Winter Sun.

Today's sunshine saw us heading off to Mortehoe for a walk on the clifftops. The car park was considerably less crowded than it had been in the holidays.
Our walk through the village takes us up the little lane between the church and the pub.

Once out on Morte Point we set off for our usual route along the cliff path. One of the joys of walking is the chance to have long conversations where we set our lives and the world to rights.

These sheep were having a comfortable snooze in the warm sunshine. We prefer to walk on the shaded side of the headland first and end by walking on the sheltered and sunny side.

Let's hope these blue skies continue tomorrow.

A Flight Of Fancy.

I haven't managed to take a single picture today. I set off for work in the grey half-light and when I left school at 5.30 it was pitch black and raining. Nothing of note to say about work, many of the staff had their half-term holiday spoilt by a nasty sickness bug or bad cough, we do seem to be a poorly lot.

As I can't bear the thought of a post without some pictures follow me into my fantasy world - the place where my imagination takes me when I'm observing the beauties of nature. Here we have the ruins of an ancient city, nestled under towering crags. In the millenia that have passed since the heyday of this once noble civilisation, the city walls have crumbled and the fertile fields that spread out below them have dried up and become a barren wasteland. What natural catastrophe or attack by ravaging hordes has caused such utter desolation?

And on the coast little remains of what was once a bustling port. A few remnants of harbour walls that rang with the sounds of creaking wood and the crack of sails being readied for voyages across the treacherous seas. Barely discernible are the foundations of magnificent watch towers from whose summits blazed welcoming beacons. While in the background great mountain ranges sheltered these lands from the icy winds blowing down from the great ice cap..........

It's amazing how just a few feet of rock can lead to such overblown prose.

A Gentle Walk.

For the last couple of days we've had warm winds blowing up from the Mediterranean. We've had to turn off the central heating as it was getting far too hot and during the day the temperatures have been up to 17C. I decided that as I needed to loosen up my back and it wasn't actually raining I'd go off for a gentle walk in the local lanes. The first part was along the roads , nice easy walking. From Ashelford Corner I followed a fairly boring track between tall hedges.

The only time you can get a view is at the gateways.

Eventually the track leads into a field. I don't think this is a right of way though I have ridden along it often when I used to ride so maybe it is a bridleway. It was a bit harder to walk here as the ground was very wet and quite muddy.

The track leads along the crest of the hill and when you get to the corner of the field the walk starts to get more interesting.

This lady rider was very formally dressed, hacking jacket, shirt & tie. We exchanged greetings but for one horrible moment I thought it might be hunt day (Wednesday) which would have caused my rant mode to go into overload. Maybe she just likes to wear ' proper attire'. In the far off days when I did dressage and we had to wear correct clothing even for lessons I managed to find a light blue hairnet to complement my royal blue hard hat. Ever the rebel.

Back to the walk. From the corner of the field the track turns and goes steeply down into the valley. This is my favourite part of the walk with its sudden views and wild landscape.

Once down at the bottom of the valley there is a pretty stream, the same one that flows at the back of the house. If my neighbour wasn't tetchy about people walking on his land it would be possible to cross the stream here and walk back along the valley to the stables and then our house.

Instead I had to turn and retrace my steps back up the track.

On the homeward stretch back on the lanes a group of young riders from the stables passed me on their way down to Churchill, or possibly they were going to cut through the fields at Ashelford Farm.

I carried on up onto the road that I travel on every day to and from work. The reason that the hedges are full-sized trees are that both these fields are owned by individuals. (Farmers who are having to make a living from the land keep the hedges cut square to maximise land usage efficiency.) The field on the left used to be owned by the local hunt master for his daughter's horses. It now belongs to a chap and his partner who I discovered , on the snowy day several years ago when I had been in 2 vehicles that had slid off the road, is the brother of one of the teachers at my school. They very kindly gave me a lift right into school which was great as I had been worried about getting to work. The field on the right belonged to a mystery owner until it was sold to some one who put a caravan on it hoping to get planning permission to build a house - fat chance here on the edge of Exmoor. He even threatened to bring down more travellers and turn it into a gypsy site but he still didn't get his permission and it stands forever empty.

