Morning Visitors.

We were enjoying yet another sunny day with a lie in and a cup of tea when we realised that Coral and her foal were walking about on the lawn by the conservatory. Not a good idea, so I leapt out of bed, threw on some clothes and phoned next door before going outside and grabbing a bucket. Coral was quite skittish, cantering across the lawns, so I decided I would just calm them down and wait for my neighbour as I didn't want to send them flying up the road. My neighbour soon came and took them back down to the stables where they will be confined to quarters until the fence can be mended. Not too much damage apart from hoof prints in the lawn, but the grass will soon grow.

Went to church in Ilfracombe. Some of the youngsters raised money for a youth cafe that the church is opening in town, by auctioning themselves for a day. Their descriptions of themselves were very honest eg- not too good at cooking but willing to learn. it was all good fun and they raised a lot of money. Afterwards dropped in at Tesco so I could buy chocolate for yet another chocolate chunk cake.

The coast is on the right of the middle lamp post.

Then it was off to the car boot sale. I estimated over 600 buyers' cars in the field. I enjoy hunting for bargains though I try to be selective in what I buy. My aim is to declutter, not fill the house up again. I was especially pleased to get some Habitat paper lampshades that I had intended buying from Habitat the next time I went to Exeter or Bristol. I'm typing this post by the light of a touch lamp that a stall holder gave me last week because he just didn't want to take it home.

Not much else done today, the boys have just returned from a hike down to East Down and I think the cake is disappearing rapidly.

Friday's Walk.

Another glorious day, and it's the weekend. How good is that? As I lay in bed this morning with only the sound of birdsong I thought what a long way we've come from when we were first married, over 30 years ago. Our first home was a council flat, new and very nice but overlooking a motorway with lorries roaring past, 24/7 and just a 5ft square balcony. And now we have all this.

Jake is staying over for the weekend so that he and Romas can shoot each other with their airsoft guns. They've also been electrocuting each other with some laser pistols and if that wasn't enough they've had a few bouts with big wooden home-made swords. I can see a bit of a pattern here. Speaking as an ardent pacifist I don't think I quite got the message across. Oldest son, Vytas, often spends his weekends taking part in battles with pike and armour. Oh, and I've got two swords hanging on the bedroom wall but I abhor fighting, honestly.

Gardening today was more cutting back of summer growth and general tidying up. There is still so much in flower, even the climbing roses have a good display and the passion flower is still producing flowers. It was barbecue time again, very civilised. I freecycled a double mattress which was surplus to requirements which was collected this afternoon but the single bed I also offered has no takers, so if we can get it in the car we'll take it to the recycling centre.

Some pictures from yesterday's walk.

Morning sunshine across the fields.

A cattle track which narrows and falls steeply into our valley.

Down at the bottom of the track is the same stream which flows 3ft from the back of the house.

Let's be thankful for our beautiful world.

Carnival Fireworks.

Yesterday was a sunny, lovely day. The wings on this dragonfly looked as if they were covered in scales of gold. Why is it that sunshine is so uplifting ? When the sun is shinning my spirits are raised, I feel positive and energised. I spent a satisfying day out in the garden enjoying the sunshine,(reading) and getting some jobs done. I was painting a wall when Romas, who was cutting grass - for cash, called out that there was a pony out on the road. I grabbed a bucket and did the old stones in a bucket trick, caught the pony and using one of the headcollars that are left by the gateways, took it back down to the stables. When something like that occurs it reminds me of how much I used to enjoy looking after peoples' horses ( in the East End of London). We did ride at the stables next door but once the boys started riding it got very expensive to pay for 4 lessons at a time and I couldn't justify being the only one to ride. Pete barbequed some steaks and we had a leisurely outdoor lunch, that's the way to live.

Later in the evening Romas and I went into town to watch the fireworks. (Pete has a knee injury so needs to rest up. ) As we drove into town we just caught the tail end of the carnival. It's a fantastic atmosphere, crowds of people and lots of children everywhere either strolling back to the car parks or making their way towards the river to watch the fireworks or over to the fair. I tried to get some atmospheric shots and the batteries went flat and for once the spares were at home. The carnival floats congregate in the civic centre car park and many still had the music blaring out and lights blazing. There are always a lot of marching musicians and a salsa band was enthusiastically carrying on. Amongst the crowds were many people in their carnival costumes. The fireworks are set off from an old factory site on one bank of the river and everybody can get a good view, either from the Long Bridge or from the pedestrianised area by the river that used to be the old bus station. Romas and I found a spot on the concrete wharf where we could sit against some railings and have a superb view of the fireworks which as usual were spectacular.

As I failed to get any decent shots here are a series of pictures I took on a grey morning about a week ago. I always love the idea of looking through a tunnel of trees.

Doggy Trespassers.

The day started with grey skies and stayed that way. Luckily it was dry so I spent most of the day working in the garden. You never know when it might rain for weeks and weeks.


Before going outside I looked through the sitting room window and what did I see?

Two trespassers from the stables next door looking for left-over cat food. The pup will be one they are 'walking' for the hunt. Let me declare myself now - I am anti-hunt. I am not a vegetarian and if a fox came and took any of the hens, which has never happened, I would be quite happy for the fox to be shot or for farmers to shoot any foxes that are attacking their livestock. The thing that gets me really cross is people chasing and killing foxes for a game, for their enjoyment. Fox hunting is banned and they are supposed to be drag hunting instead which I doubt very much, ha ha. If it was only about the ride then drag hunting would be ideal but you should have heard the fuss they made when the legislation was introduced. The hunt sometimes meet next door and the hunt master has been told by me in no uncertain terms that he is to keep his dogs off our land. Once in a while the hounds will rip peoples' cats up as well as chasing sheep. OK ... rant over.

