
I think I must photograph these giant gunnera leaves every single year - they stand at around 6ft tall and this year for the first time Little B was able to reach up and touch them. My, my, that child is growing at such a pace, he's just one inch shorter than me now.
Little B says his favourite part of the gardens are the lily ponds which are home to lots and lots of very large goldfish. There is a little metal dispenser which will turn you out a handful of fish food for 20 pence, and it's one of those family traditions of ours that we just have to do. There was no way we could visit and not feed the fish. They played their part and dutifully came to the surface to snaffle the little pellets, much to Little B's delight. Sometimes, in his unguarded moments I still get a glimpse of the child he used to be, but honestly it's rare these days. I bloomin' love it when it happens though, truly.
We'd taken a picnic lunch with us in the hope that the weather would warm up and allow us to enjoy eating outdoors and I'm happy to report we were not disappointed. We stopped off at our favourite West Bexington beach which was beautifully quiet and peaceful....
....and spent a few hours enjoying the sound of the waves as we ate. I'd made us chunky ham, cheese and salad sandwiches using a freshly baked French baguette, with crisps, grapes and apples. Oh, and a bit of chocolate to finish off because good chocolate is always needed to round off a picnic in my opinion. Eating outdoors is one of my favourite things to do on holiday and even a humble picnic is elevated to something special when eaten on the beach.
Later that same day we made a last minute decision to eat our evening meal at the beach too - we were on a roll with al fresco eating and it seemed like a good thing to do.
We stayed local and drove the few miles down to the harbour.....
.....and took our paper wrapped fish and chip dinner down to the beach to eat with a view of the sea.
We even had a couple bottles of cold beer (J and I have started enjoying alcohol free beer, and it tastes really great I have to say). As you can see from the above photo, it was a bit on the chilly side so I ended up underneath my picnic blanket which I can't say I was unhappy about, I do love a bit of crochet blanket comfort!
Once it got too cold to sit still any longer, Little B and I took a brisk walk up to the top of the west cliff to take in the view. It was a lovely way to round off our day spent outdoors - two meals eaten on two different beaches, yup, I was extremely happy with the way the day had panned out.
Waking up on the next day we were greeted with a glowering sky and light rain which made me sigh long and loud with utter disappointment. It was a Saturday, so after after a bit of a ponder we decided to head into Bridport to be true "holiday makers" and enjoy the hustle and bustle of the street market. Even in the drizzly rain we figured we could make the best of it, find a cosy café and enjoy a morning coffee. By the time we arrived in town the rain had just about stopped and it was great to see the market thriving in spite of the cool unseasonal weather. We chose a very teeny tiny independent café which had tables and chairs on the pavement and enjoyed a really good frothy coffee with a wonderful slab of homemade coffee and walnut cake. My spirits were most definitely lifted and as the weather seemed to be improving minute by minute we made a spontaneous decision to head six miles along the coast to a little seaside place from my childhood.
As you can see from the above photo, the weather really got it's act together by the early afternoon and we arrived at the cute little seaside village of Charmouth under a blue, sunny sky. Yayyyyy, happy, happy, happy me!!!!!!!!
It's been many years since we've been to Charmouth beach, and I'd forgotten just how charming and unspoilt it is. There is very little here - a small café, a tiny shop selling fossils and a heritage coast centre. Oh, and some beach huts too, looking beautiful in their subtle minty shades.
Just like all the other beaches we visit in Dorset, this is part of the famous Jurrasic Coast World Herritage site and is very well known locally as being the place to go for fossils. The sound of many little hammers tapping at rocks is very distinctive and beach combing and treasure hunting is a very popular activity here. When we were visiting, the tide was low and so there was plenty of space on the beach for us to wander along and see what we could find.
I really liked seeing more rock stacks here on the beach - I think they are fabulous and I love that people take the time to create them for others to enjoy.
I just had a bit of a search in the depths of the interweb to try and find some information about rock stacks - I really just wanted to know whether stacking rocks was an actual "thing". It seems as if it is indeed a world wide artistic pastime and I found this link ((here)) which has some fabulous photos. Ahhhhhh, see now I really, really wish that I had tried my hand at creating one myself.....sticking that activity at the very top of my must-do list for my next visit to the coast.
And while I'm on the subject of stone stacking, if you have three minutes to spare I really think you'd like this video on YouTube of Swedish artist Jonna Jinton working her magic. I discovered Jonna's YouTube channel last year during the height of pandemic lockdown and binge watched every single one of them. The way she tells her story through video and music is absolutely breath taking and very moving, I can highly recommend it.
