Phew...what a scorcher!

The excellent weather has continued into July and we were surprised to find that the young plants we had planted in containers on our last visit had survived without water.  We had mixed water retaining granules into the compost which must have helped however, we later learned that a very kind neighbour had taken pity on the dried up plants and given everything a good watering in our absence. The weather was clearly suiting the lavender border which we planted four years ago from cuttings and is now a great attraction for the bees.

Inside the cottage we were delighted to see that the local painter and decorator had been to redecorate the kitchen-diner, stairs and hallway and also that a new washbasin had been installed in  the bathroom.  The previous wash-basin having more to do with style than substance with a very limited capacity and awkwardly placed tap.  The next challenge will be getting an invoice out of the decorator, it was several months last time he did some work for us.

The very hot weather meant that walks with the dog were restricted to first thing in the morning or late evening although when there was  cloud cover we managed some day-time walks.

We visited Hele Bay near Ilfracombe and decided to walk into the town over Hilsborough  which is a nature reserve.  The weather turned out to be sunnier and the path much steeper and longer than we had expected so that we arrived  in Ilfracombe keen to find some shade where we could recover.  We took the shorter route back following the road which was much easier!

The view of Hele Bay from Hilsborough

The view of Ilfracombe harbour from Hilsborough

We lunched with friends at the Glorious Oyster, a beach shack cafe with beach garden located on the edge of the sand dunes at Instow https://www.thegloriousoyster.co.uk/ .  Excellent food in a lovely situation.  Luckily the school holidays had not begun as we understand that there can be very long queues of holidaymakers aware of the cafe's reputation as one of three finalists in the BBC Radio 4 Food Programmes Food and Farming Awards for street food/take away in 2016.

We also visited  some of our usual haunts including the Skern where the seaweed was an amazing bright green in the sunshine. The sea holly in the sand dune area was also  in flower so we trod very carefully as we walked across.

Looking across to Appledore from Skern

Sea Holly

We completed a few other jobs around The Granary and also had a new gas boiler installed courtesy of the Torridge District Council energy saving scheme.  The boiler will have a thermostat which we can control on a phone app so that we should not have to arrive to a bitterly cold Granary on our visits during the winter months.

Once again we caught up with our friends some of whom had been on their own travels and we visited the temporary bar in the village hall.  Work on the pub is moving at a pace with the lime rendering completed to the exterior and the decorators very busy inside.  We should be much closer to completion of the work when we visit next month although there is clearly much to be done - including fitting out the bar and the kitchens.