May 12th
Anyone know anything about this cloud phenomena?
Staying up late, watching the Eurovision Song Contest and wishing we hadn't, the skies stayed clear and dark and our hopes of seeing the Aurora were raised. We watched through the window, played cards by torchlight to stop any light pollution and even staying up till well past midnight, but not an inkling of any light show at all. Disappointment all round, but there again, with the moon in its waxing crescent phase. the stars still looked pretty good.
It is so very peaceful here, just the odd bleat of a lamb and the sound of the wind through the skylight. A Cuckoo sounded its song in the trees yonder, and racking my brain trying to think the last time I heard that sound, As a child the cuckoo welcomed the coming of summer and was heard often. Nowadays, we hardly ever hear the distinctive cuckoo, cuckoo sound any more.
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| This is my photo of a Cuckoo from May 2015 |
A Horse box turned up, gosh I went all nostalgic because inside were two beautiful greys. What a fabulous place to exercise the horses and had me reminiscing back to when I owned Hugo, a 16.2hh grey Hanoverian. We went everywhere together, including local shows where a friend rode him in the ring for me, I really wasn't brave enough to jump those high fences!. That horse could jump though and won many a rosette. He was a true gentleman and both the children would ride him. I retired him at 22 years old, and he died aged 32.
The day warmed, another good one we hoped. The ponies and foals put in an appearance, lovely to watch this foal frolicking about.
I wanted to go to Dartmeet, remembered years ago being with friends Pat and Keith with their three children and us with our two, the enjoyment of paddling in the cool waters of the River Dart and jumping across the big boulders. So we left late morning for Dartmoor, crossing the county line of Cornwell and into Devon again.
Took a good hour to get there, hmm, hadn't realised it was quite so far. Anyway, into the National Park we went and, before we reached The Two Bridges Hotel, stopped at a viewing area. An ice cream van was parked up! Ian's eyes lit up, so did mine, even though I'm not an ice cream lover. But because it was real Devonshire clotted cream ice cream....well this really is the only ice cream I would go out of my way for. We stayed for a spot of lunch, went for a longish walk across the moors, took photos of a Skylark and Stonechat, tried taking photos of the views, (was much too misty for a good picture), before continuing on towards Dartmeet.
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| Somewhere parked over there was MB |
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| Dartmoor ponies |
Well, I don't remember back in the day of having any difficulty in parking, but today, with only a small car park which was already full, we had no option but to drive past. So, apart from a long nostalgic look, we turned around and headed back to the airbase in Cornwell.
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| Dartmeet where East Dart and West Dart meet. |
It was a long drive back and one could say a wasted journey, but the scenery was lovely and well worth driving through, and we did have that yummy ice cream after all!
The weather is set to turn bad. I believe this was to be the final day of high temperatures and sunny conditions. We had hoped to sit outside and enjoy the last of the rays, except a very cold wind was blowing right across the airfield. Unanimous decision to stay in the warm!
And the wildlife today
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| Big bug that landed on MB |
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| Skylark |
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| Stonechat |
2 comments:
Nice to see you in my home county, Dartmoor area is a bit of a hotspot for cuckoos, especially around the hound tor parking area, where there is usually a great show of bluebells as well. Caroline
What a shame we didn't know about the medieval village at Hound Tor. If it was the craggy outcrop near where we parked, I'm not sure if we would have made the climb. Problems with knees for us both
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