Rain?

It's been a miserable time weather-wise in England this Christmas - there have been floods and torrential downpours all over the place, especially down in the south west. But no matter the weather my nieces (or one in particular) needs daily exercising. We thought we wouldn't get out of the house all day, but after lunch the rain cleared so my brother, my nieces and I hopped into the car to go for an adventure. We were going to Durlston Country House for a look around, but on the way there both kids fell asleep. So I hopped out for a look at the view, and then we set off on a Christmas Eve country afternoon drive. We drove through Corfe and admired the castle from those angles then headed up onto the ridge to somewhere near Swanage. The sun came out and the view became most splendiferous so we stopped for a few shots of Corfe Castle in the stormy sunshine. We thought we'd have a look at Kimmeridge and the folly there, but were turned around - apparently there was an oil spill on the road. By that time the kids were awake and ready to run so we just headed on back to Poole and the park for a bit of exercise.

If you're going to have your adventure plans foiled, Dorset really is one of the prettiest places to have it happen - just a lovely area just to drive around in. Here's a full panorama from this spot - it's hard to make out the detail, so I didn't blip it, but it's definitely worth a look. I have a new photo stitching app I've been trying out, Hugin, so far so good. I needed it for some documents I'd photographed in sections for my assignment and it seems to do the job reasonably well. Especially considering that it's free. ;)