A Quick Little Trip to Devon

My sister moved to Fremington in Devon back in October, and as it was high time I visited I decided I could take a couple of days away from the farm this half term.  I took the train from Newbury to Exeter, then Exeter to Barnstaple.

I love going on the train.  I looked out the window the whole way there and back - in the towns I look at the houses and wonder about the people's lives; how different, or not, their lives are from mine.  I look at the farms, and think how I must start tidying up more outside

On the way to Taunton I was shocked at the flooded fields.  This may look like a lake at first glance

 

but as we whizzed by you could see the hedges and trees poking up out of the water

 (I know, you can see my little camera reflected in the window, but I don't think it detracts from the floods).

The next leg of the journey was quite different - all through the little Devon hills

I think I'd like to be a ticket collector on a train.

Once at my sister's house the sunset from the kitchen window promised a lovely day on Thursday.

However, it turned out to be a cold and wet day but we went for some lovely walks.  We did part of the Tarka Trail along the estuary

and then down to the Quay for lunch in the charming café and Heritage site.

It's hard to believe but 30 years ago this was a thriving, industrial Quayside with railways delivering goods for import and export.  They said when the boys dived into the water from the bridge they came up black from all the coal dust, and during harvest the farmers in the field came back covered in black dust rather than yellow corn dust.  Now it's simply a wide open estuary with a big sky:

 

In the afternoon we visited Rosemoor RHS Garden and I got lots of ideas for landscaping our garden:

 

 

Well, apparently this place used to be a Dairy Farm!

Then I needed to visit the sea so we drove up to Westward Ho!  - Under a very dark and glowering sky we looked out to Lundy (where, as we all know, what happens on Lundy, stays on Lundy)

and looked up and down the beach and agreed that it was freezing

What a great time we had.  And then I had a poke around Carolyn's workroom and took snaps of her micro-macrame in progress

and her dolls which I so coveted when I was little but wasn't allowed to touch

Finally, this morning, I caught the train back home.  I settled into my seat, and as I was getting out my croissant to munch, happened to glance at the lady sitting next to me.  I decided I wasn't quite as hungry as I thought I was when she popped out her teeth and gave them a good clean!  Reminded me of the lunch queue at school when we all took out our braces but, still, not really something to do in public!