The Hundred Guinea Oak

We went to the Vyne and the house and gardens were lovely, but there was also the Thousand Guinea Oak, which is still there and in good dark green leaf, six hundred and fifty years old. It was safe, given special food and tested for atypical winds. Through time it has hollowed out and is now home for many creatures.

Okehampton Station Re-Opened

We have a line opened full time for all from Exeter all the way through to Okehampton. It has a real station again, not a picture postcard but an active service line that takes people from the heart of Dartmoor and the beaches of North Cornwall back to the beating heart of civilisation via a train. It can take them home to jobs and all that entails in the South and South East of England. It’s doable now and the community must be glad.

SPRING AT WOOLHAMPTON

There is also an Old Man Willow here that is just beginning, as if he heard the notes of Spring and decided to put a push on but then hesitated and is now waiting for a better moment. So the leaves are very gently there, of the palest green. Underneath is the perfect bench for looking at the tiny fronds that are the beginning, just like us.

Snow

From up here we can see fields of white, black trees, hedges, fences, stark in the early morning. There is a tunnel of winter wonderland trees. All the trees are adorned in white as if by a paintbrush, the hedges outlined in white. It’s a joy to see such beauty and be awake so early. We stop at the crossroads at the height of the hills, Seaton is one way and Sidmouth another. The pub up here in this desolate spot is the Hare and Hounds, sitting square to the crossroads.

Snowdrops : Sign of Life

Snowdrops: Sign of Life: There are snowdrops at the foot of a hedge. They are like dots of light.
Later, another day in Somerset, there are snowdrops in an ancient apple orchard in Street. It is snowdrop season and Spring is on its way.

Christmas Tree Festival

Blog by Lynne Pearl DECEMBER’ 22 CHRISTMAS TREES It’s the close of the year and so we have Christmas tree festivals.  There used to be ones in every major church in times gone by, but this year there was one in Crediton where they do a splendid one.  They have a splendid church to have…

Autumn Sea Storms

Living by the sea autumn brings storms Autumn is about trees and leaves changing colour but also when you are really close to the sea there are other things that are happening too.  Autumn means storms and the sea changing.  It used to be that one would turn up with swimsuit and towel, ready to dive under the waves and swim as far as possible,

Mid Devon Show 2022

This is a sample post from Lynne Pearl’s blog on Tumblr Blog by Lynne Pearl, June 2022 After the Devon County Show there are the local shows, we have them all, North Devon, Tavistock, Honiton and those are just the ones I know. I like to go to the ones I can, it never fails….

Bus to Bude

We have to leave early, before nine o’ clock on a Saturday morning, passing first of all the St Thomas train station through the sleeping suburb, we take the Dunsford road out of town and rise up and away from the city below us. The backpackers get on our bus in twos along the way….