Dave had made some money finding car keys, but what he really dreamed of was Dorset Gold!

During our Epic coastal walk – which might have been as far as 6 miles! – you get to see all sorts of people.

Nothing amuses me more, (well other than people falling off of water skies), than watching people using metal detectors on the beach. Pecking around like chickens searching for feed, finding only bear cans and metal buttons.

The National Geographic website can only be blamed for encouraging these people, follow this link to see the most unusual finds including a model T ford – I Bet the AA even managed to restart it, after they emptied the carburettor of sand.

Skip had been following his nose all day when he realised that his master was not at his tail.

 

Skip was a little white Westie that I saw on our epic walk from Sandbanks to Bournemouth – and back again.

I used a sketch of a life buoy and rocks to add some drama to the scene.

His actual owners were not far off behind him but like most dogs he had run off ahead. At the sound of the crashing waves he would look back to check he was still being followed.

I had a black Heinz 57 dog that had a similar disposition. She never treated the fences of our back garden as a deterrent against escape. In the first year that we had her we received a constant flow of phone calls from neighbouring roads where she had escaped over our back fence. She also managed to turn on the gas in the kitchen one time but that’s another story.

We also had a Yorkshire Terrier that disappeared on Brean Sands in Somerset in search of some liberated Fish and Chips.

I guess we have a history of badly behaved dogs!

Come rain or shine dyslexic Diane ate her sandwiches and giggled at the word Groynes.

 

During our epic walk from Sandbanks to Bournemouth, we experienced a wide variety of British weather.

But with our Stiff upper lips we carried on regardless, taking shelter where possible. And during one period of sheltering I saw Diane who was sat on a bench, holding a see-through umbrella – eating ice cream.

How very British.

A groynes is a sea defence - Wood sunk in the ground to ward off the approaching tide from stealing the sand.

I’m not sure what word Diane saw.

Sandbanks to Bournemouth…and back again

In 2010 Debs and I had a baby boy and desperate for a holiday we managed to blag a stay at my uncles flat in Sandbanks.

Samuel was only 6 months old and couldn’t sit up on his own. We took him on the train to Swanage and foolishly we walked from Sandbanks to Bournemouth and back again. It didn’t look far on the map but as it turns out it was a long way.

Samuel slept most of the way to Bournemouth and I was able to dabble in my past time of urban sketching and people watching. On the way back Samuel woke up and I remember carrying him most of the way back as he wouldn’t settle in the pram.

The following posts are the imagined stories of the people that I sketched/watched on the day.

Below are the initial sketches…