Percy being cute as usual.

This is how you scratch an itch in a place you can't reach.

The big horses do this as well which is why the top rails keep getting broken.

Nothing more spectacular than this Cream Spotted Tiger Moth caterpillar. I did unearth a newt but hey we've had a photo of one of those.

Cowday.

First this rather cute cow who was peeking round the corner when I drove up the hill the other day.

I looked through the window this morning to see a cow that was right at the bottom of Ron's field. 'Ah' I thought, 'How sweet. ' Then I noticed that the cow had its head under the fence with the fence post broken and the wires all hanging. Whoops! The thought of a cow stomping around in the garden was not a nice one. It would a be lot of bother to get it back as it probably wouldn't go back across the stream and bank and instead have to be taken home by the road which is over a mile. Luckily it went back when it saw me and then I went out and repaired the fence. Technically I could have rung Ron to fix it but part of the problem was that I have cut back the hedge to give myself a view. If the bushes had been allowed to grow tree height as they are in the rest of the field then there wouldn't have been any chance of the cow getting in. Once I'd put in a new post and fixed the fence I filled the space with lots of holly branches from the trees that had overgrown the stream. So 2 jobs done, the fence and the holly trees cut right back. I don't think that cows eat holly ........ if they do then the whole herd will be in my garden! We've had visiting sheep and ponies but not cows, thank goodness.

Don't these trees look like 2 Ents dancing together?

This is also the view looking out of this window.

More usually there are sheep in the field, the lambs are a great distraction in the spring.

Went to work this afternoon and people seemed pleased that I will be teaching the reception children after Christmas. My Micra spent the afternoon in the garage having a dangling exhaust pipe welded. The house is now quiet as everyone except Romas has gone home.

Very Young .... and Very Old.

It didn't rain today! It was overcast in the morning but by the afternoon there was some sunshine. I spent most of the day in the garden, first battling with those garden thugs- brambles and bindweed, which were invading from my neighbour's land. Then as it got warmer I was finally able to do some painting on the outbuildings. I had done the preparation and an initial undercoat right at the beginning of the summer but then rain had stopped work. Finally I did some weeding and clearing up in my scree garden.

The scree garden is supposed to be a place of elegance and form, and is mostly, but I didn't have the heart to pull up these nasturtiums. These seedlings are part of a strip 10ft x 2ft, full of exuberant colour. When this garden was ready to plant, 2 years ago, I grew lots of poppies and nasturtiums, just to provide colour for that year, and the nasturtiums keep coming back. The whole garden is starting to show signs of autumn although many of the summer flowers are still there. The sedums are now coming into their own and are full of butterflies and bees. The house martins, who reared several broods next to out bedroom windows, left a few weeks ago and the swallows who were swooping into the outhouses only last week have also gone on their way to Africa.

When I'm gardening I often take a little break and wander up the drive to say hello to the horses in the adjoining fields so I thought I would show the oldest and the youngest of my neighbour's ponies.

This is Percy (Persephone) at a few days old. She is a Dartmoor pony and is very friendly. Even when she was 2 days old she would come to the fence and suck your fingers. She is now 3 months old and just as friendly. Her mum, Coral is quite used to Percy being petted by every single person who walks past.



This picture was taken in 2007, sadly neither pony is with us now. BUT Sir Echo, the little grey pony was 45 years old ,(that's real years), and Tolly, the palomino was 48 years old! Neither of them had many teeth and they had a special cooked diet. They were out in the field during the day and stabled at night. Note the electric fence that wasn't even switched on. The post is leaning because they would use it as a scratching post, often it fell right over but they still stayed in their field. Although I don't feed horses over the fence, (it makes them bite), I made an exception for these 2 with the occasional handful of raspberries from the garden. My neighbour is very knowledgeable and caring which is why these 2 lived to such an old age.

Oh, and there was a mass break-out today. I looked up to see 3 hens wandering up the drive. Good thing they come when I call . Must get that gate fixed!

A Better Day.

Today the sun shone, occasionally, and I was able to get out into the garden to wash stones though I kept getting distracted by all the butterflies.

And then this would happen.

Yesterday we had 55mm of rain in 24 hours, half of it in just 2 hours. All the rain that falls onto the hillside gets caught on the road and then channelled down our gravel drive. Yesterday's deluge not only washed out most of the gravel that Romas had been barrowing up from the stream but overran the yard and threatened to flood out the waste water treatment thingy (septic tank). So out we went, clearing ditches and creating dams across the road to divert the water onto my neighbour's fields. Note- wearing shorts with wellington boots in heavy rain results in lots of water inside the boots. Peter had to try 3 different routes home last night to get round the flooded roads. When the postman came today he told me that many farmers' lanes had been washed away .

However, I've been reading a few blogs written by people in Louisiana, ( Thanks Julie for the 'Round the world' link,) and in comparison it wasn't all that bad.

Just another beautiful butterfly.

Raindrops and Ponies.

The rain has finally stopped, (for now), so I was able to get out to do some gardening. Flipping weeds growing all over the place again. But first I took some pictures of raindrops captured by plants. Even with the ever present grey skies the drops glistened like crystals.

Once I'm out in the garden it's so peaceful. Just the ever present sounds of the wind in the trees and the stream rushing downhill in the next field. Punctuated by the cooing of a wood pigeon, twitterings of small birds and for some reason the very loud munching of a pony in the field above the garden. Maybe wet grass is noisier than dry grass? Or perhaps Coral is just a noisy eater? Now and again I hear my neighbour teaching a riding lesson in the indoor school and the enthusiastic "1,2, 1,2, .... well done!", makes me smile and reminds me of the days when I taught disabled children to ride in London.