an exmoor b&b owned and managed by sue & andy north
guest house and b&b, lynton, north devon
34 lee road, lynton EX35 6BS tel: 01598 753328
We would like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Also thanks to all our guests who have sent us Christmas cards . . . we have them all hanging up in the lounge! We have been taking it easy and doing a bit of gentle decorating, but in the New Year we are tackling the more daunting area of the hall, stairs and landing(s) . . . we are having help with that! Today we drove past the tree on Brendon Common which gets decorated every year. It looked very festive . . . even in the mist and drizzle.
Thanks to Claudine, our guest from France who stayed recently for sending us this picture of Tarr Steps. It reminds us that we haven't been there for a while. The walking books have ways of geting there from Withypool and also from Dulverton. There are also short circular walks to do from Tarr Steps car park. We have been planning a walk around Wimbleball Lake which is in that direction, so we plan to pop in at the same time.
Dunster by Candlelight is this weekend. We went yesterday (for the first time) and it was lovely. No cars are allowed in the town during the evening so park and rides are operated from various points. The evening starts with a procession which travels the length of the village with stilt-walkers lighting the candle lamps all the way. Most of the shops and restaurants open for the evening and there were also many street traders selling Christmassy food and drink. There was so much going on: fire juggling, a drum band, morris dancing, hand-bell ringing and of course carol singing. There were also exhibitions in church buildings and barns. We even met a Meerkat and Johnny Kingdom! We would like to take credit for this lovely picture but it is from the Dunster by Candlelight website . . . ours didn't come out very well, probably because of the mulled wine!
The Lyn Rock Bridge which was damaged by a falling tree in 2009, is open again. Thanks to funding from Bovril Outdoors Revival the bridge has been restored. Local craftsmen spent three weeks constructing the bridge a mile from the site, then it was transported and placed in position. It will soon be possible to see before and after pictures at the Bovril Outdoors Revival website here: http://www.bovril.co.uk/revival/
It has been about six months now since we got the chickens so they are well and truly settled into their new home. We have also settled into having them around and understanding a bit about them. They like treats now and then but we have found that they learn quickly and get restless if the treats don't come! They like to have a ''free range'' around the garden now and then, but one (Lulu) went missing recently and we could not find her until the next morning (in a garden a few houses away). Egg production has slowed down a bit now we do not have so many daylight hours, but at the moment we get an about two eggs a day, which isn't bad. On the days we keep them in their run we give them a treat like the cauliflower they are hacking to bits in the video above!
Sue has signed up to do a sponsored cycle ride in India next November. The route starts in Agra and finishes in Jaipur, which involves a week of cycling an average of 50 miles a day. The aim will be to raise £2,800 for three cancer charities: Breast Cancer Care, Jo's Cervical Cancer Trust and Ovarian Cancer Action. We will be funding Sue's travel expenses ourselves (with help from granola and marmalade sales) so all donations from other sources will go entirely to the three charities. We will put updates here now and then but Sue's first step now is to get a bike and start training!
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A great idea for a rainy day is a trip to Dingles Fairground Museum near Okehampton. There are so many interesting pieces from fairgrounds through the years it is easy to spend a long time browsing.them all. There is also a section where it is possible to go on the rides including Merry Mixers, Bumper Cars, Roundabouts and even a Ghost Train. We visited recently and the highlight for us was when we were given a personal demonstration of the wonderful Compton cinema organ, which is a British version of a Wurlitzer. Behind the organ is a room full of hundreds of pipes, whistles, bells and drums which belong to the huge keyboard. We were even shown a demonstration of a silent movie while the organist played music relating to the action as it would have been before films had sound.
The Exmoor Longstone is a three-metre standing stone near Challacombe. It is possible to walk to the stone inland from Lynton, but yesterday we tried a shorter walk from Challacombe. We started at Goat Hill Bridge where a pretty valley leads to Pinkery Pond. From the pond to the stone is about a two-mile very boggy walk but we were lucky to see a herd of deer passing near the stone as we aproached it. There are several Barrows near the stone and the whole area is very atmospheric, especially when the sun starts to set. Although we enjoyed this walk it is probably only worth doing if you particularly wanted to see the Exmoor Stone and we would definitely recommend wearing wellies!
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