And finally blue skies as I headed down our drive. It soon clouded over though I did manage to do a little weeding and tidying up in the garden.

It's All Phantom Pain!

Autumn colours are starting to be seen on the trees both in town and in the countryside. The predominant colours are yellows and oranges. (We don't have the bright sunny days followed by cold nights that encourages the production of sugars in the leaves that results in bright red foliage. ) This was up by the hospital where I was going for a physio session. The physio was not that impressed by my GP and consultant's views that my shoulder pain is caused by neck problems. I left feeling annoyed and upset over his pronouncement that the pain is phantom nerve pain and that I must have a very low pain threshold. I know he is talking cobblers but I can't help the feeling that I am making a fuss over nothing. He also suggested that I need to find some form of exercise to keep everything mobile - good idea, but he was hung up on insisting I go swimming. I HATE swimming (body boarding yes but not pool swimming), for a start it gives me dreadful pain in the sinuses and I don't have the time to traipse over to the other side of town several times a week. He did give me some exercises to loosen up my back but he wasn't happy about my refusal to go to the pool. After the hospital I did some shopping in town and treated myself to a handful of books from the library. I also finally sorted out my phone and got the sim card moved from one phone to another. The previous salesman had mistakenly told me that all my details would be transferred but instead it was just a blank sim card. The nice man in the shop sorted it all out and I've got a spare sim card in my old phone. This was after I'd seen the CarPhone Warehouse sign on the wall, gone into the phone shop, explained my woes and been told by a very polite young lady that actually this was the Orange Shop and I needed to go next door, Woops. It started raining when I was in town and has been raining gently all day.
Even in the rain the garden is gently glowing with a golden haze over many of the plants.

The azaleas and the purple beech tree add a few shades of dark red to the garden.

Chasing Rainbows.

Sunshine and showers today, a combination that if you're lucky produces rainbows. I stopped just outside of Shirwell and even climbed up onto a hedge to get these rather dark and grainy pictures.
The photo doesn't actually show it but I could see exactly where I needed to dig for that pot of gold.

The whole arc of the rainbow was visible but too big for my camera.

I've spent the afternoon planning at school but haven't managed to print out all my daily plans as we had to squeeze 2 afternoons' worth of work into 1. Originally we were going to have Friday afternoon as well, (a nice start to the half-term), but school finances have put an end to me coming out of my class on Friday. I'll have to finish my plans in my own time at home instead. The run-up to Christmas is always a lovely time to be in school with all the Christmas art and craft to do as well as rehearsing for the whole school production. This year it is a play about a rat. Each class of Year 1 children do 2 dances which are easy to choreograph as the stage space is very limited. Only 2 days to the holiday :)

A Golden Sunrise.

I stopped on the way to work to try and capture the sunrise over the hills.My camera couldn't really cope with the contrast and kept making the foreground far too dark.

And the sky wasn't quite this deep shade of gold, more a peachy colour.

The weather has been good all day but the clear sky has lead to a plummet in temperatures. Nearly time to turn the central heating on or chop up some more wood for the woodburner.

Youlston Park

It's been a clear and sunny day today. On the way home from work I stopped in the gateway of Youlston Park, a 'Big House' that was once owned by the Chichester family.
I wanted to capture the low autumn light across the parkland.

The tiny group of trees on the horizon are the same ones that appeared in yesterday's sunset pictures.

Across the road and looking back to Shirwell I had a good view of the boys' village school. When they first went there the white building at the front didn't exist. The whole school was contained in the stone built building behind, which was basically one room divided by a wooden partition. The infants (5-7 years) were in one class and the juniors (8-11 years) in the other. There was a tiny kitchen, an even smaller office and the toilets were outside. There were less than 40 children in the whole school. There are some advantages but also disadvantages to being in such a small school. Several times I've invited the whole school to birthday parties at our place! Before Romas left the new extension was built so that now they have 2 classrooms and a shared area as well as a hall and indoor toilets. When we went to assemblies in the hall it was hard to imagine how the whole school had once fitted into that space.

