We have a long list of “English” things that we want to do while we are here. Pretty close to the top of the list, is lunch at an English country pub. Then we heard about a pub that was only open at lunch time and only accessible if you walked there. How could we resist? And that is how our very English day out started.
The pub is called The Turf Hotel. It is on the banks of the river Exe with views across the estuary to Topsham. About a mile or so down river is Powderham Church. We parked in the lane near the church and started walking along the river bank. It is a well maintained foot/cycle path. It is also “Suzannah friendly” because it is flat!
With an old English church at the start, boats on the river, a castle on the hill, blue sky and a pub at the end, we were ticking off so many things from our “English list.” Inside, they had a whole range of local beers on tap and even homemade pork pies. So I was happy.
For Suzannah, it was the first of October. This is the date that marks the beginning of her “Birthday Festival”. So it was Prosecco and a rather gourmet toasted sandwich for her.
A little eccentricity.
Of course, it would not be an English day out, if it did not include a touch of eccentricity. On the other bank of the river, we found an 18th century, 16 sided house built by two ladies. It fitted the bill perfectly.
The house is called A La Ronde. It is one of the smallest properties owned by The National Trust and it is a delight. The original owners tried to ensure that it was only inherited by unmarried women. Although, years later, a man did own it for a while, it is definately a woman’s house. The amazingly shaped rooms are decorated with shells and feathers and there are little surprises around every corner (and with 16 sides there are a lot of corners!).
At the end of our very English day out, we returned home happy that we had started our English list and Suzannah’s Birthday Festival rather well.
Highlights from the Norwegian High Seas!
Here we are on our way back down the Norwegian coastline. And sitting in our cabin nursing a Hurtigruten cold, I thought I would amuse you with some of our Norwegian cruising highlights. What have we loved? Well, we both adore Norway, and the Norwegian people are a friendly welcoming bunch. Whilst I have relished
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Sailing north from Bergen to see the Northern Lights.
Booking an 11 day cruise up the Norwegian coast in January seemed like a great adventure. But to be honest, neither of us were quite sure how it was going to work out. We just couldn’t imagine what our first cruise together was going to be like. We have spent the last 6 days going
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Three and a bit months of housesitting in the UK
As we come to the end of our three and a bit months housesitting in the UK, we thought it would be fun to just have a look back at some of the great things that we have done. We had 7 housesits. We looked after 17 sheep, 15 cows, 12 dogs, 10 chooks, 3
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Wiltshire and its Neolithic landscape
The locals will tell you that Wiltshire is one of those places in the UK that you drive through on the way to somewhere else. But if you do that, you will miss something rather special. We have been lucky enough to arrange a housesit in the little village of Compton Bassett. It is proving
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O to be in England again! The Turf menu looked fantastic! I have been to Devon 4 times – Frithelstock, near Torrington in the north
Continue to have fun. Bev