A holiday week in Devon
When I arrived Jayne had a wonderful surprise for me - she gave me a beautiful writing desk which she had bought second hand and refurbished for me. I was overwhelmed as I had wanted one for ages.
We talked all afternoon - then went for a walk in Stover and carried on talking!!
We had a great week together. I had to look at an awful lot of curtains - but still managed to fit some cross stitch and handbells in! We had lots of nice walks together - including a lovely walk through Furzeleigh Wood and Shaptor Woods where the bluebells were amazing.
We went to Glastonbury for the day - where Jayne had a meeting at her house with the farmers and builders and I took Suki on a walk I had sorted out which started by Pear Tree Farm just up the road from her house.
The start looked very uninviting, but Jayne had warned me about this so I forged a way through and then had to duck under wire. It was a nice circular walk across fields, but felt rather unfriendly in places and some of the paths were very overgrown.
However other bits were well kept with recently restored gates and stiles. I had a nice view of the Tor at times.
The whole walk took about 1hr 45 mins and just as I got back to the car and prepared to settle down with my book Jayne appeared ready to leave which was excellent timing. We went to Sweet Tea Rooms near Wedmore for lunch and I had a really nice lasagne followed by cherry pie and ice cream (and everyone else in the cafe then decided to have cherry pie!!). There were two awful children there who were running their poor grandmother ragged.
We went to Exeter for the lunch and a mooch on the Saturday. I decided it would be a good opportunity to locate the Matford Park and Ride which was apparently 17 mins away. Sadly I had a moment's indecision at the exit slip road and carried on to the next exit off the A38 which took me on to the A30. I then compounded the problem by turning left in an attempt to work my way back. Eventually we resorted to the satnav on my phone and found ourselves going along some extremely narrow roads with huge amounts of grass up the middle. Jayne and I were laughing so much at one point I couldn't see to drive for the tears rolling down my face. We finally got to the P&R some 45 minutes after starting off! I was able to use my Freedom Pass on the bus so it didn't cost me anything which was a bonus. We had a nice mooch (and looked at a lot of curtains!!) and had a lovely lunch in Cafe Rouge - courtesy of Clubcard Boost. I had the chicken for a change - very tasty but rather rich. We had an uneventful journey back!
I spent the day with Lee and Emma on the Friday. We did the coastal path walk
and then Lee dropped me and Emma off at the castle for a cup of tea and then we walked down to the town and had amazing fish and chips at The Floating Bridge pub.
Then Lee picked us up and we went back to their flat for another cup of tea. It was a lovely sunny day, although there was a strong blustery wind for the first part of the walk. I got back to Bovey about 5.30 and Suki was completely whacked and slept solidly for the rest of the evening.
and indeed was still seeming quite sleepy the following evening
She also used her bed in the sitting room for the first time since the reorganisation - which was encouraging.
On Sunday I went to 8 am at PPT as it was the first Sunday and then hung around for the ringing - but there was only Roy, Chris and me so we didn't ring and I sat and waited for Bob in the Churchyard in the nice sunshine. Bob gave Chris and me a lift to Lustleigh - where I made them up to 6 so I had to ring all the time. I was ok on the 2 but when I took the treble to lead down I felt dizzy with the length of rope and we had to reorganise the band. I then walked back to Bovey - meeting Jayne and Suki on the road (they had walked out from the house to meet me).
It was a lovely morning and I did about 4 miles - so Jayne and Suki must have done about 5. We spent some time discovering the way in to Parke via the footpath at the side of the Fire Station.
All too soon the week was over and it was time to go back to London and get ready for Intrepid. Luckily Jayne did not have to go in to work on the Monday, so in the morning we both went for a walk in Yarner Wood with Suki and then dropped in for coffee with Mary at Tracey House. It was a beautiful warm sunny day and it was very hard to leave - but I managed to get off at 11.30 am and had a good journey back, arriving home around 3 pm.
