Cat-sitting in Dorset

View along the cliffs of West Bay, on Dorset's Jurassic Coast

Hello from sunny England where it has *finally* stopped raining after a record-breaking period of precipitation. Even I, who loves rain (I'm confident none of you have ever heard me complain about it before), recently got to the stage where I just wanted a day that wasn't grey and wet. I'm happy to report that spring has now well and truly arrived in Blighty, and we even had close to 20ºC the other day, which is the upper limit of my warm weather tolerance. That was a blip, and we're now back to more normal spring temperatures in the low to mid teens.

Now, just to catch you up on what's been happening with us, over the past couple of months we have been spending quite a bit of time back down in Surrey 😍  The reason for this is that one of the science teachers at Frensham has had to take extensive leave, and Kevin offered to help out his colleagues who were, understandably (it's a small team), under some pressure with no clear picture of when that would ease. Not an ideal scenario coming up to exam time. So Kevin has come out of retirement, temporarily, working Tuesday / Wednesday / Thursday each week. He is being accommodated in one of the staff flats - right at the top of the gothic revival main school building. The flat is in amongst the turrets and right next to the old bell tower (which is not in use, thankfully!). It's a hell of a climb up multiple sets of stairs, but the views are spectacular.

Most weeks we drive down to Frensham on Monday evening, I stay overnight and on Tuesday with a friend or two I have coffee or lunch, or go for a walk, then I drive back to Ledbury and Kevin makes his way home on Thursday evening via three trains (which takes about four hours). Or we do it in reverse. It has been wonderful, being able to catch up with friends and revisiting my favourite walks and places of interest. Last week I also nipped into London for the day to see a Wes Anderson exhibition at the Design Museum, as I was staying at Frensham for a couple of nights. It will come as no surprise to anybody that I miss Frensham, Surrey and the close proximity to London even more than I feared I would. 

Kevin is probably finishing up his temporary teaching gig at Easter, and he is eager to return to the less structured lifestyle that retirement brings, now that better weather is here. I can't blame him, but I am sad this means the end of weekly visits to my beloved Surrey.

Misty dawn from one of the stone oval windows at the top of Frensham Heights' main building
(from the staff flat where Kevin has been living during the week)

Another Surrey sunrise view - from the staff flat at Frensham Heights

The first anniversary of losing Daisy May passed in February, and naturally we all the more keenly realised how much we miss feline companionship, although not having a pet does mean we have much more flexibility for travel.

We recently re-joined Trusted Housesitters, after having let our membership lapse for something like ten years. Those of you who have been with Tunnels of Green since 2014 will recall that Kevin and I did quite a number of TH gigs in our first couple of years back over here, looking after people's cats, dogs and even ducks in various parts of the UK. it's a great way to get free accommodation in exchange for spending time with people's beloved companion animals. 

A couple of weeks ago I drove 160km from Frensham to Cerne Abbas, a tiny village in Dorset, to commence a sit for two cats. Kevin was to join me the following evening, travelling by train from Farnham to Sherborne (a 2-hour train journey), after he finished the week's work at Frensham. 

St Mary's Church in Cerne Abbes, sections of which date back to the early 1300s

Two abbey tenements from the early 16th century (now private houses) in Cerne Abbas.

Lime green making a bold statement on this front door!
Ad Hoc House in Cerne Abbas

We have visited Dorset several times, but I don't recall having ever passed through that particular part of the county, so this was an opportunity to become acquainted with what is often referred to as 'England's prettiest village.' I'm sure there are plenty of other villages that would argue a claim to that particular accolade, but Cerne Abbas is certainly very appealing.

Its main claim to fame is the hillside carving of the Cerne Abbas Giant, a 55-metre high chalk image carved into the hillside above the village. It is believed to have ancient origins, however the earliest recorded reference to the Giant is in 1694.

The Giant has been managed by the National Trust for some decades, and they claim to undertake regular maintenance but whilst I was in Cerne Abbas the locals freely expressed their annoyance (the actual word used by several people was 'disgust') that the Giant is frequently allowed to fade so that it is barely visible. He's certainly looking a little anaemic at the moment.

This photo is taken from the official viewing point for the Cerne Abbas Giant
(Where's Wally?')

