Camelford

After thanking Helen and Paul for their hospitality and paying our farewells to them, an hour and a half in the car took us to Camelford, where we weren't allowed into our rented cottage at Juliots Well until 5pm.

So we had coffee at the Four Seasons café then went to seek out Andrew at his 'Friday to Friday' cottage. "Hello Andrew and Lucy" (the dog).

Camelford isn't a 'picture postcard' place, but the path by the River Camel is pleasantly scenic, even in the light drizzle that had descended on us as we travelled west.

We enjoyed a 6 km circuit around Camelford before returning to Andrew's cottage and Betty's excellent lemon drizzle cake, before sorting ourselves out at Bramble Cottage.

Then, a visit to 'Peckish' for fish and chips and a reunion with old friends from the Coast Path days.

Totnes, Coleton Fishacre, and the SWCP

On this lovely sunny day, Helen and Paul joined us on a stroll around Totnes.

Then we visited the Coleton Fishacre National Trust property. Interesting house; superb garden

After lunch on a lawn, we strolled around the South West Coast Path nearly all the way to Dartmouth. Undulating but interesting, with a plethora of wild flowers. 

Room with a View

There's a castle, Dartmouth, and Hay Tor in these views from tonight's bedroom window.

Thanks go to Helen and (lost musketeer) Paul for having us to stay in their house in Totnes. 

On the Run

(not)parkruns continue on a daily basis. Here are a few images taken on these run/jog/walks during the last few sunny days. 

Spring is turning to summer. It doesn't seem like only ten days since we were battling a sleet storm in the Lake District, needing all the clothing we could find, just to stay warm.

Anyway, residents of Timperley should be able to work out where the various pictures were taken. And it's good to see that the mowing and trimming of overgrowth has been selective, resulting in a nice blend of close cropped grass and wildlife meadows.

Going on Holiday!

Here's a memory from 15 July 2006, looking towards the Sella Group from above Passo Gardena.

This year's holidays are more mundane, but at least, for the moment, they are happening.

In fact we will be having lunch with Julia, pictured above, on Thursday, and we will be staying near Andrew, in the background above, and others soon after that.

Meanwhile, there's a bit of traveling and visiting to be done, and mobile postings will now take over, starting on Friday. I hope!

Before I go - I've just noticed that this is blog posting number 4000. Cause for some celebration later. I wonder how many words that is since October 2007? And there's lots more on topwalks.com (currently needing serious attention) from about 2000.

Memories

Just a quick posting tonight as blogging is low priority on a fine summer's day such as this one. I struck at random in my picture files and this one came up. It shows Sue and Andrew on Jenkin Crag in the rain, on 3 July 2004.

You can see my Shogun bike, and the orange bike next to Andrew's is Sue's mountain bike that hasn't been used for years. But she had it serviced last week, so it's ready to roll! Meanwhile, Andrew has recently had a hip replacement, which he's using as an excuse to hanker after an electric bike.

I wonder whether the three of us will do this route again. I described our 'biathlon trip' here. I've just enjoyed reading that again.

Isabella's first visit to Timperley

Before Covid took over our lives, Sarah and Mike were frequent visitors for Sunday dinner. It's well over a year since they were last in our house, and the seed that caused Sarah to mysteriously decline wine on her last visit has now morphed into eight month old Isabella. She was very well behaved, despite an inability to control her bowels or differentiate between a spoon and her fingers.

We really do hope that the current 'getting back to normal' continues, and we look forward to Isabella's next visit.