Day 9- Thursday trail, Thomas Hardy Tales

We started the day in Tollard Royal with a lovely breakfast kept company by the owner of Perry Cottage's lovely little dog Welly (short for Wellington). A very well behaved little old man.

We wisely decided to do a smaller walk today and so were able to start the day in a leisurely manor. The church was all done up for what we thought was a wedding but which turned out to be a funeral. The wonderful clear weather continues!

We gorged ourselves on blackberries/bramble berries again today. Such a shame that no one was picking them. We were dreaming of the jams, pies and tarts that could be made from such a harvest. And growing everywhere!

In this photo you can see that the whole left side of the hedge row is all brambles. It was hard not to pluck one once in a while. The thorns kept catching my trouser leg while walking past which reminded me of the quotation:

"Oh, how full of briars is this working-day world!" - Shakespeare, As You Like It

More lovely Dorset scenery which photos cannot begin to do justice to!

Off to Ashmore, a cute little village with no pub but it did have a lovely spot to rest by a pond in the centre of the village. 

It also had many wonderful spots to photograph including this late hollyhock in the glorious sun.

Mungo (Welly's friend) welcomed us back to the B&B.

And our shorter walking day meant we got to enjoy the late day sun in the garden with Mungo and Welly.

A pot of tea and some glossy English magazines just completed the day. We can highly recommend Perry Cottage in Tollard Royal. We could hear the distant sound of guns from the shooting at Ashcombe. I wonder if Guy Ritchie was taking part? He and Madonna bought the property in 2001 but  he got it after the split. 

Step count only 19,701 today. But there was more relaxation and even a nap!

Cheers!

Day 8- Wednesday trail, Out on the Chase ending in Tollard Royal

Big walk planned today. These delicious berries we have been munching along the way are called either blackberries or bramble berries depending on which part of England you are from. In Canada we call it a Blackberry and my photos for this blog were taken on a larger electronic version of the fruit!

Added later- when I got home, I started watching the ITV series Home Fires about women in England keeping the home fires burning during WWII. The first episode has them making blackberry jam "for the war effort". Wonderful!

Our route took us up the chalk hills in the north of Dorset today. It is hard to see, but the white path you see above is from the chalk. Think of the white cliffs of Dover and you have the idea. It is a bit slippery to walk on (sort of like talcum powder at times) and the Neolithic people even carved pictures out of the chalk hills for gigantic art. The Uffington White Horse of Oxfordshire is over 3000 years old.

Postman Pat kept roaring past in his little Royal Mail truck. The lanes are narrow here but there is time to dive to the side (preferably not into brambles or stinging nettles).

Gillian ran into this adorable bus stop in West End. Would that all bus stops could be this cute and comfortable. Village news inside on the cork board is handy too.

Actually that crossroads was called Sixpenny Handley but we were off to Berwick St. John next. Actually, before we got to Berwick St J, we arrived at an adorable village called Alvediston.

Wandering into The Church of St Mary Alvediston, the light was streaming into the windows and onto the pews. As we were admiring the embroidered cushions for kneeling, we spotted a certain gentleman under the window in the right of this photos.

A recubent medieval knight with two angels by his head and his dog by his feet, is thought to commemorate John Gawen, who built nearby Norrington in 1377. Apparently former Prime Minister Anthony Eden was also buried here but we thought Sir Gawen more interesting.

Another lovely view in Alvediston as we were leaving.

After talking sweetly to these sheep who were collected in front of a stile we had to cross...

and getting some fresh green cow manure on my boot (and laces which had come undone yet again!) we started to get hungry, tired and grumpy. OK, I started to get hungry tired and grumpy. Some expletives were released into the fresh country air.

So how lovely to finally come to this chocolate box village where The Talbot Inn gave us rest and refreshment. Lots of older locals inside having a good old time reminiscing too.

You can just see the tops of their heads in this photo. When we left they were starting to compare ages. Most were well over 80!

The photos of the hills near Win Green we were walking really don't do justice to the scenery but here is one.

And here were some cows grazing on a hill. Behind them in the clump of trees is a Neolithic burial site dating to 500 BC. The history is everywhere.

While walking through Ashcombe Park, where Madonna used to live and where her ex Guy Ritchie still does, we were amazed by the number of pheasants running around. They are hilarious the way they ran away from us (rather in the manner of roadrunners) and so elusive that this was our best photo even though they were everywhere!

When we got to our B&B, the lovely Perry Cottage in Tollard Royal, this tea tray awaited us. Then off to the local pub The King John Inn for a venison dinner. It seemed appropriate as King John used to go deer hunting in Cranborne Chase here.

Steps for the day 27,313.

Cheers! Hope we can still walk tomorrow.