
Sunday was such a wonderful spring day, we drove to Turners Puddle near Bere Regis, parked outside the lovely Turners Puddle Church whose graveyard was covered in Celandine and Primroses. As you walk along the path up to the ancient door you are given a guard of honour by the ball shaped box plants either side of the path.

Leaving the Church we walked towards Tolpuddle (famous for the Tolpuddle Martyrs ) for about a mile before turning back and going down the pretty path to Throop, (this is not the Throop near Bournemouth which is not really in the country at all. ) To get to Throop we crossed the river and walked alongside it, seeing lots of birds as we stopped and watched over the bridge.
High point being watching a Chiff Chaff washing in the shallow edge of the River Piddle, Blackcaps singing loudly from the ivy covered trees. We also saw the first Swallow we have seen this summer so far....and two escapee chickens running up the path!

Cross the ford in the lane before getting back to the car. I think this is one of my favourite walks, this and Coombe Keynes. It has so many happy memories of when our children were small and they would love to walk here, there are plenty of paddling stops and conveniently placed ropes hanging from trees, suspended over the river. More than once we have waded out to rescue a soggy child, having fallen off! We have enjoyed many picnics along this path too.
When our youngest was only about 3 we saw him looking very closely at something on the ground, we went over to see what he had found and he was admiring an adder at a very close range..."Look the worm has a ziggy zaggy back Mummy..." Mummy swiftly removed said child!

This churchyard was just amazing so covered in Celandine, I took far to many pictures of it!