Mixed weather and a sad goodbye.

Our May/June trip to Parkham was at times sunny, warm, cold, dry, showery, and cloudy but, overall we only managed to get drenched on one occasion whilst walking Pebbles and were able to enjoy the scenery on walks including over favourite beach (Skern near Appledore) and a lovely coast and woodland walk from Brownsham to Mouth Mill.

We were pleased to see work on The Bell progressing with large skips of debris being removed on a regular basis and also to enjoy the facilities at the Inn Over the Road on several evenings.  It will be good to see re-constuction of The Bell commencing in the near future and even better when the pub re-opens.

We have placed a number of planters on the wall separating us from the pub 'car park' and filled them with some climbing plants and lavendars.  All the planters are attached to the trellis as Parkham can be a windy place and in the past we have returned to find planters blown off the wall onto the ground.  The valerian which self-seeds throughout the wall is very attractive to the humming bird hawk moth which I just about managed to capture on my phone camera although you need to see it in real life hovering by a flower to appreciate where the name comes from.

The front of the cottage has no garden so we purchased a large tub in the Midlands which fits nicely on the corner of the gravelled area.  Copious amounts of compost were required to fill it -  currently I have planted a large French Lavender and will see how this lasts over the summer. With plenty of water-retaining granules the compost is staying moist and it should survive periods without watering. (Sorry no photo!)

We managed another trip to Rosemoor where foxgloves were in flower, we were just a little bit early for the roses but hopefully will catch those next month.

Hil was preaching on three consecutive sundays at different churches in local villages.  I took this photo at one of them, Clovelly, it is a lovely plaque above the entrance to the graveyard and probably missed by many visitors.

Whilst in Parkham we celebrated my birthday with a meal with friends at The Granary and caught up with other friends for a drink and a chat.  We also attended the packed funeral of a local farmer/publican who was a real character, great company and had made us very welcome in the village. We both had a good chat with him last time we were in Parkham as he awaited surgery but sadly he died a few weeks ago  - we shall miss you George!