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.

Silly Moos

It was a lovely sunny if slightly chilly morning so I decided to treat myself to a nice long walk across the fields, happy snapping as I went. Saving the rest of the photos for later as I wanted to post some fun stuff today. Spent most of the day working in the garden and enjoying the sun.

First the 'Silly Moos' seen on my drive around Shirwell.

I stopped in a gateway to check out the views and was spotted by these cows, (bullocks actually).

'Come on lads, lets see who that is at our gate.'

'You lead, we'll follow.'

'Careful, she might actually touch us.'

And then , on being offered a handful of grass, they all ran away.

Silly Moos.

More fun clips which hopefully will raise a smile.

This always made me laugh when I heard it on the radio.

This one gets Pete laughing.
When I first heard this I rang up the radio station to find out who it was by. The Youtube clip with Weird Al singing can't be copied but I found this one with the Lego people.

Enjoy. Back to normal tomorrow.

Cow's Muck.

Today I worked all day, reception in the morning and year 1 in the afternoon. Lots of the staff have really bad colds and the children are starting to go down with tummy bugs. Pretty standard for this time of year. I would not be surprised to get a phone call in the morning asking me to work. Hope not because I suspect I may have caught a tummy bug from the children. Don't worry , there'll be no further details.

Birthday has just arrived back home with rather a whiff of cow slurry about him. That's because the farmers have been at their favourite dry weather occupation - muck flinging. I like the smell of cows but whole fields of it gets rather pungent. One of Romas' friends remarked that you know you are a true North Devon person when the smell of cows' muck through the car window reminds you of home.

Note the dark brown area where the muck spreader has been. I assume the seagulls, which only flew off when I got out of the car to take a photo, were feeding on the small creatures that live in the muck - nice! The buzzard that was feeding only 10 ft from the car also flew away but that is part of the buzzard saga which hasn't yet reached its conclusion. Watch this space.

Some views of hills.

I've tried to analyse why hills fascinate me and I think it is because of the flowing lines creating such strong shapes. My favourite views are when the sun is low and casting shadows that highlight all the contours of the hillsides. It shouldn't be too long before the best conditions coincide with my journeys to and from work and I may be able to get some decent shots. That is of course if it isn't raining .

I was standing with my back to a fairly new housing development on the edge of Barnstaple , looking north. The planning regulations are so stringent here that there is very little chance of any further building on these lovely hills.





Down in the back valleys behind Shirwell. These hills are really steep which doesn't show too well in photos.

Most of the land around here is only used for grazing cattle or sheep.

What a view.

Leafy Lanes.

Had a full day at school and I've just had a phone call to ask me to teach the little ones again tomorrow instead of going swimming with the year 2s as planned. Everyone at work is going down with sore throats and temperatures, that's fairly usual for the beginning of term. I can feel the beginning of a cold but I usually manage to battle on. I have the added incentive that if I don't work I don't get paid.

More pictures from yesterday's journey home.

A back road in the river valley near Snapper.

The main road ,(wide enough for two cars to pass easily), to Bratton Flemming is in between the hedges running across the picture.

A typical back road, if you meet another car one of you has to reverse to a passing place.

A farmer's track.

One of the many twisting lanes that climb the hills.

Another track; these are fine when it is dry or if you are driving a landrover but I wouldn't like to try them in wet weather with my little micra.

Local Valleys.

Looking across the tops of the hills of the hills towards Bideford Bay.

I'm a morning person so usually I don't have a problem with the 6.00 alarm. This morning it was pitch black, (we never draw the curtains), and I really didn't feel like getting up but it's no good breaking the routine and Romas would never get out of bed without several wake-up calls. I was planning a peaceful kitchen tidying for the morning when the phone rang with a call to work. So I've spent the whole day teaching and will be teaching all day tomorrow and Thursday. This morning was my first time with the new reception children (4/5yrs) and apart from a few tears when the Mums brought them in, we had a good morning. I've now been at the school so long that I could recognise family likenesses and even remember some of them as babies. So far this term I've had to try and remember the names of 120 children only 15 of whom I've taught before. I'm getting there slowly.

