A week ago today, we drove up to Shaftesbury and managed to find a parking place in the main car-park, the town being full, as is usual on a Summer Saturday, of mainly French and Belgian tourists - “Vot ees zis ‘Ovis?”
The approaches to Gold Hill and the main drag were heaving, but Shaftesbury, like many Dorset towns, presents a sorry face these days with many closed banks and shops.
I was horrified to see that Saxon Photographic had packed up - Mrs O had her mugshot professionally taken for the DVLA driving licence renewal back in November (every 3 years once you’re over-70), and mine is similarly now up for renewal. Thankfully, I’d had the foresight to get my photos taken there a few weeks back, otherwise I’d now be struggling to find anywhere to get them done; there’s no other photographer offering such services within 25 miles, as far as I can see. 
I know there’s always the DIY booths in Asda and so on, but we’d wanted them done and checked for acceptance on the spot rather than run the risk of having them rejected by the DVLA.Anyway, after a visit to the Oxfam Book Shop, we wandered along Bimport to the end house which was our target for the day:
Edwardstowe
Admission: £4 each
Refreshments: none on offer but we bought a jar of set white honey for £7.
Paperwork: we were given a free A4 sheet history of the place
Edwardstowe comprises three medieval cottages merged over time and rebuilt many times over the years, it’s now a single dwelling. Several of the oldest features survive and are dated from around 1539. The interesting thing is that Shaftesbury is built on a rocky spur which runs more or less north-south and the main feature in olden times was the Abbey which sat on top of it - the buildings were largely demolished during the Reformation. Now the soil on top of the rocky outcrop is naturally very poor - but the cottages which are now Edwardstowe sat just outside the medieval town’s boundary. And the locals dumped all their waste and night-soil there so in consequence their ground is now very fertile!
The owners regularly find pottery shards when digging, some dating back to the early 13th century.They have three large vegetable beds, but apparently these are subject to an ongoing battle with the local badgers!
Matters have got to the point where they’ve had to put electric fencing around the perimeter of the garden to keep the blighters out; they did say that they’d turned the juice off for the duration when the gardens were “open” - not good form to fry your visitors! 
They also have around 7 bee-hives which were, let’s say, extremely active in the summer sun, and we rather avoided that part of the garden!It’s a real country town garden - long pathways, bordered by many shrubs and trees, including a monkey puzzle tree (haven’t seen one of ‘em for ages), a Giant Redwood, a Douglas Fir, fig, plum, apple (Golden Delicious) and pear, so it was quite shady in parts. There’s an extensive herb garden - over a dozen varieties, and lots of traditional “cottage garden” plants with a small folly, a mock castle turret, guarded by a sculpted dragon!
A pleasant visit, but many of the plants were not yet in flower, so unfortunately not a particularly colourful experience!
Google Streetview:
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.00432 ... ?entry=ttu
Today was an entirely different kettle of fish. First off, we had to find the place …….
Myrtle Cottage
Admission: £4 each
Refreshments: on offer was a slice of cake (4 choices) and a mug of coffee for £3.50. The sizeable portion of carrot cake, Ossie’s choice, was delicious!
Paperwork: we were given a leaflet promoting an Art and Photographic exhibition in aid of “Save our Bumblebees” ......
Myrtle Cottage is on the outskirts of Woolland.
“Where’s that?” asked Mrs O.
“Next door to Ibberton,” I replied.
“Where’s Ibberton?”
“Next door to Woolland, as far as I can gather …."
And both hamlets lie in the shadow of the legendary Bulbarrow Hill. Legendary, because we’ve never really worked out exactly where it is.
Once, pre-Covid, we did actually manage to drive over the top of it, an unnerving experience, as on the heights, round every bend, there was an Army landrover next to a pup-tent with its occupant glaring out at us and brandishing a walkie-talkie. 
Some sort of Royal Signals Regiment exercise, as far as we could work out; they’re based in Blandford Forum, and Bulbarrow Hill at 899 feet high, gives a lofty view over most of this end of Dorset. Presumably there was another “camp” at the other end of the Vale.So we set off on a tortuous journey (well, via Waitrose) south into the hinterlands of the county. The first problem was getting across the A30, which was carrying large volumes of traffic, this being Bank Holiday Saturday and punters heading for Devon trying to avoid the parallel and notorious A303. Next, we had to drive through Sturminster Newton, which was rammed, and then, having crossed the river, veer off up Glue Hill on the Hazelbury Bryan road which soon turned into a meandering one-lane rural byway. Thankfully, not a lot of oncoming traffic here in the backwoods, and before too long, Woolland started appearing on the signposts. Relief!
Luckily, the road at Myrtle Cottage was wide enough to park on the verge, and we wandered through the side entrance to receive a warm welcome from hosts Brian and Lynn. I paid the admission free, and, giving us a beaming smile, they said:
“So what happens now?”
It transpired this was their first ever open day under the scheme, and we were their first official visitors! I think they were just relieved someone had actually turned up!
Anyway, they have quite a small garden, and half of it had been left as wild. Buttercups at least a foot tall, and all sorts of native grasses and wild-flowers. There’s a small pond at one end with some waterlilies, and - blink and you’d miss them - the odd tadpole scurrying under the leaves.
Brian’s hobby is growing chilli plants and he gave me a conducted tour of his greenhouse, sporting over 30 different varieties from the mild Paper Lantern to the volcanic Dorset Naga. I quickly did a deal with him for four of his milder seedlings at 50p a pot.
Over coffee and cake on the lawn, with the famed Bulbarrow Hill rising up in the background, and blue tits flitting back and forth to the nesting box on the wall of the cottage, we were joined by a couple from Wimborne and had a good natter. Lynn, the hostess, hailed apparently from the Isle of Dogs in London; the elderly gentleman from Wimborne told us that he had been born in London and the family home had been “bombed out” by a Doodlebug which hit the house next door. He’d subsequently worked in the London Docks proper, well before Canary Wharf, and then had moved to the Port of Southampton.
A beautiful location and a very memorable visit. And only one encounter with a large tractor and plough on the return journey!
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@50.86706 ... ?entry=ttu
