Personal Blogs

With such a great choice of places to stay, you will find plenty of cottages in Dorset to choose from in a range of styles and sizes, and for all budgets; from cheap to the luxury end of the market. Renting a cottage is a far cheaper option than a hotel with the bonus of more flexibility. Indeed a holiday cottage is a great choice for all the family. In addition if you have any four legged members of the family you would like to bring on holiday there are no shortage of dog friendly cottages in Dorset.

Self catering provides a home from home feel with all the benefits of holidaying in beautiful Dorset. We think it is the best form of accommodation in Dorset as it gives you the perfect base from which to explore the local area, plus it's a great place to return after a day's adventures for a quiet, cosy night in. From contemporary barn conversions to traditional thatched cottages, there's a great range of holiday cottages to stay in. However, they all have one thing in common; beautiful locations so you can take advantage of all Dorset has to offer.

If you are a couple looking for a romantic break you'll find plenty of cottages in picture postcard rural villages or by the coast. You can take long walks in the countryside, enjoy some traditional pub grub and then curl up in front of an open fire when you get back. Or maybe even a dip in a hot tub!
For families and big groups there are many large holiday cottages with plenty of rooms and all the space you need whatever the size of your party. Known for its great coastline, families will love the choice of accommodation to rent close to the many secluded coves and sandy beaches, while water sports enthusiasts will enjoy taking advantage of all the activities on offer.

You'll find self catering accommodation throughout Dorset including Purbeck, the seaside towns of Weymouth and Lyme Regis, and along the Jurassic Coast, all offering stunning surroundings and with all the amenities on offer, whether it's exploring the countryside, taking coastal walks or trying out the world famous surfing. So, whether it's a short break or a summer holiday, Dorset is a wonderful destination for the whole family.

This summer I spotted a particularly mean looking spider out in our utility room. It had been feasting on a couple of bumble bees it had caught in its tangle of web across the skylight. Although I am bot interested and scared of spiders in about equal measure I decided to let it get on with it.

A few months later media hysteria breaks out over the invasion of the killer spiders in the media! A quick check out the back - my spider was out there and it was definitely a false widow. I'm pretty confident it is a Steatoda nobilis, or the noble false widow; the most dangerous spider in Britain!! Obviously context is everything and being the most venomous in the UK equates to being about as bad as a wasp sting. Still, painful enough to give this fellow a bit of respect.

With all the news items in recent months I did a bit of research into the false widows. They are in fact related to the true widows which include the notorious black widow and red back spiders. I was interested to find out just how potent the venom of the black widow was - much more so than a rattle snake for example. Fortunately they are only capable of delivering a small amount in a bite and what is more the false widow's venom is infinitely less potent. It is related though; both are neurotoxins and it was found that the black widow anti-venom was effective against the bite from Steatoda grossa.

Anyway, so enthralled am I by these spiders I have set up a website dedicated to the false widow spider. Along with a few photos and information on the true nature of the false widows I'm hoping to gather information on their increasing range via the sightings page.

Having failed (rather gloriously I thought) to change my career I am back to business as usual with a few added extras.

Having neglected my business empire and not taken many photos whilst I was studying I have begun to remedy this. I have also extended my interest in panoramic photography becoming a 'Google Trusted Photogrpher'. This means I can take 360 degree panoramas of business interiors and upload them to Google Street View. If you fancy a look I have a website: Cornwall Street View interiors.

I'm also still doing a bit of work on other people's websites, helping improve their search engine rankings. Although this is considered a dark art by many it is actually quite simple, if not a little labour intensive. One of my current clients runs a Penzance picture framing company (did you see how I snook that in!). There's not a lot to work with here but often that's a good thing as there are plenty of 'low hanging fruit' in terms of fixes and tweaks. After that it is all about link building, yawn!

Over the years I've had to do a fair bit of writing; for business and pleasure but mostly education. It seemed to me a real waste that all these well researched essays I'd been writing for my various OU courses should end up in a folder at the back of a cupboard, or even worse in the recycling.

