2014? Bring it on!

The mouth of the River Dart, Devon.

Happy New Year all! I hope that your Christmas/New year was everything you hoped, and that you're looking into the New Year with enthusiasm!

We're not great fans of New Year's resolutions in this house - so many of them centre on giving things up, and that always feels a bit negative, somehow. Making grand statements about "Resolutions" also feels a bit like setting yourself up to fail - how many people start the month of January talking about them, and by February you've not heard another word about it? Instead, we've come up with a list of plans, goals, targets, challenges even, that we quite fancy tackling in the course of the next year...

- We plan to shop one week in every month without using supermarkets at all. Yes, I know others have gone for a whole year shunning them, but where we live that's not quite so simple, but starting with that week per month will let us investigate more where our local independent shops are, which farmers markets are worth visiting, and above all where we can buy Mr EH 4 pint containers of milk - he refuses on principle to buy milk in litres.

- Places to visit - including some places ticked off our "List of places to visit" - Orkney again, Farne Islands again (I plan to take my exciting new lens to see the Puffins!), Watford Metropolitan Line station - before they close it. York - perhaps for a weekend.

- Home: we will take advantage of the current absence of a four-legged furry lodger to re-do the gloss paint on the inside windowsills. We also want to re-paint our bedroom.

- Resume keeping one night a week "TV Free" - I think Mr EH will find this more of a challenge than I will!

- Cook a new recipe once a month - we got several fab new recipe books for Christmas including Rick Stein's "India" book which we're rather excited about. This should act as a great jumping off point for this one!

- We're planning an extra trip to the Hebrides for New Year next year - this will be the first time we've visited in the middle of winter, and we'll be working to make it as "money neutral" as we can - money for the fares is already saved, the next target will be to sort out accommodation I think.

Above all, we want to make 2014 our "Year of walking" - we have several different walks on our list of things we want to do, and the one that's made it to this year's aims is to walk the London section of the Thames Path. I've walked bits of this many times but never done the whole length of it - this year we aim to set that right. Walking in stages, covering as far as we feel comfortable with each time, it'll be interesting to see how long the 40 mile route takes us. We're planning on starting at Hampton Court out in the west, and you can be assured that the walks will be featuring in this blog, so watch this space!  We also decided to end 2013 as we intended to continue 2014 - so while we were down in Devon we walked the relatively short (3.75 mile) Diamond Jubilee Way - short it may be but it makes up for that with almost the entire route being up or down steep hills! Of course I took lots of photos so I'll be blogging that one in the next week or so. In the meantime the pic at the top of this post gives you some idea of the views we enjoyed!

What are you planning for the New year then? Are you resolutions people, or not?

Robyn

More Adventuring...

So, a couple of weeks ago I jumped on a train and headed South West - for a weekend in Dartmouth visiting family and the annual Food festival in the town. As usual I used the "cheap route" out of Waterloo - cheap it might be but it's also scenic, going through some beautiful little country stations on its 4 hour path through the English countryside. Finally you arrive at Exeter St Davids which is in itself a lovely station...

...then it's the train on to Paignton for me - 2 options to choose from, the speedy Torbay Express or the slow train stopping everywhere. On this route though it must be the slow option - just the names sing to you - StarCross, Dawlish, Dawlish Warren...this is the line that hugs the South Devon coast, in the summer packed with happy holidaymakers, buckets and spades, and ice-cream kiosks, but once September is past it's all birds, muffled up walkers and crashing waves.A truly magical journey and I never get tired of it!

Final stop Paignton - to most people this is "just another seaside town" although it does appear to be getting a bit of a facelift right now. The refurbished bus station adds a bit of colour...

..and also provides the stepping-off point for the next bit of my journey, onwards to Kingswear. Nearly there now, just the ferry to go. A bit of a special mode of transport itself this one - essentially a flat-top barge hauled across by a tug. No posh passenger accommodation here - you stand in the rain in the open!