Return Of The Fox

I've just been and shut my hens in their shed because Ole Foxy was around again. I was sitting at the kitchen table when I looked up and saw him sauntering up the drive. This time there was no thought of taking photos as I spotted him going right up to the hedge where on the other side of the fence the poor unsuspecting hens were pecking around. I burst out of the door uttering banshee yells at the top of my voice and chased him away. Peter is offering to go out with the shotgun but I wouldn't shoot a fox for the sake of 4 hens. I'll just keep them in at night and hope for the best.

Earlier in the day we headed off to Mortehoe for a walk down to Bull Point. It was hotter than we had bargained for and I finished the walk a rather fetching shade of red. A combination of all those steps and the sun. There were a number of people out and about, all fully clothed!Peter has to take it easy with his ankle so we stayed up on the high ground and didn't go down into the coombe leading to Bennet's Mouth, the little cove I visited last time I was out walking on my own.

As usual there were plenty of lovely views.


The tide was out exposing the rocks in Rockham Bay. The boys used to like going down there to see the last remains of a shipwrecked metal ship. You have to climb down a set of wooden steps that hang down the side of the cliff so again we gave that a miss.

We decided to take the shorter route back into the village rather than going up the second set of zig-zag steps and following the coast path round Morte Point. All in all a very enjoyable walk. I even had time to do some gardening in the last remaining patch of sunshine at home.

!!!

Despite the grey skies and threatening rain Peter and I decided to go for a walk at Morte Point this morning as it is not often that we're both at home in the week. As we drove up the hill it was straight into low lying cloud and rain but by the time we got to Mortehoe the rain was easing off.

Out on the cliffs the bracken has developed its coppery autumnal colour contrasting with the bright green of the grass which is still growing well in the warm and wet conditions that we've been having.

We managed to spot one seal floating lazily in the almost flat sea.

As we walked along the path we exchanged Good Mornings with a walker coming in the opposite direction. Nothing unusual about that you might think except for the fact that apart from a large back pack and a pair of boots he was wearing ....... nothing, actually I've just asked Pete and neither of us can remember if he was wearing boots! A little odd for North Devon. I think I would have been even more taken aback if I had been on one of my solitary photo walks. We did notice that a little further on he donned a pair of shorts which was a good thing as the next 2 groups of people that he walked past included ladies well into their 60s. I don't think they would have been very amused at his lack of attire.

Back to work in the afternoon. Luckily the sun came out in time for afternoon play and was even toasting my back as I stood outside with the children.

On the journey home it was back into the cloud layer. I took these pictures when I got out to collect our recycling box , we've had several stolen so it is best to collect it even if it is pouring with rain. I suppose they make quite useful storage boxes until the recycling men break the top edges as they bang them down on the ground upside down. I'm still wondering what to do with the 2 handy composting caddies with handles and lids that we were issued with. All our weeds and compostable scraps go on our own compost heap in the chickens' run.

End Of Dragon Dreams.

It's been quite a good day today. First of all, well not too early, Peter and I took a load of stuff to sell to the antique shop man. This is the shop that still has the dragon roof tile I was lusting after and my plan was to get a good exchange deal. However, Peter persuaded me that buying the dragon wasn't such a good idea as spending £200 on a breakable object might be asking for trouble. As I had already done some research on the web and found out that this was only a repro item and as I wasn't so keen when I saw it close up I decided that I would pass up on the dragon. We were very pleased to get over £100 for some chairs and small bits of furniture that all needed fixing and had been moved from my mum's attic to our attic in London and then to our attic in Devon. Really I just wanted to get rid of them and make a little money at the same time. I want to buy something specific with the money and am thinking about some stainless steel saucepans as I find my Le Creuset cookware far too heavy. I was also chuffed to buy a summer top in the sales and when I took it to the checkout the reduction had been increased from 50% to 70%.

Back home I got Linas to help me load up the micra with more stuff for the dump. I also enlisted his help to take photographs while I was driving back from the Ilfracombe dump.
The road runs along the side of a steep valley, this is the only point where you get a view across the valley to the farms and hills beyond.

For most of the time the road is enclosed by trees as it winds its way up the side of the valley.

There are lots of sharp bends in this part of the road until it joins the main road.

This is the main road looking towards the hills of Exmoor.

And then onto our country road.

Looking down somebody's drive into our valley. Dingles is hidden in those bright green trees in the middle of the picture. The small white buildings are our neighbours' new house.