With this in mind I set out to turn a few of them into presentable web articles. There are a number of websites that publish user's articles, most notably Squidoo and HubPages. I favour the latter as it seems more intuitive and less 'spammy'. Of course there are also plenty of blogging sites (like this) and software, but here the pressure is to continuously produce articles, not just post, forget about and then rediscover.

So I posted a few of my better essays on HubPages under a psuedonym that I can't even begin to explain! The tumble weed blew around for a while and I went off and did other stuff. Imagine my suprise when I checked back to find that nearly 500 people had read my article on The properties of mammalian phosphofructokinase (PFK). Another essay on the structure and function of neurons has had over 1,600 reads to date.

Whilst these essays served their purpose at the time it's nice to think they are out there and of some use to others.

I've recently been working on a new website. Simple concept, it's has the sea temperatures for 7,000 coastal towns and cities around the World. The data is downloaded daily from the servers of the NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) and put in a database as well as being converted into the graphical representation shown here.

Another little travel guide for you. This time one of my favourite, and closest seaside towns.

St Ives is possibly the most archetypal of all the Cornish fishing towns and villages. A clutch of higgledy-piggedly whitewashed cottages and cobbled lanes radiate out from the harbour where small fishing boats bob around in the turquoise water.

Situated on its own peninsula (or isthmus if you prefer) St Ives is virtually surrounded by beaches. To the north facing into the Atlantic Ocean is Porthmeor, which translated means 'big beach'. Here you can take on the surf, eat great food and visit the St Ives Tate gallery all in the same day. Porthminster is St Ives' other main beach and again there is great food to be had at the beach cafe. However, Porthminster is more sheltered from both the sea and the wind so has a much more genteel feel to it.

My preferred pastime in St Ives is to wander the maze of tiny streets and alleyways that make up the Downlong district of the town. If you can get over the wheelie bins outside every cottage this really does feel like a trip into the past. These days though you are unlikely to find a barrel of pilchards in the basement and chances are it is a holiday rental - the owners will have moved somewhere more salubrious where space isn't at such a premium and you can park a car.
Another great thing about the Downlong is the street names; there is a Teetotal Street, a Virgin Street, a Salubrious Place and of course a Fish Street.

If you are considering a visit to St Ives then you would do well to avoid the holiday season where mcuh of the town's charm is obliterated by a relentless horde of holidaymakers marching from gallery to giftshop armed with icecreams in hand!

As one of the UK's most popular tourist destinations Cornwall has a flourishing tourist industry providing plenty of accommodation options. Regardless of your budget , Cornwall offers a wonderful range of holiday accommodation including hotels, self-catering, B&Bs and camping in all areas. Offering everything from apartments in Newquay, hotels in Looe, self catering Fowey, Padstow cottages and Falmouth B&Bs. If you want a pet friendly cottage, or somewhere with a garden, beach view or open fire we know where to stay.

The beaches in Cornwall are without compare in Britain for their beauty and variety. Towns such as Perranporth, Polzeath and Newquay are some of the better known of these, with some excellent surfing beaches. In my opinion the most beautiful are the tiny coves that dot the coastline like Coverack and Porthcurno (home of the Minack Theatre).

Also on the coast are some of Cornwall's picture postcard fishing villages and harbours like Looe, Mevagissey, Tintagel and Mousehole. The towns of Cornwall are rich in history and attractions of their own. Padstow, home of Rick Stien, Falmouth - one of the World's biggest natural harbours and a charming shopping town.

Truro is the only city in Cornwall with the cathedral dominating the skyline.

Penzance is one of Cornwall's largest towns and has a good range of restaurants and attractions. From the towns ancient harbour to the sub-tropical Morrab Gardens.

In terms of history Cornwall's rich industrial herritage can best be seen in and around Redruth and Camborne. Once at the heart of the mining industry these towns have spent many years in decline but are finally bouncing back.

Cornwall's ancient past is written all over the moorland countryside of Bodmin Moor and West Cornwall which are littered with ancient sites such as standing stone and stone circles. Other ruins that abound are the remenants of the mining industry, in many places these share the same sites the ancients chose to build on and add to the sense of history.

Oh, and don't forget the Eden Project!