Finally I step off the ferry - Dartmouth, MrEH's hometown, sitting alongside the River Dart in South Devon, and in fact more easily approached by water than by road, the nearest you can get by motorway is Exeter - an hour away by road. Now like so many towns of its type it's lost a lot of it's "useful" shops, to be replaced by trendy eateries and galleries - it's been said before that it's easier to buy a piece of art there than a pair of knickers! that notwithstanding, there is a busy market on a friday, and the butcher, fishmonger and farm shop all do brisk trade. This is possibly why for the last few years the town's annual Food Festival has thrived, and grown.
This year's festival was good once again, although we felt that the decision to cut the demo theatres from 2 to 1 was a mistake - in past years we've punctuated our days wandering around with demos, and have seen some excellent people from the Padstow Seafood School, to Jane Baxter of Riverford, and last year the hilarious Hardip Singh Kohli. This year we were able to get into the one remaining tent to see just one - the highly entertaining Tanner brothers.

We'd like to have seen more, but sadly a lot of the seats available were "hogged" all day by the same people, who seemed content to spend their day simply sitting in one place watching whatever was put in front of them (A bit like TV, only outdoors, presumably!) and so unless you were in the right position to grab one of the few seats to be vacated at the close of one show, and await the next, there was little chance to do so. Regardless of this though we had fun, and bought all manner of edible goodies. The weather was mostly kind to us, and we were able to find shelter (mostly in the beer tent!) when the rain did fall!
Robyn

Meanwhile, up on the hillside...

Yes, once again I staggered up the bloody great hill overlooking Dartmouth to take in some of the air displays. It was warm enough to make walking up a hot, red-faced, sticky business, but knowing it as I do I figured it would be less warm by the time I reached the top, so I took layers! (I also took a fruit bun and a pot of pineapple chunks, and very nice they were too!) Reached the top in gorgeous sunshine, so settled down to wait while aimlessly taking photos of surrounding countryside...

...and others looking down into the town...

I watched the Red Arrows "Red 10" fly in and land at the Britannia Royal Naval College in his little Squirrel helicopter, and I also watched their band marching up and down playing (could just about hear them too!) - don't think that was anything to do with Mr 10's arrival though - think they were just practising! And eventually, after a short while of pleasant sun-basking, I watched The Blades who were the first airborne event of the day! As ever they were excellent - it was the first time I'd seen them down in Dartmouth and on reflection I think their display lends itself slightly more to being seen from the ground than from up a bloody great hill. Being that high up did mean I got some shots like this one though...

...If you look carefully you can even see the people standing down there looking up! I do love the different perspective you get on an event from a completely different angle - some bits were more impressive than the usual - they do a move where they basically spiral in the air, essentially around one wingtip - very clever and I always find myself wondering how on EARTH you make a plane do that! No pictures of that, but quite a lot of other bits of the display...

After them came the Typhoon - a proper "boys showing off" display this - lots of noise and the glow from the jets looking all the more impressive from the level I was at.

It was at about this stage that I started to notice that the sun had gone in, and in fact, horror of horrors, there were CLOUDS appearing. Not the pretty white fluffy ones that had been around previously, but the sort of heavy grey ones that meant that the Typhoon got to finish his display with the rather natty trick of just heading up into the sky and disappearing....quite odd, that! Also quite alarming given that the Red Arrows were due to be displaying in just 30 minutes! We waited, much nervous conversation broke out on the hillside about the weather and what it might mean, and it was looking certain that we weren't going to get a "full" display, but instead it was likely to be the same "Rolling" show we'd seen at Dunsfold the week before until suddenly - at 6.25pm, the cloud lifted slightly, and some chinks of sunlight appeared....we held our breath, and then, there they were!

We found out afterwards that until literally seconds before they arrived with us, it was going to be the rolling display, Red 10 had actually introduced them with his usual "Ladies and Gentlemen please welcome the Royal Air Force Aerobatic team for 2013 - The Red Arrows!" and then added that he had JUST had confirmed that they would be doing the full show! Sadly though that brief chink was as good as it got, and by two-thirds of the way through visibility had again fallen dramatically. To set the scene for the photographically minded - at one point I checked my settings and realised that in spite of using ISO800, F4, I was getting speeds of just 1/200th/sec - rather slow, to say the least, for photographing fast jets!  Quite how they completed the display we haven't a clue - it must have been right on the boundaries of the conditions they can fly in I should imagine. The show was as good as ever though - faultless throughout and great fun to watch, even is photographing it was a bit challenging! In the end I opted to concentrate on trying to get some "different" shots including the local countryside, rather than close-ups and high speed action that I'd usually focus on from that vantage point.

Within a few minutes of the end of the display the rain had started falling - a sign of just how close we'd come to the show being aborted, and I only hope they got an idea of quite how delighted everyone was that they had managed to give us such a great 21 minutes of action!

