No Snow in Parkham

Whilst the Midlands suffered heavy snow we were in Parkham where, other than some very cold, windy days and occasional hailstorms, the weather was fine for most of our stay.
It was good to see real progress being made on The Bell with the rebuilding of the cob walls started.  I had not appreciated that this could now be done with cob blocks rather than the traditional way,  the picture below (courtesy Mike Sanders) shows piles of blocks ready for use.

Things are now looking positive for a summer re-opening but there is still a long way to go.

We enjoyed our first Christmas event, a concert at St Mary's Church in Bideford organised by the Rotary Club.  Luckily Unfortunately we will not be in Devon and unable to participate in the Club's Boxing Day event.

A highlight of this stay in Parkham was a visit to the RHS Rosemoor Glow garden illuminations.  This gave us  completely new perspective on the gardens which we know so well.  Carefully positioned lighting illuminated the shape of some trees, the bark of others and some beautiful statuary.  Whilst the gardens were much busier than on our usual visits it was good to see so many families enjoying their beauty.

We also participated in Parkham's own Advent illuminations, 24 homes in the village agreed to light up their windows on each day of December, our window was lit up on the evening of the 8th and hopefully this will continue into the New Year (as long as the batteries last).

The day before we left was bright and sunny and we enjoyed a lovely beach walk.  We could just see a covering of snow on the peaks of Exmoor in the distance and wondered what kind of a journey we would have back to Stourbridge.

We need not have worried as the journey was very good and we saw very little snow until we got quite close to home.  It was something of a surprise to see out garden as a Winter Wonderland after our time in Devon.