Autumn Cottage Diarist

More Tombs, Antiques - and a Skateboarding Dog!

 Salvage yard, Dunster
The third day of  five in Somerset, a day upon which I met The Truly Amazing Skateboarding Dog!    I kid you not, gentle readers - There I was, quietly wandering around a salvage yard, imagining what the dear old fireplaces must have looked like in their heydays, still installed in Edwardian houses, polished up with love and care, instead of here, gently rusting away until someone came to rescue them.
Heard a barking and a rushing, and feared the worst. A German Shepherd hurtling towards me - was I in a forbidden part of the yard? Did he think I was an intruder? Then I saw why he was approaching so fast...the blessed beast was skateboarding!!!
It was obviously his toy, and the fuss and noise were merely meant to tell me to get out of the way as he stepped on one corner, did an excellent three point turn, and sped off in another direction. The things you see in a salvage yard!!!

This was a day in the medieval market town of Dunster, and yes, you have guessed it, it was raining. The most moist day of all the week, and myself considerably under the weather, so not so many photos to choose from...but here are a few images of how I spent my time.

Back to the salvage yard. O Happy Day when I have the chance to wander around a place like this. I am sure there are good homes waiting for all these items, but it is such fun to just see them in their 'raw' state and hope that they are soon taken away, cleaned up and installed somewhere to enhance a house or garden. Old stone sinks, a wrought iron fire-basket, several eel-traps, a dove-cote, coal hods, an ancient washing machine -(the barrel shaped item) and a trio of windows that would grace any renovation once they had been cleaned up and painted. All the items somewhat overpriced, I thought...but if you are looking for just exactly one of those items, who is to say what the 'right' price really is, apart from what you are prepared to pay for it?

Took refuge in Dunster church during the worst of the downpours - where I discovered this very grand Luttrell tomb -look at trouble taken to show the detailing of the woman's petticoats... 

and a 'Memento Mori' triptych, bearing all the reminders of time and mortality - the sand-timers, the skull and crossed-bones, and the cherubic little ascending souls, carved somewhat naievely into the black slate slab.

 

Lunch in the cosy old kitchens of the 15th century Lutrell Arms, just visible on the right, behind the old Yarn Market here in the centre of Dunster,

and then back to Porlock, to visit the church of St Dubricius with its distinctive truncated tower. Inside, the early 15th Century tomb of Lord Harington - who fought with Henry the Fifth in France, and his Lady, her hair coiffured in an elegant embroidered head-dress, her head upon a pillow supported by two angels.

 

It was only a short walk back from the church to the apartment, passing another 15th century building, the Ship Inn, at the bottom of the notorious 1 in 4 Porlock Hill, before I was able to get warm and dry again.

I feel I have hurried you through this blog-post in rather the same way that I hurried through the day in Dunster...but once again, wasn't it worth braving the weather for all the interesting things I managed to see?

Avebury Interlude on an Autumn Afternoon

An old stone cottage on the edge of the village

Spent a delightful afternoon with a dear friend and five of her friends, thoughtful women all, celebrating her 'big 0' birthday with lunch and walk around the prehistoric stone circle of Avebury in Wiltshire. One of those unplanned days when everything turns out well - you meet people that make a real connection with you, the conversation is good, the weather was a benign gift, there was a bookshop selling esoteric books which cannot, of course, be resisted. And as always at Avebury, the atmosphere engendered by the landscape itself is so very, very special.
Take another walk with me, along the earthworks surrounding the stone circles. More about Avebury here....

Click on this extra large image to experience being right in amongst these magnificent beech tree roots

The track along the top of the earthworks surrounding the village and stone circles

Leaves falling just enough to start to see the underlying framework of branches..one of the benefits of autumn and winter

Autumn tree colour amongst the inner stone circle - the parish church in the background. Christianity once again following in the path of Pagan ancestors. 

Late afternoon and dusk ensues - a welcoming glow from some of the windows

The sun falls behind the old cottages and the church...time to wander home again.

A Dreary, Rainy, Windswept Day!

The West Lyn at Lynmouth

The second day of my visit to Somerset and the rain settled in with intention. But were we downhearted? NO! .....autumnal rain here in England is all part of the weather systems that give us our beautiful English gardens, so I try not to complain - though it has to be admitted that lots of things look better in the sun. But I know you don't mind - you all have your rain-hats and wellies on - so off we go! This time, our second outing -  to Lynmouth and Lynton on the North Devon coast.

Lynmouth, just over the county border in Devon, is sadly remembered here for the terrible flood which wrought havoc on the little coastal town on the night of 15th August 1952, when the innocent stream in the picture turned into a raging flood overnight, as rainwater collected from Exmoor and poured in a torrent down the ravine, carrying large boulders from the gorge, demolishing many of the buildings below in the main street and taking with it the lives of 34 people.

