A Day of Two Halves

01.05.21
It was lovely to wake up in Marshall again. It wasn't the best night's sleep I've ever had because we're parked on a bit of a slope and couldn't be bothered to get the chocks out when we got here last night. So we slept with our heads at the opposite end to usual and it was weird!
But an amazing brunch of bacon and egg baps, pancakes with maple syrup and squirty cream (see extras for a photo Miss L took of her pancakes) made me feel a lot better.
As did watching Miss L put squirty cream on her wrist, whacking her elbow and trying to catch the cream in her mouth. Absolutely hilarious!!
We had a lovely walk to the castle through the woods. Wild garlic, bluebells, deer, rabbits, ancient trees, fresh green gorgeousness! And a wonderful view of Studland and Poole Harbour.
The walk took a while as there was much photo taking and tree climbing. Miss L got stuck up a tree at one point but luckily Daddy and Papa were on hand to rescue her.
We had the obligatory stop at the beautiful stream which runs round the bottom of the castle mound. Miss L managed not to fall in this time!
With half an hour before our booked time at the castle there was time to sit in the sun on the terrace at the National Trust cafe. Tea, cake and cappuccinos all round. And sweets from the old fashioned sweet shop for the Little Misses. 100g rather than a quarter which is just wrong!!!
And this is where the second half of the day began.....
Black clouds appeared dramatically as we sat with our drinks, Incredibly photogenic but unfortunately heralding apocalyptic rain.
It was so heavy there was nothing for it but to shelter in a niche in the castle under my mum and dad's rather snazzy ginormous ponchos. The Little Misses climbed up a tower and sheltered in an even smaller niche under their umbrella.
The rain was lashing in but it was obviously better than standing out in the open.
It started off quite funny and we displayed very English stiff upper lips, then it got freezing and annoying and a bit back breaking stood huddled under the tower.
Mr K and my dad set off to look for more suitable shelter. As luck would have it there was a mock medieval stone mason's hut just around the corner which had benches in.
We had a table booked in the garden marquee at The Greyhound for 6.15pm. It was only about 4.30pm and the idea of hanging around for another nearly two hours in the freezing rain was unappealing. I called to see if we could go earlier. Nope. My mum went in and asked could we go earlier. Nope.
We were dithering between walking back to the campsite and driving back in, hanging around and waiting, walking back to the campsite and not coming back. It was one of those nightmare situations where there is no satisfactory solution.
And it was still chucking it down so we couldn't even explore the castle. Or walk back without getting soaked. Sigh.
It eventually stopped at 5pm - when the castle closed - and we set off to explore the village.  Miss E was going blue because obviously she didn't have a coat on and my mum was suffering, and it started pouring down again we decided enough was enough and cancelled the reservation.
Miss L was so disappointed and made sure everyone knew it. I started off sympathetic and then got cross, telling her I was disappointed too and I hadn't wanted to spend the afternoon sheltering from the rain, not seeing the castle and not having our lovely meal.
Naturally the sun came out just as we got back to the campsite half an hour later. Chuffing weather!!!
We were treated to the amazing sight of wild deer in the farmers fields along with the emus and llamas. They jumped over four foot fences like they weren't there. 
We fired up the BBQ for dinner despite no-one really feeling like it and I got the Little Misses chips from the van to shut up their whinging keep them alive until the sausages were ready.
Hopefully it'll be better weather tomorrow.