Summer Sun in Parkham

We only had a weekend at home after our trip to Northumberland before we were again loading the car to head off for Parkham.  Our journey down was a little slow as we had to drop off an item at Fieldings Auctioneers in Stourbridge where our friend, Will Farmer from the Antiques Roadshow, is based. He had been in Knutsford for an event where he helped us to raise £4,000 for charity. We also took the opportunity to visit our old neighbours and enjoyed a coffee in the garden with them. We then hit worse traffic than expected as we drove through Somerset and arrived at Parkham exhausted after five or six hours in the car.   We were travelling on a Monday, a day we normally try to avoid and this journey confirmed why! 

Although we arrived to rain we had good weather for the whole visit with the exception of the Saturday when Putford FC held its Family Fun Day on the football pitch. Hopefully the event was still successful and I understand the children all had a great time, despite the rain.  

 The fine weather for our visit gave us the opportunity to do what we enjoy most in North Devon-go for a good walk incorporating some part of the coast path or along a beach. The trip to Sandymouth is always worth the journey, as long as you have checked the tides before leaving home. We arrived fairly early to guarantee a parking spot and were able to take a long walk across the whole span of the beach. 

The deserted beach at Sandymouth

Another favourite walk, which we hadn't done for a while, was from the National Trust car park at East Titchberry along the coast path to Hartland Point and then we returned along the lanes. On this occasion the small cafe at Hartland Point was open, but only just. The person running it arrived at the same time as we did, having been held up on the lanes in Hartland. There was a delay of a few minutes while we waited for the large coffee machine to warm up, but it was definitely worth it. 

The footpath towards Hartland Point

I took the opportunity of the good weather to do a few jobs in The Granary including painting a wall where the paint had bubbled badly, this time with some breathable paint which hopefully will solve the problem. The weather also allowed us to have several walks in the village lanes which were looking beautiful in the sunshine with lots of greenery because of the generally wet weather in early summer. 

As well as getting out and about we also managed to see many of local friends for a coffee and there were of course several trips to The Bell. We have friends joining us at The Granary on our next couple of visits so may have less time to catch up with friends as our visitors will want to see as much of the local area as possible. 

We travelled back home on a Tuesday and had a much better journey with no major hold-ups on the M5 or M6 and look forward to being down again towards the end of August.