A closer view of the Cerne Abbas Giant - he is looking quite pale, at present

Aside from the Giant, there are many things to recommend Cerne Abbas. It is indeed very attractive, with a large number of very old buildings and many charming cottages. The village has three pubs, one of which is a renowned 'gastropub' which also offers accommodation - The New Inn. We decided the menu was a bit on the pricey side and it only offered a single vegetarian option in the starter and main course menus, meaning we'd both have to eat the same thing. So we gave it a miss. On my first night in Cerne Abbas my Trusted Housesitters host and I had dined at one of the more 'characterful' pubs. She warned me that the proprietor regularly forgot orders and recommended we arrive early and check on our meals if we hadn't received them within about half an hour! 

The River Cerne, a chalk stream, winds through the village and in order to gain access to many houses you have to step over a little bridge. I did ask our host whether the recent months of incessant rain had caused problems for the village but apparently Cerne Abbas is one of the rare places in England that seems to have taken active preventative measures against flooding, with a flood reservoir having been installed a couple of years ago.

Old Gaol Cottage in Cerne Abbas dates back to 1859 and originally served
as the village gaol and police station

The River Cerne, Cerne Abbas

Many of the houses in Cerne Abbas have the river flowing past their front or back;
consequently there are a lot of little bridges like this

Ah, chalk streams and their crystal-clear waters!
The River Cerne, running along the front of cottages in Cerne Abbas

Cerne Abbas is a super friendly village but also a bit quirky, and clearly the inhabitants have a sense of humour as well as a commitment to the environment, as you will see from the photos below. 

Kevin was delighted to discover that the Cerne Abbas Brewery was on the edge of the village, and that on Saturday afternoon there was to be a bit of music and the tap room open to sample their wares. We were warned that one needed footwear suitable for a farm. Thankfully it was a lovely sunny afternoon and the ground wasn't too mucky, Kevin got to try a pint of one of the darker ales and we enjoyed a very varied repertoire from a talented young guitarist and vocalist.

There are a LOT of dogs in Cerne Abbas!
This sign was on a random bit of lawn in front of one of the older houses in the village

These containers were lined up in a little community information hut / shelter, 
but one wonders whether a village the size of Cerne Abbas really generates
THAT MANY bras for recycling / disposal? 

Kevin enjoyed sampling the local ale at the Cerne Abbas Brewery one sunny afternoon

There is an old abbey in the village, but it's privately owned and only open on certain days for self-guided wandering around the grounds (one deposits £5 per person into an honesty box). Yes, that's right - you guessed it: on the day we decided to take a look the place wasn't open, and we were leaving the next day. So that's on the list for the next time we pass through Cerne Abbas.

Cerne Abbey was founded in the year 987 by Æthelmær the Stout (oh blimey - poor bugger! Body shaming has clearly been around for centuries...). The main building now occupying the site isn't the original, which suffered the fate of some 800 monasteries during Henry VIII's dissolution programme, ie it was closed and left to become ruins. The only remaining part of the original large abbey is the Abbot's Porch. However, Abbey House (see photo below) is a lovely bit of architecture and we would have been pleased to take a look around the estate. Never mind; we'll save that for another time.

Abbey House, built on the site of the original Cerne Abbey,
up one end of the village in Cerne Abbas, Dorset

Just a 20-minute drive from Cerne Abbas is the really nice town of Sherborne, where I collected Kevin from the station on my second evening. Sherborne has an abbey with one of the finest vaulted ceilings in England - it is gorgeous. The town also has a plethora of beautiful shops for browsing - antiques, homewares, fashion, gourmet providores and so on. 

Sherborne is also home to a very posh school named, sensibly enough, Sherborne School. Founded in 705 AD, it's one of the oldest schools in the UK, and is renowned as an Oxbridge feeder. It occupies a vast swathe of historic buildings across the town. And KER-CHING! it costs, at a minimum, £36,000 per year as a day student. If you are boarding, that goes up to £45,000 per year. It's education for the well-heeled and scholarship recipients only.

