Bere Regis

 I already posted a picture of the little house we rented in Bere Regis so I thought that before we move on to other parts of the country I'd show a bit  more of the village.  The streets in many English villages are so narrow, having been built long before the advent of the automobile, that people just park on both sides of the street leaving a narrow space between the cars that you have to take turns to drive through.  You just have to look ahead to see if anyone else is coming the opposite way and pull out into a vacant space to let them pass or they do likewise for you.  I don't want to here any more complaints about parking in Friday Harbor!

This view is down the hill toward our little house, one of the village pubs is there to the left. We had dinner there one night to use the wifi and my lamb burger came with arugula (rocket) on it.  I commented to the waitress that the last time I was in England (10 years ago) I didn't find arugula all over the place.  "It's trendy", she said.  As an arugula grower that's a trend I can approve of.  Interestingly all of the salads we had in Iceland also had arugula in them.

 As we walked around the village one morning I saw this neat house with one tall blank wall and one round wall.  I wonder if at one time it was part of a bigger structure.

This part of England is Thomas Hardy country and Bere Regis was featured as the town of Kingsbere in Tess of the D'Urbervilles.  The church was were the D'Urberville family was buried.  We went through and all around it one morning and had a nice talk with the Vicar.  The church dates back to Saxon times and there is a bit a wall with the remains of Saxon stonework.  From there on the church as added onto century by century until it reached it's current size in the 19th century. The walls are made up of courses of stone and small blocks of flint.  For more information and pictures look here.