HOT FUZZZZZZ

(aka the town of Wells)

On the way home from Dorset, and our lovely long weekend, we stopped off at Wells.

Why, you may well ask?!

Well (like all the 'wells'?), we recently watched the movie 'Hot Fuzz'.  This featured the town of Wells. 


As we were in the vacinity we made a slight detour.

Of course the town has a moated castle which we dutifully inspected (inside and out).

There was a bridge under a weeping willow.  Mike dutifully posed on the bridge for this pic.

We noticed some ducks swimming in the moat.  The odd part of this scene was the single yellow duckling amoungst its six siblings.  The story of the uggly duckling went through my mind as I watched them swim away.

    

We also saw some locals playing croquet on the green outside the main entrance.  You may notice that this shot was taken when one of the players was bending down. ;)

This was a decoration on the staircase banister.  It is holding the local lord's coat of arms.

The castle chapel was the home of the resident cat.  Of course, Mike made friends with it.

The town also had its very own Abbey.

Going from the public chapel to the monks quaters was a rather steep staircase with very worn steps.  Of course, I had to climb these. ;)

Lime Regis

Is a town which is famous for being on the fossil coast of England i.e. there are sooo many fossils in the cliff face that anyone can find one.


The main request is that large (larger than a 50 c piece) fossils remain for the enjoyment of everyone whilst the small chips can be taken by anyone.

As you would expect the 'beach' is very English i.e. rocky and pebbly.


Mike and I made our way along to an empty space.  There weren't many and it was a quiet weekend!

Eventhough we didn't have any tools, Mike thought he'd try and find a fossil.

Mike ended up using harder pieces of the cliff to break the softer ones.  Whereas some people were using proper archelogical picks and hammers.  Others still were using ordinary household hammers.

Unfortuantly, we didn't find any fossils. 

We did however, have some fun.

And we did see some large boulders (twice as big as my stomach and so heavy that it'd take 4 people to lift) which had a multitude of fossils.  These were just lying amoungst the rubble.

Chavtastic!

We drove to Lime Regis and entered the main car park which had one lane one way navigation. 

We'd literally got 5 m up the first lane when a small car with 4 very large football hooligan type skin heads came hurtling around the corner; the wrong way!   Straight in front of us was a speeding red jaffa stuffed with testosterone.

Thankfully both Mike and the other driver put their breaks on and we stopped 1/2m apart. 

Shocked we looked on as the 4 blokes began to gesture wildly (you can guess what the signals might be), rolled their windows down and began hurtling abuse at us all whilst insisting we back up.

Mike being a shy and placid man duly gestured back to them (he seemed to imply they were lacking in the nether regions).  After a standoff which felt like hours the other car backed up and went to find a parking spot.

End of story, one might think.

OH NO!

Said idiots decided to scout out the whole car park looking for us.  Thankfully, it was cooler outside so we'd put our jackets on (unitentional but clever disguise) which meant that said thickos weren't bright enough to recognise us.

We could hear them say things like, 'Where are they?', 'They must of pissed off.' and a variety of other (more colourful) phrases.

Given that I'm pregnant Mike was a little concerned that he'd have to take on 4 burly rugby players itching for a fight.  I on the other hand was revved up on adrenaline.

Thankfully it didn't come to that.

We left the car in the hope that said Chav's wouldn't key it.  (I know this sounds bad but it was a hire car so if they did it wouldn't be so bad).

Luckily, after several hours sightseeing we returned to an intact car.  And, no Chav's!

It just shows you that no matter where you go in the world there's certain people who are there to make trouble for no reason what so ever.

Lilly Gardens

We decided to be total tourists (and the limiting fact that I was restricted in my activities) by visiting some gardens. 


It also helped that we enjoy nature walks.

Strangely (not really) we were the only people there under 65.  Actually, we only saw 1 other couple and they were using zimmer frames!

The weather was predicted to be nicest on the Saturday so off we went.

Unbeknownst to us most of the lillies were not in bloom. 