Back to beach life, and the natural beauty of Charmouth beach had me captivated from the start. I used to come here quite often as a small child because I had a great Uncle and Aunt who lived here, and it's where I first discovered the joy of hunting for sea glass which has been a life long passion of mine.
Naturally, J and the Little People have been influenced by my obsession with beach combing over the years and it's one of those activities that is guaranteed to keep even the youngest engaged for quite a decent amount of time. You can see him in the above photo, intently scanning the shore for sea glass "treasure". Little B has a highly competitive nature which amuses me no end because I am the absolute opposite - I have a very passive personality and deliberately avoid any kind of competitive activity.
We had a discussion about what colours of sea glass would be considered rare - on the south coast, red/orange is the rarest, closely followed by cobalt blue. Well, once the challenge was set there was no stopping that child of mine and the hunt was on. It was a true delight to sit my behind down on the warm pebbled beach and watch him go to work, he was relentless in his search. The joy and pride on his face when he proudly presented me with not one but two pieces of beautiful cobalt blue sea glass was priceless - awwwww!! My heart felt like it wanted to explode.
We spent a wonderful few hours on the beach that afternoon, content with the simple pleasures of sitting and strolling in the warm sunshine, gathering in our small but precious collection of sea treasure to bring home.
It's early evening now, and we are settled in Lady B's beautiful walled garden to enjoy some light refreshment. We had planned to cook dinner in the garden - fabulous steak burgers from the local butcher which has become pretty well known after appearing on the television (apparently it's Britain's oldest family business, dating back more than 500 years). Unfortunately the fine weather didn't last for us, but J did a brilliant job with the barbecue in the rain.....sigh......such is our fickle British summer time. I try not to let the poor weather get me down, but sometimes it really does suck.
Our last morning in Dorset looked promising and we were gifted some warm, dry weather to end our holiday, thank goodness for that. My heart was happy, and we set out early to take a last walk by the sea, heading back to West Bay to walk along the clifftops. I've been enjoying this walk for most of my life and have many, many layers of memories here - the feeling of nostalgia is a palpable thing for me any time we make the steep climb up the east cliff with it's sweeping views of familiar coastline.
It's only a few miles to walk, but there are a couple of steep ups and downs as the footpath winds its way over the rugged cliff tops....
,,,,before dropping back down to sea level. The return walk is along the shoreline, and on this morning it was absolutely beautiful.
It was still quite early (around 9.30 I think) and only a few dog walkers were out and about - I love it when you feel like you have the beach to yourself, which is quite a rarity in August.
These vertical sandy cliffs are pretty impressive and I always love to be at sea level looking upwards, marvelling at the fact that just a short while ago we were actually walking along the very top of them. It blows my mind every single time, without fail.
All the climbing, walking and fresh sea air meant that by the time we trundled back to the harbour we all felt more than a little ravenous. Little B is coming through a pretty major growth spurt right now and as a result is constantly complaining that he is about to perish from starvation.
After three failed attempts trying to find breakfast at our usual haunts (one unexpectedly shut, one fully booked and short staffed and one not opening until lunch time), we ended up at Sladers Yard. I'd been here once before for coffee - it's a very unassuming old place from the outside (a historic rope warehouse) but the building has amazing character. Inside is a mixture of art gallery and café, and outside there is rustic wooden seating in a sheltered gravel garden where you can eat if the weather allows.
As it turned out, the weather chose to behave and it was warm and sheltered in this secluded little spot. We had such a gorgeous breakfast (great coffee too) and I was really glad that our last bit of the holiday felt so joyful. Little B was in raptures over his fluffy, freshly made pancakes (which probably just settled into his feet, his appetite is seriously impressive), and I enjoyed my go-to fave of poached eggs on sourdough toast which was lush. Gosh, all this talk of food is making my hungry!
We drove home later that afternoon after saying our goodbyes to family, and I made a promise to my Dad (and myself) that I would try and return in the Autumn. It was a good holiday all in all, I mean, we had some tense moments and I'm very, very aware that the easy, laid back family holidays we enjoyed when the Little People were young are pretty much a thing of the past now. I can't help but feel a bit sad about it, but at the same time I can see that we are entering a new phase of parenting where J and I will begin to rethink how/where we spend our holidays in future. It's quite an exciting thought actually, so I'm holding onto that and doing my best to embrace the changes. Who knows what next year will bring?
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
ps..I've just had a look back in my archives to my first ever post about our Dorset holidays, right at the start of my blog in Spring 2008. The Little people were aged 5 and 4 back then, and Little B was not even a notion......my my, how the years do whizz past xx
!!! Do you like the way this stripe pattern works?
