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brought in on the morning tide and off-loaded from one of the fishing boats moored quayside.
If you love your seafood with toe-tapping sea shanties, there’s much merriment in September for Seafeast, Dorset’s annual seafood festival, held here in Weymouth.
The festival is a great charity fund-raiser for the Fishermen’s Mission.
The fishing industry is a dangerous, life-threatening occupation.
Bringing home the catch for us to enjoy the fruits of the sea is a perilous business, with an average of one fisherman killed every six weeks.
Bereft families often need our support.
An amble after lunch, crossing over the handsome cantilever bridge made from local Portland stone, reveals pastel-coloured cottages.
Imagine cosying up in one as a seaside “bolt hole”.
The array of independent gift shops and art galleries are perfect for a browse.
Many a yacht in the marina has nipped across the Channel for a seaside sojourn.
One French destination on my bucket list is a visit to Monet’s Garden in Giverny, with its array of water lilies that the artist frequently captured on canvas.
Luckily for me, there’s no need to stowaway on a pleasure craft.
A couple of miles out of town, a simple hop-on bus ride leads to Bennetts Water Gardens, famous for its National Plant Collection®.
Standing on the replica Monet-style French bridge, surrounded by flowering water lilies, I truly feel as though I’ve immersed myself in one of the French impressionist painter’s iconic scenes.
The Monet tribute bridge was built here in 1999, the same year one of Monet’s famous water lily paintings, created exactly a century earlier, went on display in London to mark the occasion.
No wonder the water gardens are a popular wedding venue!
What could be more romantic on a summer’s day than to exchange vows in the pretty gazebo?
There is such a painterly backdrop for those precious wedding photographs for a keepsake album.
Of course, this is gardening with a difference.
Full-length Wellington dungarees are an essential piece of gardening kit.
The water gardens came about over 60 years ago, when the current curator’s grandfather, Norman Bennett, saw the chance of nurturing his passion for water lilies on this site.
All this beauty was created within a disused claypit once supplying the brick-making industry.
The pit flooded through excessive excavation, breaking through the water table, which gave rise to the perfect creative gardening opportunity for a water lily enthusiast.
Many of Norman’s original collection are flourishing to this day in what is now the largest collection of water lilies anywhere in the UK.
Strolling around the lakes and ponds, admiring the colours from vibrant pink to ivory white, I enjoy a chat with Weymouth resident Suzi, a garden regular.
“I especially love pampering myself with a relaxing yoga sundown class in the garden,” she tells me.
“It’s such a calming environment promoting wellbeing.
“Herbal teas are served in Café Monet afterwards,” she enthuses.
Admittedly, I do feel rather meditative myself, gazing at the reflections dancing on the water.
Perhaps adopting the lotus position would be even more beneficial for that authentic zen-like feeling!
Attractions, activities, accommodation and more can be found at visit-dorset.com/explore/areas-to-visit/ Weymouth.
Sandworld is open annually from Easter to the end of October. Find out more at sandworld.co.uk.
Read about the Dorset Seafood Festival, happening on September 7 and 8, at dorsetseafood.co.uk.
Discover more about the Bennetts Water Gardens at bennettswatergardens.com.