Gold Hill

Looking up Gold Hill's cobblestone street.

Cottages lining one side of Gold Hill.

 Unless you are lucky enough to have a parking space on your property, you have to park on the street.  For the people who live past the point where these cars are, this is as far as they are allowed to take their cars.

Gold Hill is a dead end street so many residents actually reverse their cars all the way up the street so they can just drive straight out again later.  The street isn't wide enough for a 3 point turn unless you own a motorbike.

Finally made it back to the top.  I'm not sure what the purpose is of the wall on the right, maybe it belongs to the abbey which is further up the hill.  I think Gold Hill gets busy in the summer because they have a designated walkway to keep the tourists under control.

When you get to the top of Gold Hill you can reward yourself with a refreshing drink or lunch at the Salt Cellar.

Gardening, shopping, entertaining

Andrew's best mate Andy came over on Saturday to help mow the lawn and tidy up the garden, as it hadn't been touched in a few months and consequently looked like a jungle.  Luckily we had good weather and got alot done, because on Sunday it poured with rain.

I took Andrew's mum Pam into Shaftesbury to do some shopping before helping the boys in the garden.  There was a market in the town hall (pictured below) so we had a quick browse around and I bought a verrrry yummy Lemon Drizzle Cake for £2.75 and brought it home to share with the boys for afternoon tea.

Shaftesbury high street with the town hall on the right (if you can't see the whole pic due to the size of your PC monitor, you might have to click on the photo)

Copyright  © Joe Dunckley

Shaftesbury's high street has lots of lovely shops that I haven't explored yet, but there is alot to look at.  There is a butcher, a few jewellers, a pharmacy, a few charity shops, cafes, gift stores, clothing stores and a fantastic kitchenware store where I'll be able to buy just about anything I need for my kitchen (including a shortbread dish for you Suse  - just like the one I saw in Bath!  I think it was £10.75 in the shop in Shaftesbury).

Last night we had Helen, Paul and Zach over to dinner, and to keep with the family theme we had some beautiful Welsh lamb which was supplied from Andrew's 2nd cousin Gareth's organic farm, Tyn-y-Coed (translates to House in the Woods), in Wales.  I don't have any pics to show, but the lamb was cooked to perfection and was so tender that it fell off the bone.  There wasn't a scrap left by the time we finished!!  Sorry to tease, but I promise that if any of my readers come to visit me, I will cook a Welsh lamb roast for you.

How's that for bribery.