The disaster is now remembered in Lynmouth in the Flood Memorial Hall, with evocative photographs taken on the morning after, a list of those who lost their lives, and some touching artefacts collected from the devastated buildings. Around the corner from the Memorial Hall, a monument to an earlier period, in the Cliff Railway, completed in 1890, with two carriages operated by the simple and very green expedient of water power...reservoir tanks under each of the two carriages filling and emptying with water to produce a counterbalance system, differentially weighting each carrage, so that the weight of the one at the top causes it to descend, and at the same time, the weight of the descending carriage pulls the empty one below back up to the top via connecting cables. It's quite an experience to sit on the rising carriage and hear the cables rumbling away beneath you as you ascend what feels like a sheer cliff wall! On reaching the top, the drizzly rain below turned into heavy downpour rain up in the clouds...and in a situation like that, the next sign was a sight for sore eyes...a booksale running almost permanently in the Town Hall...can you guess where I spent the next half hour? Also there, a small display in the main entrance of the content of a Victorian trunk that had been discovered some time ago, filled with delicate needlework - click on the image to see it all in greater detail and of course, no visit complete for me without a look around the local church - this one St Mary's, Lynton - notice the very unusual beaten copper altar frontal and the surprising, life sized image of Mary The reredos paintings were also of very high quality... Back down on the cliff railway - you can see here just how vertiginous the view is from the top, and also the tiny carriage just arriving at the bottom station below. Can you see the beach through the mist?

Nothing brighter at the bottom - the beach still bleak and windswept - but, "making lemonade when handed lemons", I also saw an inviting beach full of rock pools and covered with shining pebbles and shells in so many gorgeous colours and shapes. I am a total five year old as soon as I arrive on this sort of beach and could poke around in the nooks and crannies for hours...not sure if the young gull being blown about felt quite the same way about the place, though - but what amazing camouflage. 

Leaving Lynmouth, past the 14th Century Rising Sun Hotel and back to the car, across  windswept Exmoor...
and back to Porlock...calling in at the church in the tiny village of Exford, up on the Moor, which is, nevertheless blessed with a spectacular rood screen of a kind typical of Somerset churches, with beautiful carved tracery arches supporting a four foot wide platform on the top - the site, in pre-Reformation times of the Holy Rood.

Finally back, cold and wet, to the apartment, for very, very welcome hot tomato soup - but also the memory of a happy and interesting excursion. I'll leave you with the jollity of a clay sculpture by J. Dean, on show in the old Methodist Hall, now turned into an Art Gallery. Who would not be cheered up by seeing this on a cold and dreary day?

More tomorrow!

Five Days in Somerset

Wall paintings in the church of Norton sub Hamdon

Back for three weeks now, and still I haven't told you about my short holiday in Somerset. Only five days, with a fairly miserable cold, and pouring rain for all but one day, but still I had a most interesting time. once again, I'll let the pictures tell the story...

As usual, I managed to find myself a church or two to visit en route...these wall paintings in the church of Norton-sub-Hamdon have only recently been uncovered, and in fact look as if they are still in the process of being restored...and below, it looks as if St. George is having a valiant attempt to vanquish yet one more dragon on the wall outside...

Here is a closer look at one of the 15th century wall paintings

Now let me show you around the Edwardian house where I stayed - in 'High Hangar' - the top apartment of Hartshanger House, overlooking Porlock Bay. This was the view as I arrived...

While walking along the path to approach the apartment, this beautiful array of Hydrangeas greeted me

 Look above, at the angle between the two roof eaves...this is the view from the little balcony situated there...down to the bay and wetlands

One end of the 'Willow pattern' sitting room and kitchenette - look out of the window to see what a spectacular view there was down to the wetlands...

The kitchen area...notice the Willow pattern stencil all around? very pretty 

Below, the charming little bedroom (and the bed in which I spent most evenings, snuffling away!)

And the wallpaper in the bathroom - quite the most unusual I have ever seen, and so appropriate for the setting of the house.
Come back tomorrow, to see some of the other places I visited.

As The Clocks Go Back...

The entrance to the road through the woods

...and we return to Greenwich Mean Time here in the UK, I invite you to take a few steps with me along the walk I took through the woods this afternoon. It's unseasonally warm here at the moment, though more seasonally wet. So in-between the showers, this was how I spent a very enjoyable couple of hours. (Correction - not strictly in-between the showers.,..but those that caught me out found me sheltering under the canopy of leaves that were still on the deciduous trees, and the thick cover of the conifers!)

Right - have you got some comfortable shoes on? Come on, then...follow me!

(click on any image to enlarge)

Still green, but the beech leaves are falling

Debris from conifer logging

Fungi, feather, leaf

Oakleaves in stages of decay

 

A stand of pines

Logged pines left to decay in planned management

Multicoloured beautiful beech tree

Returning to the earth - the circle of life

Cathedral of the trees

Sunlight after shower

On the way home - looking across the fields

A sumach glowing through the gate of a private garden

More glorious leaf colour

If I need to post a letter - hedgerow post box

The Great Oak

Home again!

Love That Will Not Let Me Go

Lilian Latham      7 Sept 1915 - 1 Oct 1998

She taught me how to love, from her boundless resource

I walk with her memory every day.