A Devon Holiday

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Ace Reclaim bench

On this pleasant but blustery day , I spent a while reading on the Ace Reclaim bench. My current novel is ‘The Death of the Heart’ by Elizabeth Bowen. Naturally, my eyes wavered to take in the views offered from this vantage point.

View from Ace Reclaim bench

Straight ahead is the Palm Bed and beyond;

Fiveways

to my left the path continues past the Fiveways chimney pot;

House from Ace Reclaim bench

and back to the house to my right.

Later, I scanned some colour negatives of a holiday Jessica, Sam, Louisa, and I took in Devon with a neighbouring family in September 1983. We are no longer in touch with these friends, so I do not have their permission to post photographs of them and their children. However, I am able to publish

Dart Valley Railway 9.83 1

the Dart Valley Railway train and platform,

Steam Dome

including the steam dome from the historic engine.

I don’t remember exactly where we stayed, but our entrance into the guest house was never to be forgotten. We arrived when all the other residents were eating. As we trooped through the dining room, Sam announced to the assembled company, ‘I’ve got nits’. We then quickened our paces somewhat.

Perhaps it was on Dartmoor that we came across

Granite boulders

heaps of granite boulders,

Rocky stream

sometimes with streams running down them.

Jessica, Louisa, Sam and Maggie Bussell

There was plenty of rocky terrain, as Jessica, Sam, and Louisa discovered.

Jessica and Louisa 9.83

Louisa needed her Mum to give her a lift occasionally.

Sam on bridge 9.83

Ever adventurous, Sam strode over an ancient stone bridge.

I was even photographing

Red admirals on daisies

Red Admirals

Bee

and bees in those days;

Leaf backlit diseased 9.83

even a diseased leaf caught my attention.

Louisa 9.83 1

Finally there was a portrait of Louisa in her customary finger and thumb sucking tired pose.

This evening I dined on Jackie’s perfect pork risotto.