Another day, another nice thing to do. This time a gentle 2 or 3 mile walk along the river from our house to Bucklers Hard. Board walks in some places to avoid getting wet.
And brilliant views of what is a very scenic river indeed.
At Bucklers Hard itself we enjoyed the Georgian village, once a thriving shipbuilding village where ships for Nelson’s fleet at Trafalgar were built……now, as the blurb says, ‘a tranquil haven’. At the river end of the Buckler’s Hard high street was The Master Builder’s House Hotel where we enjoyed a refreshing drink in the gardens…….
We hadn’t been to the seaside yet on this holiday, so off we went in the afternoon to Milford on Sea, a very pleasant location with a good, noisy, shingly beach and a distant view of The Needles. 
I’m sure all these colourful beach huts will be open on a sunny day……..
But we enjoyed ourselves ……….skimming stones amongst other things….
and the children’s play area had some unusually good activities…
and what nicer at the seaside than to have fish and chips on the promenade?
Our cottage being in Beaulieu it would have been ridiculous to have gone home without visiting Palace House and its world-famous car museum. But a stately home, gardens and a car museum for a 5 year old? As it happens, we need not have worried. Aiisha enjoyed the visit as much as anybody, as everywhere there had been a huge attempt made to keep things family-friendly.
We went in the car museum first, and not only was it very nostalgic for people who had themselves owned an Austin Healey, a Zephyr, and a Zodiac, and an Austin A35, but it was all incredibly interesting , and there was always something to capture our attention.
and didn’t my family look absolutely splendid in Edwardian motoring gear………
although the wind can play havoc with the driver’s hat!
Over 16 million Model T Fords were manufactured before production ceased in 1927 and interestingly British cars came in blue and green before black became standard in 1914. In the 1920’s grey, red and grey were offered. The first British factory had opened in my home town of Manchester in 1911. The model on show here cost £135 and did 40mph……..
Aiisha loved the original Chitty Chitty Bang Bang car (amongst many other things aimed at children)….
and would really have loved to have had a go in this Atco junior trainer designed in the 1930’s to give children basic experience of road craft. Everything is as in a full size car but miniaturised with the exception of there being just 2 gears forward and back.
Mind you we did find the interactive driving games exciting….
and we got to sit on an old bus…………
and then after a great lunch have a trip around the grounds in a replica 1912 London bus. It stopped at the house…….. 
so we decided to get off and have a look around the historic home of the Montagu family, and later at the ruins of the Abbey………..I can’t stress too highly how accessible everything was and how involving. The house, although stuffed with the usual expensive objets and pictures and furniture and so on, was different from any other I have been in, in that not only was photography allowed, but you could touch or get close to virtually everything. Amazing.
One surviving building from the Abbey – the Domus – was once the living quarters of the lay brothers………..
And in here were displayed a whole series of embroideries designed by Belinda, Lady Montagu which depict the history of the Abbey. They were exquisite.
What else did we do? Visit the Top Gear museum where all the old episodes were showing (of the proper Top Gear with Jeremy et al) alongside the actual vehicles featured………good fun.
This was followed by a go for all of us on the full-scale simulator – racing round the Dunsfold Park test track in a Caterham and a Bugatti Veyron. Exciting.
We then went for a trip on the mile-long monorail, the oldest in England on a sedate tour of the attraction from above, with sweeping views of the grounds and gardens before passing right through the roof of the National Motor Museum to give another take on things.
We just had time then to stroll round the gardens, which were lovely…..
A really really good time was had by all, and I can’t recommend this place enough. A fantastic week in a lovely house in a lovely part of the country.
On our way home F. and I diverted a short distance to visit the museum of the Tolpuddle Martyrs. Always interesting to see how the downtrodden were able to secure basic rights due to the bravery and persistence of a few heroes. Small but worth visit.
A week in the New Forest in October in a house in the trees with rain forecast every day didn’t seem to augur too well. In the event the rain held off at critical times and at other times we didn’t mind getting wet. After all, being British, we accept bad weather with the equanimity it deserves for what it is. Getting wet is not something you seek, but when you are wet, well you’re wet and that’s sort of ok.