This wasn't an issue as it was just pleasant walking around the three very large ponds.

Also the wild flowers around the ponds made quite picturesque scenes.


Mike and I made a little competition to see who could get the nicest photos.

As we wondered around we were followed by kitten which obviously lived at the gardens. 


The courious thing about the kitten was not that it attached itself to Mike but that it would wonder about 7 paces ahead and then stop.  It would wait for us to catch up (within a step or two) and then continue on.  Occassionally, it would turn around as if to say 'hurry up'.

Not to be outdone, the other wildlife also decided to put on a show.


Firstly, the humble bumble bees were absolutely covering a flowering tree.  It was just this tree. 


Oddly, it was quite difficult to capture them.  They are slow but their erratic flight path means you cant predict their movements.

Next was the 'wild' ducks.  They were very tame and again befriended Mike; to the point where they were following him.


Unfortuantly, we couldn't put them in our bags (for dinner).


There were some other oddities at this garden.

For example, there was a display of 'Pudding Stones'. 

A Pudding stone is a conglomerate rock made up of a mixture of different, irregular sized grains and pebbles held together by a finer matrix, usually formed from quartz sand.

The sedimentary rock is formed in river channels and may contain various minerals such as chromite, corundum, platinum, diamonds, gold, sapphire, and zircon. Its name is said to derive from a resemblance to Christmas pudding.

The thing was their rubbish bins. 

They were very cute and were dotted throughout the grounds.

Frighteningly, was the warning sign on the parking barriers.  Mike of course had to demonstrate what they were trying to prevent.

Abbotsford Gardens

We went to the Abbotsford Gardens and had a lovely walk around.

The gardens had various areas; one of which was a lovely lake.

We were walking along one of the paths when a pheasant decided to stroll across.  It wasn't afraid; in fact it was curiously inspecting us for potential food.

A large tree fell down so instead of just chpping it up t;hey decided to turn it into a feature.  On one side was this carving and on the other was a seat for 20 people.

Not content with taking pictures of me posing, Mike decided to get one of me struggling to get up from the seat.  It took me a good 5 mins to stand.

One of the ponds in the gardens had about 100 carp in it.  There was one white and one black fish amoungst all of the orange ones.

Just before the exit there was a small bird cage housing a fellow Australian. It was sad to see the bird in such a small cage.

Lulworth Castle

Now you cant be a tourist in England without visiting a castle.  It's just not right. 

With that in mind we decided to choose Lulworth Castle.

Like most castles it was partially restored.

We didn't realise until we arrived that the trust looking after the grounds and castle had put on an event.  The event was to try and get in the Guiness Book of Records for the most pirates in one place.

They'd asked people to gather at two specific times in the day out the front of the castle and wear a scarf, eye patch and a sword.  They would then photograph and record the numbers for their world record attempt.

To bring the atmosphere to life they also had re enactments in the front grounds (for the kids).

Inside the castle there were actors demonstrating castle life. 

Unfortuantly, the weather was awlful.  Yep, typically British long weekend - heavy rain with cold winds.

As you can guess they didn't break the record.

On a plus note for us, there weren't many people around so we could wonder in peace.

We went up to the roof and braved the elements to get a view of the countryside.  And also, the encampment below.


We didn't bargin on the fearce winds and the accompaning rain.

As you can see, it was hard to look glamourous in those conditions. 

My coat hood is taking off! 

Oh, and I'm not protecting a camera under my coat.  By the way - I can barely zip it up!

To add to our foolishness we decided to visit the outdoor petting zoo which was at the far end of the grounds.


At the entrance was a mushroom hut.  This was obviously designed for children.  But it didn't stop us from trying it out!

It's claim to fame was the large number of peacocks/hens that they'd bred for which the owners (at one point) decided was a testimony to their wealth.

At this time of year there were several offspring but the funniest part was the 'Bunny Barn'.

I kid you not!

This thatched building not only contained a variety of bunnies but also budgies and hamsters.