My final sight of The Reds for this year will be from my usual "field with a view" near Duxford on Sunday afternoon - so please send all sunshine in that direction, if you would!

Robyn

Another high-speed weekend!

Thursday night saw us jumping in the car and whizzing off to Devon - to Mr EH's hometown of Dartmouth, for the final few days of the town's annual Royal Regatta. we fairly did whizz down there too - under 5 hours actual driving time and that included the time it took to get down round the M25! Lovely to have such a speedy journey when you're looking forward to seeing people! traffic behaved itself well - with the exception of a load of hay-bales which had fallen off the back of a lorry (no, not like that, ACTUALLY fallen off!) and landed on the A303 even that though did almost nothing to slow us down and on we sped, arriving in Dartmouth at 11pm just in time for a cuppa and a natter before bed.

Saturday started out grey and drizzly - with a fine mist-like rain falling on us as we assembled for the fun events which start the day - the "Waiters and waitresses" races were up first - great fun for all involved and an amount of local pride at stake too as all the local restaurants and hostelries compete to take the prize. MrEH and I usually help out at these events, as well as me taking some photos for them as well, so we were kept busy running up and down, and shaking cans of lager or cola ready for the competitors to enjoy the challenge of pouring...

Then comes the Barrel Rolling event - two teams of 3/4 people per heat roll the barrel from one end of the course and back again, the barrels having previously been half-filled with water which makes them wonderfully unpredictable and tending to scoot off in odd directions if rolled with too much force...

My favourite event this one - I love the expressions of determination on the racers faces!

Finally the "fun events" are wrapped up with the "International Trolley Grand Prix" an event where teams of 2 have to keep their "fuel tank" in the trolley (buckets with strategically drilled holes) filled with water in order that the trolley may be pushed around the course. Our job at the end was to stop those whose fuel tanks were empty when they reached us - they have to wait for their "mechanic" to return with a "fuel can" full of water to top up the tank, and off they go again. This would be as easy as it sounds if the fuel cans didn't also have liberally drilled holes. *grin* Those who've done it before know that the trick is to slap your hand over the top of the container once you've filled it, and invert the whole thing onto that hand to run up the course with it. Getting wet is an essential part of the fun, and for any of the adults who aren't quite as wet as MrEH things they ought to be by the last lap, he has a bucket ready to help things along. oddly enough, his bucket doesn't have the holes drilled....!

Also going on over on the river while all this mayhem breaks out on land is the local rowing finals - and two of my Brothers-In-law were kept busy all day with those, including rowing in dinner jackets, as you do....

...they were rewarded by being placed in several of the events, and also by being given an award for being the most dedicated rowers of the Regatta, something which is voted for by those who know their subject supremely well, which meant a lot to them.

Regatta is fantastic fun and such a family event for us too - always great to catch up with everyone and spend time playing with the niece and nephews, and chatting with Sister-in-Law Terri too. Friday afternoon saw a host of flying displays taking place - those will get a separate post all of their own as I'm not walking all the way up the hill to NOT get my moneys-worth out of the shots! Saturday is a lovely laid-back day, much wandering about, watching things randomly, and sitting in the sunshine before heading to the Royal Avenue gardens in the evening for a big group picnic with family and friends and then - the last real event of the Regatta - the fireworks display, set to music and always impressive! The town seems very quiet once Regatta is over - by the time most folk venture down the following morning the fair has packed up and left, traffic flow around the town is back to normal, and the bunting is taken down and stowed away for another year. Someone arriving by midday on the Sunday would barely know anything had happened. All this can happen thanks to a band of dedicated volunteers, aided and abetted by those who diligently drop their contributions into the collecting tin each year. Fantastic, isn't it!

Robyn

The Reds & the River...

The end of August sees the annual Port Of Dartmouth Royal Regatta, in Dartmouth, Devon.  MrEH hails from those parts, and as we have family down there we usually find ourself there for "Regatta weekend" and all the fun and games it entails. This year was no exception, with lots going on - everything from the "Sea Fury" plane of the Royal Navy Historic Flight, to the newly introduced "Bungee Rowing" event (yes, it is exactly what it sounds like!). To many though, young and old, the excitement peaks on the friday afternoon at 6pm when the Red Arrows fly in.  The Reds have been heard to say that Dartmouth is one of their favourite places to display, and indeed invariably we get a super display, including one year when one of the planes suffered a mechanical failure on the fly-in from Exeter them taking the unprecedented step to delay the start of the display while the spare Hawk was collected!  The display takes place in the river-valley, which forms a natural amphitheatre and makes the whole thing feel so much more immediate. It also has the advantage that, by climbing up the hill above the town, you can get a near-unique view looking down on the planes. You will of course have guessed by now that this is precisely what I did!

