The Buchans 2013: April Showers

Well April has been unseasonably cool, but true to form we are having the showers. Graham and Jean joined us for the day in early April and as you can see from the photo we are well wrapped up on our visit to Mudeford Quay.

Sue and I had a walk in the Throop area, close to Bournemouth, It is a nice area with an old mill and fishing lake. The houses are rather smart as well.

Throop Mill

Sluice Gate control for the
fishing lake

Another walk, on a misty day, in the Cranborne area took us passed Cranborne Manor.
The manor dates back to the thirteenth century, and was originally a hunting lodge. The estate consists of a 3,000 acre farm and over 1,700 acres of woods, as well as the park and gardens.
On the right the Giant’s Chair used to be sited on Dartmoor and has been in this position for a about 3-4 years.

I had a surprise email recently telling me that I was one of five winners of the Ordnance Survey photo competition. I think this is the only photo competition I have entered so it is even more surprising. I get a £40 Photobox voucher, a year’s subscription to OS Getamap and a personalised OS map. My photo will be the ‘Wallpaper of the Month of June’ for the OS website.
At the end of this blog is a link to the other winners.

My winning photo – Frosty Morning near the Red Shoot Pub, New Forest

Maggie and Andy visited us for the weekend of April 13th/14th. As you can see from our brollies the weather was not very good on the Saturday. My brolly had a technical failure and had to be disposed of later in the walk around Christchurch.
Thanks to M&A for the next two photos.

Sunday was a better day with the sun breaking through at
Hengistbury Head.

Andy checking the refurbishment of the beach hut. Will his pocket money stretch to a hut? One nearby has recently sold for £115.000!

Close to the end of our walk we stopped for a drink at ‘The Hiker’ cafe. whilst there a group of ‘cyclists’ arrived on their custom bikes. In the USA they call these bikes ‘slow’n low pedal scrapers’.