We are constantly blown away by the time warp we seem to live in but the Devon weather literally blew us off our feet. Only ten days since leaving Brighton on the Sussex coast, we arrived on the Devon one.

In that ten days we managed to fit in a visit to Sam and Tabitha, our son and daughter-in-law in Bromley, a day JWalking down memory lane in my hometown of Bexleyheath, lunch with great friends from our college days, Keith and Nicola, in Sidcup, coffee/lunch/patisserie tuition/film/Thai dinner with my friend Wendy in Maidstone, doctor/dentist/hospital/vaccination appointments, lunch with our son Ryan in Redhill, evening drinks with friends, Paul and Rosemary, that we met via our son Shaun’s football club, more evening drinks this time with my brother and sister-in-law, Leigh and Mandy, and a three day cottage stay with the summer glamping girlies, Becca, Deb and Lydia in Preston near Canterbury.

Amazing what a bit of forward planning can achieve but not bad going is it? We loved every minute of it, apart perhaps from the vaccinations when it felt like a 4lb weight had been attached to my arm for 2 days.

Devon Bound

After more planning ahead, it was time to catch a series of trains to Devon to have a stay/house-sit at my brother and sister-in-law, Jon and Julie’s, cottage in Georgeham, North Devon. One delay due to a derailed train did not mess up our arrival in time in Barnstaple where we were met by their friends Andy and Claire who kindly gave us a very welcome lift. We enjoy all the differing stays that we have around the country but this one we were particularly pleased to arrive at for a couple of reasons. The cottage is super comfy and having the use of “Foxy” the little VW Fox has made all the beautiful coastal areas accessible for some great walks. As much as we get attached to the four legged friends we look after, it is also a treat for us to not have to either take pets with us or keep an eye on the time to get back for them.

Storm Erik

Our arrival in Georgeham coincided with Storm Erik and we both spent a few unsettled nights listening to the wind whistling around the house whilst wondering if the garden chairs and bins were taking off. Luckily the house and garden, to use my brothers words, are windproof. The crazy gusts of wind were often accompanied by pelting rain or maybe that is what they now call squally. Very dramatic and wild.

Where’s Pedro?

Pedro is the tame pheasant that Jon and Julie have been hand feeding peanuts to on more or less a daily basis for the last 2 years. He has even been known to walk in the patio door to seek out said peanuts but since they went away there had only been one brief sighting of him. Despite my best impression of Julie calling, “Pedro“, nothing!  Not even his young side-kick Pierre turned up.

Whether he is a Six Nations Rugby fan or whether he could smell the chilli con carne cooking, a little beak suddenly appeared at the patio window. Having done a quick photo and got ID confirmation via his slightly deformed foot, I ventured out to get him some peanuts. He was a bit freaked out and darted around the garden a bit before summoning up the courage to eat a few peanuts from the ground. Pedro is back!

Beaches, Bays and Pasties

We haven’t managed a cream tea, maybe that is more a summer visit thing, but we did manage a pastie. These Chunk of Devon pasties looked particularly good after a beach walk that nearly been blew us straight past the cafe. What swung it was the sign saying “Made by the Hunks at Chunks!”

But it wasn’t all about being blown across one beach, we were blown across several bays and beaches and loved every minute of it. Bracing stuff with the occasional glimpse of sunshine. Weirdly, I rather like the coast in these conditions it feels wild and rugged. Here is just a flavour of some of our favourites.

No “F” in Clue Quiz Team

How could we resist the invitation to join the family and friends quiz team No “F” in Clue. It is a notoriously hard quiz but with a team comprising of Andy, Claire, Brenda, Dave, Heather and us two. With a pint of best brew and half a Guinness to keep my strength up against the challenge ahead, we quickly had our answer sheets headed up and joker decided. It was to be the music round.  We managed a healthy 18 answers out of 20 on the marathon which anagrams and cryptic clues about sports then it was onto the 6 rounds. After lots of debate, head scratching and “don’t know’s” we submitted our answers. Blown away again by the announcement that we were in a tie for second place and had scored the maximum of 20 on our joker round. Jonno was quickly volunteered for the tie-break and the tension was mounting. On true form, Jonno was straight in with the answer and we had done it. Second out of nine teams, all I can say is no “f” in clue how we did that!

All too quickly our time in Georgeham has come to an end. Massive thanks to Jon and Julie for making our stay comfortable and easy, also to Andy and Claire for the super efficient taxi service but no thanks to Erik the Storm for the noisy nights. Its back on the road (or train tracks to be accurate) to our next coastal location!

04/02 – 13/02/2019