Called into see Gill and Bruce who we had meet on our South American Cruise, we had a lovely lunch in their garden after inspecting their veggie garden and Bruce's model train, we managed a little play with it.
Back to Brockenhurst in time to see the Computer man who was returning Jenny's laptop, everything was working well except she couldn't send emails and the man with the knowledge was on a trip to France for a week.
18th June
Myriam and Herman arrive from London, they had been staying there for a few days on their way from Belgium. After lunch we went to Fursey Gardens a great garden for children with hidden fairy doors everywhere even a Ferry for the fairies. They had the garden display that won them a medal at the Chelsea flower show which was interesting to see, also lots of azaleas and Rhododendron all in flower all very beautiful.
19th June
We decided to go to Wimborne Minister to see the Chain Library the Library was founded in 1686 and is the second largest Chained Library in the Country and also one of the first public libraries.It is standard for chained libraries to have the chain fitted to the corner or cover of a book.
This is because if the chain were to be placed on the spine the book would suffer greater wear from the stress of moving it on and off the shelf. Because of the location of the chain attached to the book (via a ringlet) the books are housed with their spine facing away from the reader with only the pages' fore-edges visible (that is, the 'wrong' way round to people accustomed to contemporary libraries). This is so that each book can be removed and opened without needing to be turned around, hence avoiding tangling its chain.
Drove onto Wareham and enjoyed lunch sitting in the sun overlooking the river and watching school children crossing the river on rafts. We drove back to Brock via Corfe Castle and Swanage then crossed by chain ferry to Bournemouth.
20th June
Farewelled Myriam and Herman they were heading off to St Margaret's at Cliffe before catching the ferry back to Belgium the next day.
It was a miserable day again so we decided to go into Southhampton to do some shopping, we had lunch at Ikea which was an experience in itself and sat overlooking the docks it was so foggy we could'nt see much and couldn't hear much with all the mothers and children around, not a good idea at all.
On the way back we stopped at the Eling Tide Mill, we had driven past the sign may times so at last made the effort to stop. The mill wasn't working but their was a guy working on the stone grinding wheel which was interesting to see, the tide was out and all the yachts at the marina nearby were all high and dry. You really have to know the tides to be able to take your boat out and bring it back. That is one thing we don't have to worry about in Perth the difference high and low tide is minimal.