We had sunshine for most of the day so I drove a roundabout way home to take some local landscape pictures hopefully during the sunny spells. Today's series of pictures are of lush valleys with the trees just starting to change colour.

Petrol the old-fashioned way.

The sun was shining this morning so I started the day with coffee in the garden, joined by Patch who was hoping that I had something to eat as well. As I wasn't going in to work I thought I would combine a trip to Tesco with a visit to the dump and buy petrol on the way there. This highly efficient plan was foiled by the only garage on the way having a problem with its pumps so no petrol. After getting rid of more stuff at the dump, hooray! and doing some veg shopping, I negotiated the clogged Ilfracombe High street only to find that there was a tanker delivering fuel to the garage there and the garage was closed. I took the scenic costal route to Combe Martin and got petrol from the little independent garage there. This was the first time I've had someone fill the car for me ,(just like in old films), I was quite surprised. On the way I took the opportunity to take a few North Coast photos.

Rock formations at Hele bay.

Looking up the Bristol Channel from Hele Bay.

On clear days Wales can be seen on the horizon.

Looking along the coast near Combe Martin.
The first headland is known as Great Hangman.

This Red Damselfly joined me as I sat outside to eat my lunch. At 2" long it was not as impressive as the 4" long, yellow and black Emperor Dragonfly that sat on my hand for 5 minutes last week. I was desperately hoping that someone would come by to pass me my camera but nope. I was keeping a close eye on its mechanical looking jaws in case it wanted to see what my skin tasted like but it eventually flew away. The lenses of the eyes were like big blobs of glass .

Quick Visit to Saunton Sands.

Linas went to Plymouth a week and a half ago and today he is back home again. Did he miss the comforts of home or his loving family? Actually no, he and a group of friends had ordered some air-guns and he needed to collect them from Braunton. He came by bus and met me at work. As we were going that way I thought we could pop down to Saunton Sands. Before we moved to Devon , we would come with children and dogs to spend 3 weeks each summer in a chalet on the edge of the dunes. I loved the wildness of the dunes and especially appreciated the fact that it was just a short walk to the beach.

Saunton has a open beach which can be very windswept. We now usually go to Putsborough Beach, 2 headlands further round the coast, which has excellent surf, more shelter, less people and better toilets. (The header photo was taken at Putsborough one evening when Romas was surfing.)

Now for some pretty pictures.

Blogging Encourages Housework!

It's true! Last week I kept discovering cats in the Rayburn warmer oven when I was drying out the work gloves and I took some cute pictures. But when I looked closely at the pictures no way was I going to publish them. I may have been successful in getting my sons to cook but cleaning up their spills obviously doesn't occur to them. So on one of those many rainy days I set to with sponges and soap. The Rayburn is awful to clean because it is always hot, every spill bakes on and the enamel surfaces will scratch if you are too vigorous with your cleaning. I can see I've missed some spots but it was much worse. Then I had to make sure the floor and mat were hoovered as well and of course the hoover just kept on going until most of the downstairs was done. ( Not being at work all day also helps with the housework).

Squeeky has spent most of the day 'cooking' herself in the warmer.

Going to work this morning it was grey and wet.

Coming home coincided with a sunny spell.

Then I had to take a few more gateway pictures.

All within 50m of each other.

I popped into town before work and it was packed. I couldn't find a parking space in 2 car parks so ended up parking further out in a residential street and walking in. That's what I normally do to save the car park fees but today I had some heavy bags with bits for the charity shop. I love getting rid of stuff. Friends who know me will probably be falling about laughing at this point but I am de-cluttering, honestly. What's that saying? "Keep only the things you know to be beautiful or useful." but of course you have to keep all the things that might be useful - one day.

School was fun, so much less stressful without having to worry about planning, or the curriculum, or assessment -that's for the class teachers to do.