A Perfect Day - Dorset #6

Hello friends! Welcome to the sixth post of my Dorset mini-series! Get ready for a fortnight of pictures and posts in which I will attempt to do my summer holiday justice. Here's hoping that the holiday will be good, I'll remember to post every day, and that the cottage we're staying at has wifi (fingers crossed). Thank you for deciding to join me on this little adventure - I can't tell you how much this means to me!

I don't really think I need to elaborate on the title of this post. Quite simply put, today was AWESOME. One of those days where you just feel impossibly content, and everything goes your way, and the world seems perfect through your rose-tinted glasses. 

We'd checked the weather forecast and it showed that today's morning was going to be lovely and sunny, but that the sun would fade to cloud by the afternoon. So we reasoned that we could visit Seaton Tramway in the morning, while the weather was good, and then eat in a pub over lunchtime while the weather turned sour.

Seaton Tramway is, funnily enough, a tramline and station in Seaton. Trams are a unique and fun way of getting around, and on our holiday last year we had thoroughly enjoyed hopping on the tram and travelling up to Colyton, a small village with a smattering of shops and cafés. 

We arrived at the tramline at about 12:50pm and whilst we were queueing for the trams I managed to snap a picture of one as it was stationary.

This isn't the tram we took, but it's darling just the same, don't you think?

We all crowded into the next tram (yep, even Dusty - one of the great things about Seaton Tramway is that they allow dogs on the bottom decks of their trams) and enjoyed a lazy twenty minute journey up to Colyton. The tramline is surrounded by beautiful marshland and lakes, and various wildlife including native birds and ducks, as well as farm animals like sheep and cows. There was no better way to spend the journey than taking in the countryside and smiling down fondly at Dusty as she stuck her head out of the tram window and enjoyed the breeze.

When we arrived at Colyton, we had our plans mapped out - we were going to search for a pub (called The Kingfisher) that we'd visited last year, but our plans changed in the most unexpected and wonderful of ways.

We happened to stumble across a cafe in Colyton that we'd seen last year but had not visited. We'd bypassed it because it was closed previously (we visited in April) but this year it seemed to be open, as it is Summer. So we decided to take a chance and see what the food was like. What a happy accident that cafe turned out to be.

When we walked through to the cafe, we found a darling little converted barn and fields with animals in them. The barn served lunchtime foods such as jacket potatoes and paninis and was perfect for us, as we were all fairly hungry by this point. I ordered an iced coffee, which was amazing and perfect for the weather, and a prawn jacket potato, which was also lovely and came served with a salad home grown from the cafe gardens. Added to the loveliness of the food was the amazing surroundings and scenery of the cafe. We decided to sit outside as the day was fast proving to be a hot one (it was sunny all day - completely surpassing the expectations of the weather forecast) and we were not disappointed by the views as we ate. I saw a perfect opportunity to snap some beauty shots for this blog post (all this daily posting means that taking pictures of everywhere I go is fast becoming second nature to me), and they are below.

 

The name of this lovely cafe was Liddon's Dairy and I would absolutely recommend a visit if you're in the Seaton area.

After a satisfying lunch and Devon ice cream, we went for a short walk around the fields that took us back to the tram station, where we took a tram back to Seaton after a short browse around the tram gift shop.

On the way back from Seaton (it was a rather long journey to Seaton from Beaminster) we stopped off at a farm shop called Felicity's Farm Shop, which turned out to be the second success of the day. It was an Aladdin's cave of fresh produce and organic goods, as well as unique pottery and jewellery. It was as an old fashioned farm shop should be, and I loved it immensely. Whilst inside we purchased various scrummy foods for our picnic the next day (of course that will be blogged, so you'll hear about that tomorrow).

Then we headed back home and rounded off the perfect day with a pizza from the pizza van that magically appears in Beaminster's town square every Thursday evening. It was GOOD *licks lips*.

Righto, I think that's about it for this post! I will see you all tomorrow for another fun-filled day of Dorset adventures! 

Olivia x

Check back tomorrow for Dorset #7!