Wears Farm in Abbotsbury, Dorset - On the Jurassic Coast in England

 Well, the place we stayed during our week in Dorset with the family was called Wears Farm; and it was beautiful.  As is increasingly the case all over the countryside, many farmers are converting their beautifully rustic outbuildings into vacation homes for tourists who wish to spend some time in the country.

Abbotsbury, where we stayed, is right on England's "Jurassic Coast," and not very far from the famed Lyme Regis, where Mary Anning discovered the first Ichthyosaur to come to scientific attention back in 1814.  She was 12 years old at the time.  Sam and Emily did their level best to follow in her foots steps, but more about that in a post coming up soon.

One of the bedrooms

Lots of original brickwork preserved

We thought the kitchen was beautiful

view from one of our bedroom windows.

The back garden bordered a sheep fields, which delighted Sam and Emily, as the lambs hadn't yet grown up.

Anyway, Wears Farm was the perfect location, shielded from the ocean winds by the South Dorset Ridgeway trail.  And it was just a quick but steep climb to the top of the ridge to this view of the coastline . . .

How's this for a reward after a steep climb?

Emily and Sam on the first afternoon there

Makes ya' wanna' pull on yer wellies and head out, doesn't it?

Alex and I found this to be humorous, as we never did see any horses in this field.

Foxglove were everywhere.  I've never seen so many!

Railway Cafe on Our Way to Abbotsbury in Dorset

It was well over a three hour drive from Alex's parents' home in Welford to Abbotsbury on the Dorset coast.  Of course, there was road construction that delayed us (a to-be-counted-upon feature of any Summer journey to the seaside when you're in England).  By the lunch hour, we were well sick of driving and getting rather hungry and resigning ourselves to some dried up sandwiches from a petrol station, when by some fluke, we found the Railway Cafe, right by a nice little farm shop called the Trading Post (midway between Lopenhead and Watergore).  We only spotted it because we had stopped to turn around after giving up in our search for a pub, and I happened to glance down and see the small cafe sign in the gravel lot - right below the Trading Post's sign, down near the ground!  It was really a miracle, as this lovely little re-purposed rail car was hidden from our view by the shop.

So, if you're ever in the area . . . Five Stars!!!

With a lunch like this in such a bucolic setting, I was starting to wonder if we had actually perished in the traffic and hadn't realized yet that we were in heaven . . .

After we finally made it to Wears Farm, where the family rented a converted barn vacation home, Emily escaped the clutches of her seat belt and  immediately discovered the lambs who neighbored the back garden.