Whilst exploring the town we constantly passed small groups of teenage boys in various forms of the Sherborne school uniform, rushing to and fro, all looking very smart. In case you're not aware, at many private schools in the UK students wear the official school uniform up to Year 11, and then in the Sixth Form (Years 12 and 13) they wear a business suit, to distinguish them as the senior members of the academic community and to aid the transition from school student to adult in the real world. Neither of us favours this very traditional style of school, with its rigid social structure and air of privilege, but it remains very popular with those British families who can afford it, not to mention wealthy foreigners who happily stump up the fees and send their beloved offspring to board in England in the hope of gaining entry into Oxford or Cambridge. 

Sherborne Abbey looking magnificent on a sunny spring day

The Quire, leading up to the altar
- Sherborne Abbey in Dorset

The incredibly elaborate vaulted ceiling of Sherborne Abbey in Dorset,
acknowledged as one of England's finest

Stone columns inside Sherborne Abbey. The pink sections were caused by a fire during a riot in the town in 1437.
The heat of the fire brought out the iron in the stone, turning it pink

Historic buildings in Sherborne, Dorset.
We enjoyed a very nice lunch at the place on the left, Café D'Urberville

Stairway inside Café D'Urberville in Sherborne.
It's a combination café, cocktail bar, gallery and homeware / antiques store

Café D'Urberville in Sherborne

Kevin in front of one of the many antiques stores in Sherborne, Dorset

Love to B is a Dorset-based company specialising in natural skincare and home scents.
They take their window dressing seriously!
(this is their Sherbone store)

Building in golden stone - one of the many properties forming part of the campus
of the very exclusive Sherborne School in Sherborne, Dorset

Also only 15-20 minutes drive from Cerne Abbas is the city of Dorchester, which we didn't get to explore in any depth, though we did visit their local Wagamama one evening for a bite of supper before going to the cinema there, to see a film as we'd been eagerly awaiting its release. Both were located in Brewery Square, a zhuzhed-up part of the city which makes use of historic industrial buildings.

Side note: I heartily recommend you race out and see Project Hail Mary, particularly if you enjoy a bit of sci-fi but even if you don't especially. If possible, see it at an IMAX theatre. The book by Andy Weir was superb, laugh-out-loud funny in many places, and Kevin was really happy about all the science content (don't worry - even a science dullard such as myself was able to follow it. I think). I'm happy to report the film adaptation has been very well done. It's funny, sad, touching, dramatic and Ryan Gosling is absolutely wonderful. As Matt Damon did in the film adaptation of this author's previous book The Martian, Gosling carries this movie almost independently, though the small supporting cast are excellent too, not least the magnificent Sandra Hüller, whom I've loved in all her films. That's an actor with breadth.

But I digress...

Right next-door to Dorchester is a place I have long wanted to take a look at - the somewhat controversial town of Poundbury. Most of you have probably never heard of it; but it is regarded as an 'experimental urban extension' - in simple terms it's a fully planned township, and that's a rarity in this country, let me tell you. The great majority of cities, towns and even villages in (particularly) England were developed prior to the motor car, and the result is that nearly every street is now a glorified car park, small front gardens have disappeared to make way for off-street parking, and foot traffic is along narrow pavements choked by engine fumes as cars sit on the hopelessly inadequate, traffic-congested roads.

King Charles actively supported the development of Poundbury whilst he was Price of Wales and Duke of Cornwall, and in fact the whole project was led by the Duchy of Cornwall. The design of the town is based on a blending of traditional architecture and New Urbanist philosophy. Poundbury hasn't been fully completed; it currently as about 4,000 inhabitants, with a further 2,000 expected by the time the project comes to an end in 2028.

In truth, I cannot determine whether I like it or not. There are certainly many new buildings that have been beautifully built to resemble those from different ages (eg Georgian, Victorian), and the streets are really wide, providing ample space for vehicular traffic and parking. However I said to Kevin while we were walking around that I did feel a bit like I was in an episode of The Prisoner; the town felt strangely empty, even on a sunny Friday afternoon. At any moment I expected to see crowds of people with multicoloured umbrellas marching down the strreet, or to be pursued by a large, white inflated balloon (this trailer will explain).

Nonetheless, it was very interesting to visit and we did stumble across a South African themed café where we enjoyed a pot of tea and some very good cake.

Doorway to a faux-Georgian house in Poundbury, Dorset

Queen Mother Square in Poundbury, just outside Dorchester.
Those buildings have only been put up in the past ten years!