45 minutes before display time I started up, stopping a few times after the steepest bits - we're talking some of the steepest roads you can imagine here - 33% gradients - fancy driving your car up there? No, me neither, but people do! Eventually I reached the end of the lane onto the middle of the hill itself, and just needed to choose my spot. This year I elected to climb almost to the top, most folk who've walked up stay roughly around where the path comes out, while those who have driven and parked their cars in the car park on the far side usually sit on the top.  I chose a spot with some nice dry-looking grass and nobody else around (to complain when I wanted to stand up through the display, not because I was being antisocial!) and settled to wait.

The views are phenomenal - you can see right down on the town, across to Kingswear at the other side of the river, out to Start Bay and the sea, and across to the Britannia Royal Naval College - although only the bits of that which they are happy for you to see, naturally! I'd have been quite happy for a good while sitting just looking at the views to be honest, but before too long the Battle Of Britain Memorial Flight appeared - a Spitfire, a Hurricane, and a Lancaster bomber. I have a bit of "history" with the BBMF - rarely managing to see all three planes together, so I was most relieved to see that this time, at least, all were present and correct! The Lancaster pilot seemed to think it was quite entertaining to do low passes over the hill we were sat on, too - believe me, they are pretty noisy at point-blank range!

Then it was on to the main event - and we all waited with baited breath to see the "Reds" appear. It was easy to spot those who are "regulars" up the hill for this display as we were the ones watching out to the right - their usual pattern is to appear over the brow of the hill on that side as they can "creep up" on the town itself that way. Not this time though - instead they appeared from the top of the hill behind us, making us all jump! The display itself was phenomenal as ever - from my vantage point the close-passes from the synchro-pair look even closer and we can really appreciate the precision of the whole thing. Ironically after the difficulties of getting the timing right for the synchro-pass shots the week before at Clacton, this time almost all of them came off perfectly!

Robyn

(This post was written way back in early September, but posting was delayed due to the failure of the old PC.....and then I forgot about it - sorry!)

A little trip South...

A few weeks back I made use once again of one of those super-cheap train tickets to travel to Devon for the Dartmouth Food festival.  As you might remember we have family down there, and I went down at Mum-in-Law's urging last year for the festival and thoroughy enjoyed myself, so when she asked if I fancied going again this year I had no hesitation in saying yes!

Amazing tiled signs at Exeter St Davids Station.

Firstly a cheery train journey - they were giving away rather delicious yogurts at Waterloo Station when I got there so I grabbed one of those - there's no such thing as a free lunch, but it seems as though a free breakfast is perfectly doable! Then the train through lovely countryside - alongside the Thames for a bit, Wiltshire, a lovely view of Bath, then down through Dorset and finally into Devon. A change of trains at Exeter St David's - one of the most beautiful stations in the country - before heading onwards to Paington along THE most beautiful section of railway line in the country. I blogged about this trip last year and no matter how often I do it it never gets old! A brief stop in the pub in Paignton before going to get the bus, and finally the ferry across the river Dart from Kingswear - a journey best done on the open "float" of the "Lower" ferry (So named because it's lower down the river that the "Higher" ferry) so you can truly appreciate the scenery. Mum & Dad-in-Law meanwhile were on their way back to Devon from a holiday, so in fact I arrived at the house before they did - no matter though, simply meant I could settle myself in with a cuppa and a good book and ensure the kettle was hot for their arrival!

The Lower Ferry with Dartmouth in the background

The following morning dawned grey and drizzly - not ideal for a day when we planned to spend a fair amount of time outside wandering around! We headed down to town regardless though, there was a demonstration we wanted to see in any case, with James Tanner, and as by the time that was finished it was pouring down with rain, we moved to a slightly warmer area of the marquee and stayed for the next one, too! Some fabulous food being cooked - which we got to sample as well - and some really interesting and informative stuff being talked about. At the opposite end of the scale later in the day was the fantastic Hardeep Singh-Kohli who was truly hilarious and had us rolling about, but sadly all his food was chilli-heavy and neither MiL or I can tolerate much chilli. we'll forgive him though as his jokes were great!

