Wet, Windy Devon - but I Love It!

Hello all! It’s been a week – I know – and thank God I keep a diary otherwise I wouldn’t at all remember what has happened!

Thursday 9th Nov:

I went for my famous walk, ‘across the fields and far away’. Wonderfully there was a break in the clouds and so I set off. Not the full walk as I usually do as there was pheasant shooting that way so I had to start from just under our pine and walk up the field. I encountered a lovely buzzard that I’ve called ‘Echo’ and the badger set is still going strong and as always I left them some nuts – their favourite food.

Still Red Campions in the field

Badger set

My three trees, well 6 altogether

From the field

Classic Pine Picture

Works so well I did it again with the other pine

There are my three trees!

Looks like Summer trees!

Perhaps not

No definitely not . . .

I also started in the studio and happily experimented and painted for a few hours and then had my dinner by the wood burner. Lovely. Then I pulled my hair out because bloody dial up took SO long!

Friday 10th Nov:

A usual day of spending the morning shopping in Waitrose at Okehampton and then straight into the studio for most of the day. I also went on the scales that morning and discovered that I had lost a WHOLE stone! Happy bunny. Just another one to go. Lots of people came round to do bits and pieces here at the cottage, the electrician, plumber and window man! Monopoly after dinner. Of course my Dad won. Typical. Rematch soon!

The cottage from my walk in the cow field

Saturday 11th Nov:

Held my 2 minute silence. Plus it was my grandmother’s 93rd Birthday. David came to prune the trees. Bit of a cold, gloomy day. So the Apple, Curly wurly (don’t know it’s true name), Larch, Cherry and Ash have been nicely shortened. Took as till lunchtime. Dunsbeare for fish and chips.

David cutting the Cherry Tree

The Larch branches under the pine (still there after a week)

What it looked like at lunch time

Sunday 12th Nov:

Yet another 2 minute silence on Remembrance Sunday. Well, tried to, as soon as Big Ben chimed 11, the scrambled eggs were ready!

My first walk up the top - coming back from Dunsbeare

More rain approaching

'December Moth' who I saved from a spider web

Mum then cooked a lovely meal, had lots of wine and then watched the second part of the ‘Lord of the Rings - The Twin Towers’ Now I’ve never been a Tolkein fan, I read ‘The Hobbit’ when I was about 12 but it never made me want to read the next few books. The films are very good though and you can see how much J K Rowling has pinched for her Harry Potter books! Scandalous! Outside seemed very spooky after the film!

Monday 13th Nov:

Up pretty late with slight hangover. Oh well. Wonderful thing happened today, well, good news and bad news. The good news is that I signed up to Broadband for here, so happy; the pain of dial up is just too much. The bad news is that it won’t start until 27th Nov, as they have to send an engineer out to check the line, as we’re so remote. Plus we’re back on the 3rd Dec so just 6 days with my new broadband. I really thought that by today (17th Nov) it would be up and running! Darn! You know one music track from itunes takes an hour to download on dial up A WHOLE BLOODY HOUR!

Really windy weather, not cold, just windy. And then the first night of ‘I’m a celebrity Get Me Out of Here’ the ONLY reality show I watch. Basically ITV get around 12 Z list celebrities and stick then in an Australian jungle for 2 weeks and they have to go through Bush Tucker Trials to get their food. Anything from dancing on a disco floor only to have ants, cockroaches and spiders falling on your head, or being lowered into a cave to plunge your hand into holes filled with snakes, rats and insects to find small yellow stars to signal one meal for the celebrities in the camp to having to eat maggots, crickets and even kangaroo balls. This years Celebes are Jason Donovan and even David Gest – yes the horror ex of Liza Mineliee (can’t spell her surname, sorry) who’s also a horror. So Mum and I’ve been watching it every night for the hour it’s on and really it is great fun for people with no life – that’s me!

Field in the morning, note the rain clouds!

Then with the sun - run for cover!!!!

Tuesday 14th Nov:

Usual Torrington shop for essentials and day then spent in studio. Gale force winds and rain, not nice. That was all.

Wednesday 15th Nov:

The Queen opened Parliament. Although she was late. And luckily she was because someone’s mobile phone went off! The sun made a three second appearance then he was off to shine somewhere else while we had rain and high winds. The electrician came again, trying to fix our heated floor in the bathroom which doesn’t work and still doesn’t work. Football match friendly against England and Holland (1-1) Who do I support I ask you?!

Thursday 16th Nov:

Saint Michael of the Rock, Brentor


What a place to be buried!

Inside

The church tower

Out with Sue for the day. She picked me up at 11pm and we decided to go to Brentor on Dartmoor, a 13th Century parish church situated on a rocky promontory, believed to be part of a Volcanic cone, with stunning views to Dartmoor, Plymouth Sound, Cornwall and Exmoor. Bit of a trek up the hill but well worth it, what a sight to behold! I bought the guide for 70p. I know of the church and I know it’s folklore, but the parishioners who wrote the guide don’t like the legend, this is a quote from the book:

‘Associated with the Devil’s interference with the building of Brent Tor church, mentioned by the Reverend Edward Bray in 1902, by the Reverend Sabine Baring-Gould in one of his short stories, and by William Crossing in 1892 should be dismissed as an invention of the enemy of St Michael and All Angels, the Prince of Darkness himself.’
Cop out.

Party poopers.

Typical Anglican jargon.

The legend is what MAKES THE CHURCH. High up for the whole of the land to see. The Devil is supposed to have chosen the site and has fast as the stones were put in place down below he carried them back up again. When the church was eventually completed, St Michael, to whom the church is dedicated, got his own back by kicking the Devil down the hill, throwing after him a huge rock, which is still there and the Devil is still meant to be under it! Also when the church was restored in 1889-90, 40 skeletons were found below the floor. On the Parish register on the church notice board there were originally 20 people in the parish, now crossed out to 19!

View over Dartnoor from the church

The view of the Church from the pub car park

The road over the moor to Okehampton

Sue and I then went for some lunch in a lovely pub called ‘The Elephants Nest Inn’ which had won pub of the year this year in the good pub guide. We just stumbled across it as one does. Then to Waitrose for shopping and back to the farm for a cup of tea and seeing to the animals.

Conversations in the Dunsbeare yard



Chrissy

Right, this is perhaps Apple or Delta - I get confused, plus doesn't she look like a teddy bear!

Cyril

Funnily enough my folks went out with a friend for lunch – Paul and his lady friend – and then went to Lewtrenchard Manor – a stones throw where we were – and Paul actually lives in Brentor and they were talking about the Elephants Nest Inn and then to Waitrose for shopping. Almost a mirror image of us. I knew they were doing what they did, but I had no idea what Sue had planned until we drove away. Funny old world.

Friday 17th Nov (today):

Not much really. Though a tad annoyed and over tired as I got up at 2:30am as there was thunder and lightening and I came down to turn my laptop off as it was on ‘sleep’ and I was worried that the cottage would get struck by lightening again and ruin my computer. Thing is I had lots of applications running and they took an age to shut down. I was so annoyed!

The weather has been nasty. Just rain, rain, rain. Although a little brighter in the afternoon for some photographs. And then a LONG sleep for me in the afternoon.

From the landing window

The field in the afternoon

And it's still raining - even now past 10:30pm!

That’s all. Large catch up as we’re off to see friends in St Ives tomorrow and I wanted to get these photos out the way for pictures of the sea!

Love Emy xxx