Kevin enjoying a pot of tea at Fables and Food, a South African themed café in Poundbury

Despite a couple of drizzly days, we did score with the weather for part of our time in Dorset. On one such day we took the opportunity to nip down to the seaside, to West Bay which is about 35kms by car from Cerne Abbas (approx 40 minutes). West Bay has both a beach and a marina, and was once known as Bridport Harbour. It's part of the Jurassic Coast, a World Heritage Area that stretches roughly 160km along the English Channel southern coastline from Dorset to East Devon.

West Bay was the filming location for that excellent TV series Broadchurch, starring David Tennant and Olivia Colman.

We walked one of the local landmarks a few years ago - Golden Cap, which at approximately 200 metres is the highest point on the entire south coast of England. That was a tough climb up a very steep and long hill, and the short walk we did at West Bay was a stroll by comparison! 

Gloriously green, rolling hills heading from Cerne Abbas to Dorset's coast

These two groovy, vintage Renault 8s were resplendent under the sun at West Beach in Dorset.
I particularly loved that they were parked in front of a mid-century apartment complex 

Foaming waves creeping up the beach at West Bay on Dorset's Jurassic Coast

View from the top of West Bay Cliffs, looking south towards Seatown and Lyme Regis

As for our charges, we loved looking after Amber and Oreo, 8-year-old sisters who were adorably 'chunky.' We were told that Oreo could be quite prickly, and we probably shouldn't attempt to have much physical contact with her - particularly if she was sleeping on one of the beds. Yeah, right... Miss Prickly slept with us on our bed every night, and she would even allow me to touch her fluffy tum-tum while she was reclining on a bed during the day. Our host sent me a text the day after we left, saying that obviously Amber and Oreo couldn't tell her they'd felt safe with us looking after them, but that usually when she returns from being away the cats are really clingy. Not so, after five days of us caring for them 😍 They were relaxed and happy, which Debbie said was a first. So there you are - Maree and Kevin retain their titles as Cat Whisperers.

I haven't included any photos of the house where we looked after the cats, nor of Amber and Oreo themselves, for reasons of privacy. Sorry to disappoint some of you - do contact me via DM if you would like to see a photo of the cats and I will share that with you. 

To finish, I'm including a couple of photos from yesterday's walk from nearby Dymock, a village just across the county border, in Gloucestershire (about 15 minutes' drive from Ledbury). Dymock is one of three areas known as the Golden Triangle for daffodils, the other two being Kemply and Oxenhall. Apparently in times gone by thousands of people would travel up from London to the Golden Triangle region to pick the flowers and take them back to sell in London. 

It's daffodil season!
This is Vell Mill Meadow in Dymock, Gloucestershie, one of the UK's best surviving
wild daffodil meadows

Another shot of Vell Mill Meadow in Dymock, Gloucestershire

And yes, I realise some of you are *still* waiting for the post showing our new house. It's been a long wait. There are reasons why I haven't felt able to write that one yet, but it's getting close... watch this space.

In the meantime, we are gearing up for the annual procession of visitors from Australia. Ed and Karen arrive in about a month's time, and then Lesley will be here in June. We can't wait to see our dear friends again.

Until next time,

- Maree  xo

Christmas in Cumbria

The Troutbeck Valley, in England's Lake District (Cumbria)

Greetings from Ledbury, where we've not long returned from spending Christmas in The Lake District.

Goodness only knows why it's taken 16 years for me to return to this incredibly beautiful part of England. I first visited Cumbria back in 1986, for just a couple of days; I can't even remember where I stayed but it was probably in Windermere. Then, in 2009, Kevin and I were in the region with friends as they were all doing the Coast to Coast cycle route from Whitehaven to Sunderland. Again, we only had a day or two to explore prior to the cycling commencing, but both of these brief visits were enough for me to decide I wanted to return some day.

I suppose the Lake District is far enough away from Surrey to make it more of an expedition. Of course we've driven further on many occasions, with multiple trips to various parts of Scotland, but somehow we haven't managed to get back to the countryside made famous by literary luminaries such as Wordsworth and Beatrix Potter. However, now that we're in Herefordshire it's not such a great distance; the 300km journey up to Troutbeck took about four hours, not counting an hour or so for a lunch stop in the very pleasant and well-to-do town of Knutsford in Cheshire. Oh boy - there is some money there! I kept thinking it was the Cheshire equivalent of Harrogate in Yorkshire, with its many eateries and high-end boutiques.

