Design

    Heavy rain again this morning. In the afternoon I drove Peter into town as he had selflessly volunteered to work behind the bar at the Beer Festival. Hard work but someone has to do it and the free beer might have been an incentive.                             I did some shopping before returning home for more time on the jigsaw and a little gardening. Soon it was time to go back to collect Peter and say hello to people I knew (a lot of the gig club were there in their red fleeces and jackets.) On my home in the afternoon I saw 2 deer in the field, they ran off as soon as they saw me and jumped over the hedge.

It is 1 in the morning, the world is still intact and I've just returned home from walking 11 miles along the Tarka Trail with this happy bunch, and many more women, in aid of our local hospice and the Macmillan cancer charity. It took us 4 hours including a 20 mins stop at Fremmington Quay for hot soup (& toilets) so that wasn't too bad. I have to say the pace was faster than I am used too and I now know that my walking boots are too snug a fit to wear thick socks but it was still a fun experience. Despite the rain which started lashing down for the last half mile and the fact that I broke a tooth on a piece of chocolate! It was a ladies only walk and most people were festooned with plenty of glow sticks and flashing lights or even in fancy dress. Janet, who works with me in my class had thought to decorate herself with some battery powered fairy lights and once it had gone dark she rather resembled a Christmas tree. One of the marshalls did take a photo with me in it...

That's what Peter said as we drove along the country lanes on our way out for a walk at Mortehoe . I thought he might be pulling my leg but sure enough on the return journey I slowed down in a gateway and there outside some farm buildings was what looked like a large bright green brontosaurus . Our guess is that it is a carnival float. Carnivals are very traditional in the South-West and it is often local hauliers who donate the use of their flat bed lorries to charities or local clubs who are entering a carnival. A very similar looking American carnival dinosaur. It has been another sunny day though there was a lot of high wispy cloud so it was great to get out for a walk. We went a little further today, starting off by going through the village and then down to the cliffs by Rockham Bay before swinging back towards our usual route. This involved one set of 'never ending stairs' which was a good test for Peter's ankles and my knee. I need to do some training and wa...

The weather has been lovely again today, I know because I kept walking across a sunny playground on my frequent trips between my classroom (a hut) and the staffroom ( another hut). By the time I get home our valley is in shadow so I'm not tempted to do any work in the garden but get stuck into my school work straight away. We had a staff meeting this evening to share ideas for our next topic - India. I've been doing some mad late night shopping on eBay and may well turn up at school in a shalwar kamiz . That'll be a laugh. Barnstaple has hardly any people from other cultures living here so it will all be new to the children. I think the highest minority ethnic group in this area is probably the Lithuanians and Poles (recent temporary economic migrants) and there are no more than a handful of non-white children in any of the schools. A little different to the boys' school when we lived in London where the balance was the other way. So at least they weren't brough...

We had a really good time down in town yesterday. We didn't go to watch the carnival as it is more for kids and really not Peter's thing but there were unreal sights around as we walked from the car (we parked in Pilton because Peter was worried about parking spaces) to the other side of town. First there was a beautifully restored US army jeep complete with large flag parked on one side of the road while a boy in military uniform sat on the pavement (very unusual for Barnstaple ) eating fish & chips. Later we passed an adult Bo Peep resplendent in pink, tennis players swinging rackets and a man with a green face. Crossing the library car park was a witch carrying a large drum. I love these evenings when the whole town is out walking about. Some were returning home after the carnival but most were heading towards the bridge and fun fair beyond. We both saw various people we knew and exchanged a few words but one of my class who I said hello to at the fair looked totally ...

It's Fair time again, a tradition that goes back many hundreds of years. Originally the fair was a 'hiring' fair and a livestock show spread over 4 days. Nowadays we have a carnival, fun fair and fireworks. The appearance of a white kid glove on a pole emerging from a window of the guild hall signifies that the Fair is officially open. We still have a lot of pomp and circumstance with the presence of the Mayor and other dignitaries having their chance to parade around in their chains of office. The doorway below the glove is decorated with fresh flowers for the occasion. The fun fair opens in the week and all my children will visit the fair at least once. Today, being Saturday, there is a large carnival which is happening as I type. I have been part of the carnival several times when my boys were part of the sea cadets who always enter the carnival with a tableau on the back of an extremely large lorry. I used to be one of the volunteers who walked along collecting money...

..........while I, after a refreshing cuppa, set off to walk along the west coast and look ( unsuccessfully ) for puffins. The 400ft cliffs are home to many sea birds but despite frequent scanning with my binoculars, the nearest I got to a puffin was a piece of rubbish in the sea that could have been a puffin floating on its back ? (not very likely) and groups of guillemots which are black and white like puffins but without the distinctive orange beak. They are both members of the auk family and a similar- ish shape. Last year's bird survey for the island only recorded 93 birds so they are few and far between. Lundy means puffin island in old Norse and there used to be thousands of puffins on the island. At every turn there was something interesting to see. It was so tempting to explore every little cove but some of them will have to wait until next time. At Jenny's Cove there are some 100ft high rock formations known as The Cheeses. The crystalline structure of granite c...

Today I'm posting more images of Lynton and the festival. We made the right choice to go yesterday as it started to rain this afternoon and looks set to stay that way. I thought this vintage mobile cinema was rather interesting. Apparently the government built a fleet of them in the 1960's to promote modern British production techniques . This is the only surviving one and took 2 years to restore after being found in a field minus most of its working parts. One of the stalls had a great selection of kites and you could even buy the telescopic poles to keep them flying on their own. If I had children and money was no object I would have spent £35 on this wonderful dragon kite. I took this picture earlier in the day when there weren't so many people about. The sound stage etc is by the tall coloured flags. The tents in the foreground were for massage, counselling and children's art sessions. High up on the cliff can be seen some houses/hotels in Lynmouth's sister t...

Today we've been to Lynmouth for the annual free music festival. We usually go on the Sunday but the forecast is not so good for tomorrow so we opted for today. The festival is held in a spectacular setting at the mouth of the gorge where the River Lyn enters the sea. (Took so many photos I'll show Lynmouth itself tomorrow.) Being a free festival everyone goes, locals with their dogs, resident hippies & free spirits and many young people who come and camp for the weekend. I enjoy checking out the stalls, this year I restricted myself to a couple of cheap shell pendants for me and Peter and a bag of tiny coloured bells to use in my jewellery making. As I walked about I suddenly realised that my camera, for which I have an extra long strap so it hangs behind me, had a wire holder with a big bunch of pendents attached to it. They must have got caught up as I browsed the stalls. At least I was able to return them. During the first band's set we had an impromptu fire j...