10 years of owning The Granary

As we drove down to Parkham in March we were hoping for better weather after consecutive trips when the weather has been pretty damp.  In fact we did get a couple of good days and were able to take a long walk along the beach and enjoy coffee at the  Pebbleridge Kitchen on both.  However, generally the weather was dull and rainy and we noticed that many of our friends in the village have also found the weather depressing over recent months, with only a handful of sunny days so far this year.

Views from Northam Burrows  18/03/24

Despite the lack of sunshine it was a delight to see large patches of primroses flowering in the village hedgerows and this alone made the visit worthwhile!  Back here in Cheshire I am developing my own primrose patch from a few plants originally bought from a wildflower supplier and then transported from our garden in the West Midlands nearly 4 years ago.  I don't think they are as happy here as they would be in Devon and indeed I have not seen any growing wild in the Cheshire lanes.  There are now about fifteen plants, not yet all in flower.  Hopefully I can split the larger ones later in the spring when flowering is over.

Mentioning spring, I have been getting confused over when spring really starts.  There are two different definitions of the seasons, one Meteorological and one Astronomical.  

The meteorological definition of the seasons is based on the annual temperature cycle and measures of the meteorological state, the definition also coincides with the months of the calendar.  The calendar months of March, April and May are thus defined as Spring.  

The astronomical definition of the seasons refers to the Earth's orbit of the sun.  These seasons vary in length and can fall on different days each year.  In 2024, astronomical spring began on the 20th March and ends on the 20th of June.   

For my purposes the meteorological definition makes more sense and coinciding with calendar months makes it  much easier to know what season we are in (even if the weather does not always seem to know!).

We had planned to do a few jobs around The Granary on our trip but only managed to get some of the garden weeding done.  We did however manage to visit many of our friends for coffee and also enjoyed meeting friends in The Bell.  I also visited the Bideford Rotary club who now often meet at The Thatch in Abbotsham and it was good to catch up with friends there who I have got to know over the past 10 years or so.

In fact as I write this we are celebrating 10 years of owning the cottage. We actually collected the keys from the agents on 11th April 2014.  It has certainly been one of our better decisions and we look forward to many more visits to Parkham in the years to come