We were all converging on the house from different directions. F and me in our car from Cornwall, Katherine and Aiisha from Southampton airport, and David and Jennifer from London. On our way we called into 
And with it being near to Halloween they had lavish displays everywhere of pumpkins of all shapes and sizes…
A fleeting but fascinating visit. Now, the clans having gathered and made ourselves at home, we set out on the first full day for Lymington as I knew the market was there on Saturdays….the journey there gave us some inkling of just how many ponies we would see in the following days…..they are everywhere, and I do mean everywhere, (and very friendly).
We loved 
At the end of the main run a couple of very pretty cobbled streets took us down to the harbour….where we availed ourselves of some refreshments and lunch.
A great place all round. A bit later in the day we walked along country paths to 
Now why didn’t the others follow the example of this one sheltering under a large archway? Mind you, they do always seem to look sad….
Back ‘home’ it was time for a belated birthday cake for Katherine and Aiisha which went down well, and after it some of the games we had bought.
The ‘Load the Camel’ game was hilarious and we played with it lots of times. When overloaded it kind of jumped into life shocking me more than anyone every single time, and scaring poor Aiisha!
Sunday was to be our adventure day. We walked to the 
and prepared for our bike rides. Very very enjoyable if a little scary (as one of the main cycle routes was closed for pony counting!!) leaving us no option but to travel on busy main roads. 
Having completed our rides we prepared for canoeing. As you can see the rain was not putting anyone off.
We travelled upstream to the weir at Beaulieu where we called into a little inlet for cups of hot chocolate provided by our instructor Chris. He was a terrific guide pointing out lots of rivery things, and always aware of which birds and features we were seeing…
A great day all round, and highly recommended.
Always nice to have a pint or whatever in the local Beaulieu pub after our exertions……
And a nice sky on our walk home.
Another day took us to Portsmouth where we were to see the Mary Rose (something I have always wanted to do). The dockland surroundings were very impressive and we glimpsed some very famous ships before entering a very active repair and building shed……..
where we had a very decent lunch ( and did a bit of colouring)…..
Getting closer to the Mary Rose museum we were intrigued and impressed by Nelson’s very own HMS Victory…
and in between it and the Mary Rose was the iconic 25ft statue ‘Embracing Peace’, also known as Unconditional Surrender. This European replica of the US based original has been touring Europe, the original statue famously depicting an embrace in Times Square, New York, at the end of the World War II, between a returning serviceman and a local girl. Very impressive indeed.
At last 
Items which show the essence of a very powerful warship of its day, and a warship which moreover had already had a successful career of 34 years (news to me).
And items which show us how its crew lived – and died.
These are items from the carpenters store….
and in their midst something which to me was the most astonishing thing of all…..
….this multi-purpose tool. How incredible, a Swiss Army knife of the sixteenth century.
There was so much to see that we only were able to have a good look at a tiny fraction…..
Who could not be impressed by the galley with its two large, brick built ovens each with a huge copper cauldron on the top. Meat and fish were boiled in these to feed the 400 or 500 men on board. No chimneys – the smoke was trapped in a box-like area above the ovens, where it could be used to flavour fish and meat.
The adults were entranced. And as for Aiisha, there were interactive games..
skeletons to rebuild…..
clothes to dress up in….
food casks to see what people eat….
and a kind of treasure hunt where successfully spotting various things all around the museum was rewarded with a certificate and badge. What a successful day. And we can return any time in the next year – we will!
Yet another day found us at 
And what then struck us before anything else was the beauty of the surroundings with Japanese gardens, dinosaur jungles, 
and lots of birds………
But of course some of us had come for the rides, and they were great. Naturally neither F. nor I ventured onto the more extreme, adrenelin-inducing rides but we did try some of the more moderate ones which gave us ample flavour of what theme park rides are about…..
And what I found fascinating was the way that Aiisha not only got super enjoyment from the big rides, but also from the gentler ones too……
And at the end, to cap it all off there was Peppa Pig’s World, and who couldn’t like that?
A really, really really successful day…..well done to Paulton Park!
Enjoying Cornwall... 