The businesses of Knutsford in Cheshire went all out with their Christmas decorations!

Wallop, in Knutsford:
'Eatery * Drinkery * Tomfoolery' 🤣

See, now this is just one of the reasons I love England.
Stopped by chance in Knutsford for lunch, stumbled across this!

Gaskell Memorial Tower in Knutsford, Cheshire. 
Elizabeth Gaskell was a former resident, and she based her novel Cranford on the town

 

In the fading daylight we arrived at our cottage in the little village of Troutbeck, about 10 minutes' drive from Windermere. The village consists of a series of tiny hamlets, perched on the hillside. Some of the dwellings are very old indeed, but others are new-builds (as ours was), constructed at least partially in the style of traditional local dwellings, in local stone. It's clear that a good percentage of the houses in Troutbeck operate as holiday accommodation and I suspect the permanent population is very small.

Applethwaite Cottage in Troutbeck, above Lake Windermere

We made very good use of the wood-burner during our five days in Troutbeck

Room with a view:
Actual view from our cottage sitting room in Troutbeck, Cumbria

View from our little garden area in Troutbeck,
the hills turning incredible shades of purple in the morning light

After many months of almost unrelenting grey skies and rain, the weather gods were smiling on us and the entire time we were away it was dry, cold and sunny.

On Christmas Eve we drove down to Windermere to explore the town, making the most of the limited trading hours before everything closed down for the public holidays. The anti-capitalist in me was pleased to see that quite a few of the stores and restaurants had already ceased trading for the festive season, probably a sensible decision given that there were relatively few tourists around. I say this with a good dose of cheek, given that I took advantage of one particular shop being open by purchasing a fabulous pair of lace-up boots on sale!

We were lucky to get an outside table in the town's most popular café, because even at this subdued time of year people queue to get a seat! The coffee was acceptable, but the pastries and cakes were superb.

Sunrise on our first morning in Troutbeck, Christmas Eve

The little town of Windermere, where they take their Christmas decorations seriously!

Windermere has lots of pretty houses

Such were the size of the pastries consumed that we didn't require lunch, and after stopping at a local supplier to supplement the cottage's store of firewood we returned to the cottage to change into walking boots. We tripped across fields and hills, down to Jesus Church where I was very happy to discover - completely by accident - that the stained glass east window, behind the altar, was Pre-Raphaelite! It was dedicated in 1873, having been jointly designed by Edward Burne-Jones, William Morris and Ford Madox Brown. 

The existing church structure was built in 1736, although there was a previous church on the site as early as 1506 and some of the older building's features remain. It's technically a chapel rather than a church, partly because of its diminutive size but apparently also because it does not have a tabernacle.

We walked across rolling hills and gurgling streams to reach Jesus Church

Jesus Church, just down the hill from our cottage in Troutbeck, The Lake District

The Pre-Raphaelite window in Jesus Church, Troutbeck.
It was designed jointly by Edward Burne-Jones, William Morris and Ford Madox Brown

Cemetery with a view: the churchyard of Jesus Church in Troutbeck

Late afternoon sun strikes the tops of trees
- view from our rental cottage front door as we returned from Jesus Church
(Troutbeck, Cumbria) 

Because we choose to have our formal Christmas celebration on 24 December (in line with Scandinavian tradition), we had booked a table months ago at one of the two local pubs, about a 15-minute walk from the cottage along a short section of road and then a lengthy section of rocky paths. Armed with torches in the pitch dark of late afternoon we made our way to The Queen's Head. Our meal was adequate but not great; for some reason we were seated in splendid isolation at the back of the pub in a booth, despite there only being a few diners in the main part of the dining area, and our server didn't seem inclined to encourage us to order dessert... so we didn't! 

After another bracing 15-minute torch-lit walk back to the cottage with stars blazing above us in an inky black sky unpolluted by light, we stoked up the fire, finished off the bottle of Prosecco we'd opened prior to setting out for dinner and cracked open the panettone we'd brought with us from Ledbury.

