Our first outing was to RHS Rosemoor to take advantage of the special opportunity to take dogs at 4.00pm one afternoon. Whilst we can understand why they do not want dogs generally in the gardens, the chance to visit without shutting the dog away for several hours was not to be missed. We were able to have a very relaxed saunter around the grounds along with many other dog owners. It was all extremely civilised and hopefully the success of the session will encourage them to offer more in the future. We visited the RHS shop and bought an Eryngium (Sea Holly) plant for our Cheshire garden having failed to grow one from seed when the seedlings dried out whilst we were in Parkham in July.
We were soon back into our routine of regular walks around the village and surrounding lanes. The honeysuckle, which was coming into flower on our last visit, was covered in berries. Our walks now took much longer than usual as we could not resist stopping to pick the delicious blackberries (it is an advantage of dog-walking that we alway have a clean poo bag handy!). On one village walk I managed to see the ‘village peacock’ for the first time in several years.
After 4 days we were joined by our daughter and young family (not yet of school age) this meant that we had to vacate The Granary as there was not room for us all. Luckily we have friends at Horns Cross with a barn annexe in the garden which they kindly let us use. This had several advantages, in particular we had undisturbed nights and avoided the very early morning starts. We also awoke to a wonderful view of the coast at Peppercombe.
 |
Looking over Peppercombe |
 |
An atmospheric view of the path to Peppercombe |
Walking along the lane from the barn each morning we could see right across the fields to Parkham but The Granary was just out of view.
Spending time with young children meant that there were several visits to the beach as well as a visit to the gnomes, now residing at the Merry Harriers. The upside of this visit was an excellent late breakfast for the whole family. We also had several trips to the village playground which got a thumbs up from our grandson and family - much better than their local playgrounds! The grandchildren were also taken to The Big Sheep but we managed to avoid this pleasure.
Our family and their other friends who were staying locally enjoyed an excellent takeaway meal from The Bell and we also were able to visit the pub and catch up with many friends on 2 occasions. Our visitors were also very impressed with the food at the Farmers Arms in Woolsery which we have not yet tried.
There was little time for work on The Granary although I did manage to wash down the decking which was getting very slippy with algae. After 3 years we are really appreciating the benefits from replacing the wooden planks with composite material which needs hardly any maintenance.
We celebrated our granddaughter’s first birthday, which was also the anniversary of our move to Cheshire, with a barbecue in the garden and once again enjoyed sausages and steak from Honey’s. On our daughter’s birthday we headed off for a beach walk at Northam but were thwarted by rain. However we made a first visit to the excellent new cafe at the Visitor Centre where they were happy to accommodate 6 adults, 2 children and 4 dogs!
We returned to Cheshire on Monday at the end of the month and once again were held up, this time by a closure of the M6 which meant an hour long diversion around the lanes of Staffordshire. We now look forward to our next visit in October.
