Sidmouth Folk Festival etc
Wednesday 8th August with Jayne, Mike and Suki
Photos
We arrived nice and early and easily got a parking space on the cricket field. First we took Suki for a walk on The Byes- which was a parkland walk along by the River Sid which Jayne knew about from early family holidays. We didn't have time to explore all of it and it would definitely be worth a return visit for a proper walk sometime - particularly over on the Salcombe side.
Typically the weather changed during the day -
Notwithstanding getting soaked sitting in the car park of The Anchor in the afternoon, we had a really good day out. We sat in the gardens and listened to the acts while we had a humus salad lunch from one of the stalls, and we watched lots of morris dancing, before heading off to The Anchor. We were struck by how much smaller the festival seemed than in previous years, and the pubs didn't seem to be heaving with people in quite the same way.
Suki got a bit fed up after The Anchor so I took her to the prom for a walk while Jayne and Mike watched the last of the morris dancing. The rain had sent all the stallholders running for cover so there was hardly anything left to see on the prom - which is just as well as Suki didn't want to walk anywhere so we just stood and watched the world go by (and listened to someone murdering folk songs in the open mic session at Duke's Inn). We discovered that the fish and chip shop allowed dogs to go in, so with the help of a bystander we got Mike up the three large steps and sat in the warm eating sausage and chips (Suki had her own portion which cheered her up a bit). I was quite glad that Mike and Jayne were ready to go home afterwards - all that sea air had made me quite tired.
Some days later I got a charming slide show from Google - spooky how they do that!
We went down to Devon the day after returning from Rovers - I didn't even bother unpacking the car except for the bike and the food. We had a great week - the weather was generally good and I had some lovely walks with Suki as usual. I made the most of the weather to get up on the moor when I could even though I didn't like driving Mike's car on the narrow roads. The ponies seemed to like the car though!
Before the practice at Bovey we rang a QP of PB Doubles for Chris to ring the tenor behind - his first QP. It was quite decent ringing and Chris did very well. Alison was a last-minute replacement for Bobby -who we discovered later had had a mild stroke.
Tim came round to try for the 41 surprise minor in hand again. The first attempt failed but we got a QP of the Carlisle 11 and Camb 12. We got the peal at the next attempt - and it seemed quite comfortable. We went for it again the next day this time called by Tim, but although it seemed even more secure it was not scored, falling apart in the Norwich extent of all things.
Mike came to Moretonhampstead handbells and we had a good evening - he rang Charlotte's bells next to Jimpy while Charlotte rang Ann's bells (she was away celebrating her 50th wedding anniversary).
The three of us went over to Little Torrington to have tea with Stephen and Emma, and to see all the improvements to North Hill Cottage. Then it was back and straight off to Inner Light for their monthly pop up restaurant night. It was an Indian meal - reasonably tasty and excellent value at £20 for four courses and coffee. We took our own bottles of Cobra.
On Saturday there was a bellringing festival at Buckfast Abbey. It was somewhat wet but it didn't seem to matter too much. Mike enjoyed himself networking with the local ringers while Jayne and I went round the stalls. We had excellent burgers from the barbecue stall, and spent a long time looking at the vast collection of handbells which Ian had brought along. We also spent some time looking round the Abbey and finished the day with a visit to the shop where we bought some taster bottles of their famous tonic (fortified wine).
Write-up Photos
There was no 8 am service at Chudleigh so we went to the 11 am eucharist at Lustleigh. Mike rang beforehand but I declined as they had enough. The service was quaint - the vicar was very good and gave an amusing sermon, which was interrupted at the end by a van driver coming in and asking him to move his car!
Photos
We arrived nice and early and easily got a parking space on the cricket field. First we took Suki for a walk on The Byes- which was a parkland walk along by the River Sid which Jayne knew about from early family holidays. We didn't have time to explore all of it and it would definitely be worth a return visit for a proper walk sometime - particularly over on the Salcombe side.
Typically the weather changed during the day -
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| to this! |
Suki got a bit fed up after The Anchor so I took her to the prom for a walk while Jayne and Mike watched the last of the morris dancing. The rain had sent all the stallholders running for cover so there was hardly anything left to see on the prom - which is just as well as Suki didn't want to walk anywhere so we just stood and watched the world go by (and listened to someone murdering folk songs in the open mic session at Duke's Inn). We discovered that the fish and chip shop allowed dogs to go in, so with the help of a bystander we got Mike up the three large steps and sat in the warm eating sausage and chips (Suki had her own portion which cheered her up a bit). I was quite glad that Mike and Jayne were ready to go home afterwards - all that sea air had made me quite tired.
Some days later I got a charming slide show from Google - spooky how they do that!
We went down to Devon the day after returning from Rovers - I didn't even bother unpacking the car except for the bike and the food. We had a great week - the weather was generally good and I had some lovely walks with Suki as usual. I made the most of the weather to get up on the moor when I could even though I didn't like driving Mike's car on the narrow roads. The ponies seemed to like the car though!
Before the practice at Bovey we rang a QP of PB Doubles for Chris to ring the tenor behind - his first QP. It was quite decent ringing and Chris did very well. Alison was a last-minute replacement for Bobby -who we discovered later had had a mild stroke.
Tim came round to try for the 41 surprise minor in hand again. The first attempt failed but we got a QP of the Carlisle 11 and Camb 12. We got the peal at the next attempt - and it seemed quite comfortable. We went for it again the next day this time called by Tim, but although it seemed even more secure it was not scored, falling apart in the Norwich extent of all things.
Mike came to Moretonhampstead handbells and we had a good evening - he rang Charlotte's bells next to Jimpy while Charlotte rang Ann's bells (she was away celebrating her 50th wedding anniversary).
The three of us went over to Little Torrington to have tea with Stephen and Emma, and to see all the improvements to North Hill Cottage. Then it was back and straight off to Inner Light for their monthly pop up restaurant night. It was an Indian meal - reasonably tasty and excellent value at £20 for four courses and coffee. We took our own bottles of Cobra.
On Saturday there was a bellringing festival at Buckfast Abbey. It was somewhat wet but it didn't seem to matter too much. Mike enjoyed himself networking with the local ringers while Jayne and I went round the stalls. We had excellent burgers from the barbecue stall, and spent a long time looking at the vast collection of handbells which Ian had brought along. We also spent some time looking round the Abbey and finished the day with a visit to the shop where we bought some taster bottles of their famous tonic (fortified wine).
Write-up Photos
There was no 8 am service at Chudleigh so we went to the 11 am eucharist at Lustleigh. Mike rang beforehand but I declined as they had enough. The service was quaint - the vicar was very good and gave an amusing sermon, which was interrupted at the end by a van driver coming in and asking him to move his car!