Cheers!
Kevin enjoying a beer at The Queen's Head in Troutbeck on Christmas Eve

Christmas Day dawned brilliantly sunny once again and after a slap-up, leisurely breakfast we made the most of the weather by doing a two-hour ramble which afforded us views of Lake Windermere a little further along the Troutbeck Valley. Given everybody else was sitting down to their Christmas dinners we only encountered a couple of people along our route.

Then it was home to prepare our traditional, weirdly-timed, too-late-for-lunch-but-too-early-for-dinner Christmas Day meal, which we usually sit down to at around 4pm. As always the cooking was accompanied by my Christmas playlist. I'd been saddened to hear of Chris Rea's death just a couple of days before, as I'd been a fan since his first hit Fool If You Think It's Over (1978). Over the years I'd had a few of Chris's albums. He had a very distinctive, gravelly voice and by all accounts was a down-to-earth chap. Of course, at this time of year, no festive playlist is complete without his superb crowdpleaser, Driving Home for Christmas.

Kevin and Yours Truly, with Lake Windermere in the background, on Christmas Day
- in Troutbeck, Cumbria

Teeny-tiny ferns growing in between layers of stone
- dry stone wall, Troutbeck

*sigh*
I do love a bit of moss! It grows in abundance along many of the Lake District's traditional dry stone walls

Late morning shadows above Lake Windermere on Christmas Day

Another babbling brook in Troutbeck, Lake District - on Christmas Day

Green, gold and russet - the colours of the Lake District on a sunny day in winter

Everything is still spectacularly green, even as far north as The Lake District.
It's been a very mild winter thus far

We couldn't believe our luck, but Boxing Day was yet another gloriously sunny day. We set out late morning armed with thermos, sandwiches and mince pies, undertaking a fairly strenuous hike to Wansfell Pike which wound relentlessly uphill for 2.5km (!), with icy patches becoming ever more treacherous as we neared the summit. 

I was glad we hadn't left it any later in the day to set off because as we ate our lunch on the peak and then headed back down to Troutbeck, at least a hundred walkers and their dogs arrived in a steady stream. Clearly everybody was determined to walk off the excesses of their Christmas Day feasts.

It reminded me why we nearly always choose to visit popular tourist spots off-season; I recalled with a shudder our 2009 trip to the Lake District when we made the mistake of driving through the town of Windermere - there were, quite literally, crowds of people walking four or five abreast on the narrow footpaths and spilling onto the road. My understanding is that the number of tourists has increased dramatically since that time, so one can only imagine the throng in the summer months. The horror!

One of the stiles we clambered over on our Boxing Day walk up to Wansfell Pike

Spectacular views of hills and valleys above Troutbeck and Ambleside,
from the summit of Wansfell Pike on Boxing Day

Lake Windermere sparkling under low winter sun on Boxing Day
- taken from the summit of Wansfell Pike

And then, sadly, our time in the Lake District was at an end.

On the morning of departure we were wishing we'd booked five or six nights instead of just the four, and that was due in no small part to the weather obviously. Had it rained every day we probably would have been more than ready to pack up and leave. Overall I was very happy with the accommodation I'd selected, and particularly its quiet location. We are already thinking about returning, maybe next time in early spring or late autumn - hopefully early / late enough to avoid the worst of the peak tourist season.

Unfortunately we hit terrible traffic on the return journey to Ledbury and it took more than six hours to reach home. We really had enjoyed a charmed five days in the Lake District, the contrast made all the more stark as with every mile we drove south, the skies became greyer and darker, eventually turning to rain.

Sunrise, viewed from the little garden area of our rented cottage in Troutbeck

Myself and Kevin enjoying the gorgeous green hills of Troutbeck, just outside Windermere

Swoon!
Just look at that golden colour on the hills opposite our rental cottage 
- just before sunset in Troutbeck, Cumbria

Well, it's New Year's Eve at the time of writing - my least favourite 'holiday' and it's highly likely that by the time midnight ushers in 2026, I will be tucked up in bed asleep. Still, there's some chance we might get a flurry of snow this week so... fingers crossed!

I do hope 2026 holds many wonderful things for all of us. 

Until next time,

- Maree  xo