We decided on a staycation this August, partly because it was projected to be a long hot summer (wrong!), and partly because Yasmin was desperately keen to go camping! After a dry May and June (except, of course, for the one day of our Summer Fair), July was more like the onset of autumn with the weather cold and wet enough to cause the summer flowers in tubs and baskets in the garden to start to die off. So it was with no little trepidation that we set forth on our camping holiday down in deepest Dorset. How would we fare with temperatures potentially freezing overnight, no electricity to power hair dryers, or recharge Nintendos and blackberries (and that with a critical Ashes match to play), and gangs of fieldmice threatening to mug you at every turn?

As it turned out, we had probably the best week of the summer, spending some glorious days on the beaches at Studland and Swanage, catching scores of blennies and prawns with nets (or more possibly the same Darwin challenged ones repeatedly), excavating fossils at Kimmeridge, eating Purbeck red chilli ice cream, and drinking the Isle of Purbeck Brewery ales. We also travelled the Isle of Purbeck steam railway from Swanage to Corfe Castle, and visited Monkey World, a rescue centre for chimps, orangutans and 88 ringtailed Madagascan lemurs, those of �I like to move it, move it� fame...

Fortunately no aggressive field mice, but we did have a badger break into the tent one night at 3am, and I managed to keep the blackberry alive long enough to keep tabs on England winning back the Ashes - courtesy of the Aussies electing to bat for only one innings thus shortening the match by a day!