Hardeep Singh Kohli

Saturday was much brighter day, but BITTERLY cold with it - scarves were the order of the day and I was wishing I'd taken a hat! The cold wind off the river made its presence felt all day although it was chased away rather at lunchtime by the wonderful street food on offer - Tartiflette for me and Butternut Squash soup fort MiL, both the perfect warming, seasonal antidote to the chilliness about. We were spoilt for choice on options for eating there and then - the range of fabulous and inventive street food out there now is just amazing - Bennetts by the Waterfront (the fish & chip shop which championed the mackerel bap for Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall's "Fish Fight") were there serving sustainably fished cod in ciabatta, fried whitebait, and of course those Mackerel delicacies, someone else was doing filled pancakes, and another stall offered freshly baked wood-oven pizzas. To wash it down there was a tent with a cocktail bar and also a bar from one of the local breweries, although I have to admit that due to the temperature when a drink was called for we were tending towards the cafe in the market square and a cup of tea instead!

This amazing display of infused oils was stunning in the sunshine!

The festival itself was excellent once again - although it does feel a little like some larger marquees are called for - particularly the one behind the market feels crowded and cramped and at times being able to move around it was practically impossible. The range and choice of different types of foodstuffs was superb - and limiting the numbers of each type of stand (Bakery, meat etc) means you don't end up with six places selling bread to make a sandwich but only one option for cheese to go with it! My "Product of the festival" vote can be evenly split between "Wonky Kitchen" fudge, and Sharpham Estate cheese - both utterly delicious and very reasonably priced for the quality of the product. Best demo was Mark Puckey from Padstow Seafood School (Yep, Rick Stein's gaff) and the Seafood restaurant, who with his apprentice Charlotte cooked up an absolute feast of shellfish of varying types - meaning I got to try razor-clams for the first time - and managed to admirably combine the actual cooking with what was effectively a teaching session too. MiL made her living cooking for cafes, pubs and hotels for all her working life and even she came out saying she'd learnt masses from him.

Gorgeous Olives!

Great few days, great to catch up with some of the family too, and a nice relaxing journey back on boat and train (the ferry up the river from Dartmouth to Totnes is a fantastic trip not to be missed - I jumped at the chance of taking that route!) and some tasty bread, cheese and cake to nibble on while I travelled!

Robyn.

Another day, another beach!

At Blackpool Sands today, just along Start Bay from Slapton where we were yesterday, to meet Ben's Brother Ed, Sis-in-Law Emma and baby Sam for a walk - not forgetting Wurzel & Rusty the dogs - who were indeed the excuse for the walk in the first place! They were also the excuse for a lot of ball throwing - which all parties enjoyed! The weather was much as yesterday - grey, misty, and with a fine rain falling, but it was pleasant enough walking regardless.

We arrived a little ahead of Ed & Emma so had a wander along the beach ourselves first - the rocks at the end proved to be fascinatingly covered in barnacles, mussels etc as the picture above shows. Also rocks shaped like birds - can you spot it?! Spotting things in rocks is a little like finding stuff in clouds I think...if you can relax your mind to the possibilities then there's no end of things there to be seen...you just have to look!

Robyn




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A grey day...

But nice for a potter about on a beach, nonetheless.



We went out to Slapton Sands, a fairly regular spot for us to head to when in Devon, and had a bit of a wander about. The picture above probably doesn't really do justice to just HOW damp and murky it was! Slapton has lots of flat stones ideal for skimming, so while Ben was amusing himself doing that (with a commentary along the lines of "that one did SIX - did you see it?") I decided that what the beach really needed was a mini Calanais Standing Stones so I set to work.



There is something about constructions on beaches - when I was small my Uncle Bob and I (with the aid of Auntie D) used to dig "boats" on beaches, large enough for two to sit in, with benches and everything. More recently Ben and I undertook the construction of a quite sizeable (well, by beach standards!) dam at Tolsta in Lewis. Building things on beaches is fun!

What's even more fun though is that having had a good old wander, skim & build on a windy, rainy beach, we're now back at the house, warm, dry and about to drink tea!

Robyn

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