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| Down to Dorset and Canford School, a well converted gentleman's residence, now the home of numerous pupils, teachers and Stephen and Karen, not to mention Sam. They live in one of the teachers' houses, a converted stable block. | |||
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| We were in the visitor's flat next door to them. Serendipitously it was Sam's birthday while we were there (2) hence balloons, and even more toys than normal around the house. He had a particularly good bubble blowing kit, and Stephen had a new iPad that converted me to the advantages of Tablet Technology | |||
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| Karen's parents arrived the last day we were there. We had 4 nights at Canford, and Stephen had organised trips around the area, which we did not know very well. First off was the round tour of Poole Harbour, which necessitated taking the chain ferry across the narrow mouth of the harbour. There was quite a queue to get on, so we watch three or four ferries come and go before our turn | |||
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| An enjoyable "cider" lunch at the "Square and Compass" - wonder if that is owned by the Freemasons. Another day was at a National Trust property, Kingston Lacy. Home of the Bankes family for more than 300 years until they ran out of money, this striking 17th-century house is noted for its lavish interiors. The art collection includes paintings by Rubens, Van Dyck, Titian and Tintoretto, with the largest private collection of Egyptian artifacts in the UK, which is not saying a lot. | |||
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| Outside one can walk across the lawns towards the restored Japanese tea garden. There are several waymarked walks through the surrounding parkland, with its fine herd of North Devon cattle, and the 3,443-hectare (8,500-acre) estate is dominated by the Iron Age hillfort of Badbury Rings, home to fourteen varieties of orchid | |||
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| The garden is criss-crossed with scenic walks. Pathways lead out of the more formal gardens closer to the house and into woodland. Enjoy long and short walks (depending on how far your legs need stretching). | |||
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The gardens include an Egyptian obelisk which survived the high seas and a 20-year journey from Philae, Egypt, to get to Kingston Lacy. It then took a team of 19 horses to haul the hefty obelisk vertical. The Duke of Wellington was prevailed upon to lay the foundation stone. Another day was in the New Forest, a tranquil place, but actually extraordinarily difficult to find as modern dual highways segment it, and exits from an expressway into the forest are few and far between. |
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| Anyway we found two or three ways off the main roads and had a few strolls through the forest. And the last day was in Poole and its surrounds. The weather was perhaps typically English summer, grey but not actually raining | |||