Paignton Dressed For Christmas

 Cottage dressed for Christmas  

 Beau with his thimbles

 Looking across to Brixham

 Surfers in the rough sea

 Foam off the sea

 Brixham harbour

 Another view of harbour

Floating decorations in the harbour

Back home after another visit to Paignton this was our second visit this year last time it was for two weeks in October. Left Great Torrington on a freezing foggy morning the whole garden was white like a winter wonderland. Driving was difficult but thankfully as we got to Hatherleigh the sun was out & they had no frost or fog & it stayed that way all the way down. We like to go via Okehampton then over Dartmoor via Bovey Tracey & Newton Abbott.

We had never seen National Trust Greenway or Coleton Fishacre dressed for Christmas and we were not disappointed both houses are lovely so are the grounds. 

The booking for the cottage is normally Friday to Friday but the owner was having a new boiler fitted on the Friday so we brought it forward for her, so did Thursday to Thursday the joys of early retirement!

Saturday & Sunday was a cold weekend but very embracing and not experienced that type of walk along the sea front for a long time. The sea was rough yet there were still young guys & girls surfing. It was nice getting back to the cottage which was nice & toasty warm. The whole week was dry & the visit to Totnes was a very sunny day.

At Brixham we saw these three older ladies in swimming costumes only swimming in the cold sea! took the photo of them running to the cafe, was told they are quite famous & well known for the cold water swimming in fact they do it all year round!

More Swimming Pond Ideas

Davids home-made filter

Early stages of mine

Air stone circulating the water

Another angle

I am an avid watcher of David Pagan Butlers YouTube videos I only wish I found him before starting our swimming pond. As mentioned before we saw on gardeners world a swimming pool being converted to a natural pool with a inside wall being built for the reed bed. My design is the same. Sadly so very wrong! this is the correct way Natural Pond the Correct Way At the time of building I never gave the water circulation any thought at all, David kindly told me about his air pump system which is kinder to wildlife. We now have a family of newts in the swimming pond & the odd frog swimming around. But I have a problem with sediment. I am experimenting with an in pool filter which is basically a dustbin with a tee piece & short pipe 18 inches deep & air stone inside, this is sucking up the water & hopefully sediment.  I also have another air stone circulating the water. Power consumption from air pump 45 watts as apposed to the 1100 watt submersible pump which kills any wildlife when sucked into the blades and expensive to run! I am still struggling with the filter  hoping David is going to come to my rescue. I have purchased PDF  for a 3 filter system but realised they use a pond pump and air pump for the media but it is well above the water line so a air lift system will not work. I know I am getting there but need a little help to show me the correct way. What I would like to do is have 3 outlets of bubbles along the side of the pond circulating the water, my thoughts are a length of 3/4 waste pipe with tee pieces in the length, blank off the ends with a air stone inside the pipe I am hoping this will work. Have got to say congratulations to David Butler on his clear water in the pond he has designed Environmental Agency

River Walk at Umberleigh

 Love Devon signposts

 Nearly at the top of the hill, what a view!

 Wild salmon river

 River bridge

Peacok on the run

Monday 16th May decided on a different walk for Beau always wanted to try the river walk at Umberleigh. We were able to park at the antique centre then head along the river path towards Chittlehampton (we love the names of the villages in Devon) Ros spotted the kingfisher then in front of us was a peacock in the wild! must have escaped from a stately home. When we got to the top of the hill from the river it looked like the black clouds were rolling in so we did about turn. On way back we sat on the river bank where Ros saw the kingfisher, what we did not realise was the kingfisher had a nest underneath us! & whilst sat there one flew out of the nest across the river so Ros had two sightings in one day! We had also arranged a visit to Higher Hacknell Farm they have been an organic farm since 1984 the meat is wonderful. Whilst there we were also shown the veg garden & orchard. It was a nice end to a great day.

Bonfire

A couple of years ago a giant beech tree came down at the back of the meadow & smashed our fence down as well. Cost us a fortune to get it cut up but sadly was not cut up well. The logs left for us were far to big to manage when lifting also far to big to cut with a electric chain saw. The beech was rock hard new axe just bounced off the wood. Was told by tree guys to leave it for a couple of seasons to allow it to wash through! big mistake the beech just got harder! Did some inquires to have to wood cut up into smaller pieces & move closer to the house again this was going to cost another small fortune! so decided it would be cheaper to have a hardwood delivery all correctly chopped direct to the wood store,we also pick up loads of drift wood off the shore. So what to do with all the wood at the bottom of the meadow? decision made BURN IT. First I made a wildlife/insect wall with some of the wood I could move then what was left had a big fire. Wow the heat was intense I even signe my hair and eyebrows. The fire burnt for four days. We are so pleased to have our meadow back it has been a worry with what we were going to do to solve the problem.

Royal Signals Museum

 Nice welcome

 First form of signalling

 Early telephones

Austin 7 

 How the men would have been dressed

  Horse carrying vertical antenna and radios

 Spy sets used by SOE

 Spy radio in suitcase

D-Day Special Communication units 

On this desk I have worked with most of these tools with BT especially on the bottom left which is for joining fibre optic & to the right multiple copper cables, these are used by linesmen in the signals

On the way to Shaftesbury we passed Blandford Forum home of the Royal Signals always wanted to visit the place so decided on way back to cottage would stop off for a visit. Security was very tight with it being a working base, Licences shown more photos taken of face ID had to be worn at all times & also one in the car. Once inside the place was huge so many wonderful displays from radios to vehicles. It showcases the early work of the Royal Signals through to the modern age, I took loads of photos. Sadly it was a short visit so a good excuse to go again.

Gold Hill Shaftesbury

 Gold Hill Looking down

 Gold Hill looking up

 Gold Hill different angle

 How it used to look

 Always wanted one of these Bakelite TV

Got a few of these.

One place planed for a visit was Gold Hill Shaftesbury was an hour and 15 minutes drive from the cottage. We were not disappointed the town is lovely & Gold Hill is where the Hovis advert was filmed many years ago a lot of people thought it was in Yorkshire. After a short walk down and back up afterwards visited the local museum which was excellent with so many interesting displays. Also had a walk around the town. It really is a lovely place to visit.     

West Bay Dorset

 Early morning doggie walk looking back to white cottage

 From the other direction 

 Stream running under cottage!

 West bay Jurassic coast

 Spooky could not believe this was in West Bay

 Tool Van

Bridport Vintage Fair in the antique quarter

Had a lovely week in Dorset we had all the weather from lots of sunshine to snow! rain and early morning white frosts! Cottage was lovely and warm also had a real open fire. On the Sunday we drove into West Bay first it was a beach walk for Beau loads of fossil hunters around with it being on the Jurassic coast. As I was driving in noticed a car boot was on can never resist a mooch around. I also noticed the old railway station sadly the track like a lot of stations have disappeared but what surprised me was seeing a tool van from Shrub Hill station being born & bred in Worcester and catching the train many times from Shrub Hill station it was strange to see it in West Bay. After the car boot and a walk around the antique area of West Bay we had a short drive into Bridport where there was a vintage fair on in the antique quarter such an interesting place we loved the day and it was so warm. Before heading back to the cottage we did a food shop in our favourite organic supermarket Waitrose plus if you spend over £10 you get a free newspaper so picked up the Sunday Telegraph always lots to read with the supplements.