Bank Holiday Weekend (Part 1)

This weekend just past was the late spring public holiday weekend -- meaning that offices closed on the Monday (as well as for the weekend) but everyone else had to work, especially if they're self-employed, or toil in tourism and retail). Judith and I, being civil servants, also had the Tuesday off as a "privilege day", meaning that that we send loyal greetings to Brenda for being a spiffing monarch (etc. etc.) and she graciously gives us an extra day's paid holiday in thanks. (Go on -- complain to your MP.)

It being a bank holiday weekend, the weather of course turned nasty -- cold and wet on the Saturday, a modicum of sunshine on the Sunday and Monday, cold and wet again the Tuesday. We spent most of the weekend with my parents in Lyme Regis, either toiling on "the world's smallest jigsaw puzzle" when it was too wet to go out, or -- when it was much more clement -- engaging in a leisurely stroll through the countryside around Uplyme and then down into town along the River Lim for tea and buns at the new restaurant at the restored Town Mill.

Below are some photographs. The first two are of "the world's smallest jigsaw puzzle", or as much of it as we managed to do before we had to pack up and come home on Tuesday morning (each piece is one-quarter of the size of a normal jigsaw piece, and there are one thousand of them; the completed puzzle would be about the same size as a normal-sized 500-piece puzzle); the second two are of Judith sketching during a break in our walk through the Uplyme countryside and an image of the Woodland Trust wood above the village that she was sketching (the light reflections off the paper mean that the drawing unfortunately wasn't visible to the camera); and, finally, of our afternoon tea at the Town Mill. I had a barmbrack cake with a Dorset cheese; and Judith had a meringue with cream that was at least half the size of her head. (Duuude!)

On Monday, we went to Exmouth for the day, to visit the western end of the Jurassic Coast world heritage site and to see the birds in the estuary. But I'll post photographs of that tomorrow.