Devon - Aug bank holiday week 2



Mike went off to ring a peal on the morning of Bank Holiday Monday - but didn't get it.  We went for another walk in Stover in the afternoon.
Suki hitches a ride!
In the evening we went to The Bell for a pint and a pasty with the ringers - Lisa's new boyfriend, Adrian, was there.  I got a phone call from Lorraine to say Rita next door had died - the police were there and wanted her date of birth and thought I might know it.  I didn't!

Jayne and I had a lovely day mooching around Totnes on the Tuesday.  We did lots of window shopping, indulged in a little retail therapy and had an extremely nice lunch in a cafe at the top of the town.  Then we popped in to Dartington on the way back and indulged ourselves a little more.  I bought two huge wine glasses which I had always wanted.  I shall probably not dare to use them now! I also purchased a nice crochet book with several things I thought I might crochet - and made a start on a filigree blanket with the purple variegated thread later in the evening.

I brought Mary back to the house for a coffee on Wednesday morning - and she and Mike did a lot of complaining about the state of the garden.  I was a bit miffed after all the money I had spent on it.  Trouble was the gardeners hadn't been for a month because of the bad weather so there were lots of weeds and brambles. We had a lovely chocolate cake that we had bought in Totnes from the Mother's Union stall at the church.  In the afternoon Mike went off to ring a peal again at Ideford - and this time they scored it. As he said - he rang a very quick peal and Michael Mears rang a very slow peal!

On Thursday Jayne and I took Mary for a hospital appointment in Newton Abbott and then took her over to see June in Stoke Gabriel.  The satnav took me down lots of small roads, many of them rather hairy, but the passengers were very upbeat about it!  We finally found the house - which has an amazing view over the River Dart but is on the edge of the cliff and thus has lots of steps and a terraced garden.  After a cup of coffee we all went down to the harbour for lunch at the cafe there - and while June rushed off to the cafe closely followed by Jayne in attendance, I found myself struggling to get Mary out of the back of the car where she had become stuck in the footwell with her legs sticking out.  The car park man came over to help but to no avail and it was only when Jayne was able to come back, having got June safely sat down at a table, that we were finally able to prise Mary out!  Jayne and I had a sausage and a bacon bap respectively, while the two ladies had soup.  Then we drove back to the house and went in for more chatting before finally leaving at about 3.30.  I rushed Mary back and then took Suki out for a walk before dashing off to handbells at Moretonhampstead.  There is a new lady who has started ringing - she rang Fiona's bells and I had to give her a lot of help but she seemed to be picking it up and obviously enjoyed it.

On Friday morning rang a nice handbell QP of 6xspliced with Tim.  In the evening Lisa and Bob came round for handbells - Rowena took Suki out for an hour and then came and sat in with us.  Far too much red wine was drunk, as usual, and we had an excellent evening.  About 10 pm Ro went out and got kebabs for the three of them while Mike and I had left over chinese out of the freezer.  

We had a full and well organised day on the Saturday.  It was the Nourish Festival in Bovey - with street food, stalls and live music (jazz unfortunately!).  Firstly the three of us took Suki for a walk in Stover, then I picked up Mary and brought her back for a coffee.  I dropped her back around 12 and took the car back, and then we three walked into town, starting at the bottom of the high street and working our way to the top.  We bought some nice cheeses and some biscuits, and I had a delicious hog roast bap for lunch while Jayne and Mike went for the Caribbean food.  We shared a pint of beer on the way back and then Jayne and Mike stopped to listen to the band for a while.  I couldn't stand it so I went in to Manns and bought some scones, cream and jam for a cream tea later, and then went in to the jewellers to see if I could get my necklace repaired.  He was not prepared to mend the one link as they were all worn paper thin - but he kept it and said he would give me a quote for a complete refurb (which later turned out to be £488!!).  We had a mug of tea at the Flying Pig and then walked home via the Tesco passage.  After taking Suki for a short walk we settled down for a nice night in and had cheese, biscuits, olives etc for supper followed by cream tea!

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