At The Oaks

The weather in March continued cold and damp and so when Tim, Isla and family came to visit us we took the opportunity to have a tram ride into Nottingham with the aim of visiting the ‘Contemporary’. The exhibition was entitled ‘The Grand Tour Season Two’ and was by Simon Starling. I particularly enjoyed photographing the reflections in the silver shapes. There was also climbing up scaffolding to view different size black, glass balls of various sizes which made a picture. The self-playing grand piano was fun.

The following day Isla and Izzie left us as they had to go to a funeral in Scotland. Although it was damp Tim and Iona went with us on a walk along the Nottingham canal. It is always an interesting walk. At the end of the walk there was great excitement as we spotted a heron carrying what seemed to be a fairly large creature with legs.

Arriving back home was blessed with a ten minute downpour. It is always amazing that this seems to be the way the weather works.

We moved into April with still poor weather, but Irene and I decided to brave a walk along the River Erewash and back along the canal. I was particularly keen to take some photographs where the camera was set up very deliberately. This was mainly to demonstrate the effect of aperture on depth of field, but I was also able to take a photograph showing the depth of field is short when the subject is close.

Earlier in the day I had taken photographs of a fast moving fan in order to demonstrate the effect of shutter speed.

Then we came to the big adventure. On Tuesday we made a 220 mile journey down to Teignmouth. This was to be our first visit to Joe and Julia in their new home. It was an easy journey down. The sun was shining and at our last motorway stop it was warm enough to eat outside.

Arriving as early as we did there was still plenty of time to go down to the seafront. For some reason the seafront parking is free. There is a pier and we were able to walk along the beach and round the corner into the estuary. It is a fascinating place with lots of colour. Unfortunately we were not able to get on to the ferry to cross to Shaldon. Perhaps next time.

 Joe and Julia have a two bedroom house with quite large rooms. There is parking for two cars. The upstairs landing looks right across the river.

On the next day we drove over to Dartmoor. Our first encounter was with the ponies. They were quite tame and we watched, with amusement as one of the ponies used the car park post to make himself comfortable. Joe went straight up the tor and came down behind a man on horseback. Then we drove on to find ‘Hound Tor’. That was when there was a problem. A bus came round the corner towards us on a single track road. Another motorist was in the passing place enjoying the view and so I finished up with a wheel in a pothole. When we got to the car park it was pretty much taken up with the massive vehicles of the Bristol film unit. Later we found that were filming an episode of ‘The Coroner’. We must watch out for that.

After lunch, which we had part way up the hill we continued or ascent to the tor. At the top were spectacular views.

Next we went down to the nearby attraction called ‘The House of Marbles’. It is free admission. The site used to be a large pottery, but now it is a café, shop and museum. First we had afternoon tea. For me this was a large jam and cream scone. 

Before we left that area Joe was taken up by the large marble rotating in water. He was not satisfied until he had manipulated it so that it was wet all over.

Of great interest was the glass working workshop. We watched the whole process of the worker making a glass robin. I photographed other beautiful pieces of glass that were on sale. We went back through the museum and watched, entranced by the various marble runs. Before leaving we found the wall sized version.

For the first party of Joe’s birthday day the weather remained passable and so after the opening of the presents we set off for the South Devon Railway at Buckfastleigh. We were in time to catch the train being pulled by a black 0-6-0 steam engine that took us along the River Dart. The train terminated at Totnes where we found a truck that should have returned to Stanton Gate, which is near to home in Stapleford.

Once back in Buckfastleigh we went into the Dartmoor and Buckfast Otters and Butterflies centre. First we explored the butterfly house and saw butterflies emerging from their cocoons. It was as we entered the otter sanctuary that the rain came. We followed our guide and I got a few nice otter shots.

Ants carrying petals

Our next call was to Buckfast Abbey. Irene called it a ‘Monastery Theme Park’. This was due to the shops and restaurants designed to take your money. The current abbey has a short history it was opened on July 24, 1937. The abbey church is beautiful and we would have enjoyed the gardens more if it was not for the rain.

Joe and Julia opted for an Indian meal delivery to end the day.

On Friday we had a day indoors to avoid the rain. I was concerned with the noise that the car had made on the way home on the previous night. There was no noise when I left to find a mechanic. He found no problems and we set off back home.

The weather was not as pleasant going home as it was coming down. There was even snow on the nearby Cotswolds. To end our short holiday with Joe and Julia we went off for carvery at Bartlewood Lodge.

Many thanks to Joe and Julia for their hospitality and the use of their spare bedroom.