Floods, lots of rain and mud.

 High winds and torrential rain last night, well you would think that would keep us awake but no, in fact we slept really well until the blasted Cockrell decided he was up so everyone else should be too. Then the farmer came past on his quad bike. With it being lambing season he had his hands full checking for newborn lambs and ewes in trouble. We were told yesterday that the ewes lamb outside, no cosy barn for them but these are bred to be hardy. I took this photo about 8 am. It's a bit grainy, they were a long way away, but this ewe was obviously having a bit of difficulty.

Oh and this was our parking spot on the farm. By the barn. We should have been next to that caravan and speaking to the owner this morning, he was quite concerned as to how he was going to tow it out of the quagmire on Tuesday.

This morning then,  yes... I got out of it! No bike ride for me... or himself either and it wasn't because of my whinging about how unfit I was and how my legs and posterior would complain bitterly, no, it was the weather that put paid to any hopes of cycling to the Exeter canal. "Oh what a shame" I told Ian. "I would sooo have loved to do that!" 😈 Anyway, now we were at a loss as to where to go. The forecast for this region was for sunshine and showers so a look in the NT book and we found Killerton House and Gardens That would do nicely.

The drive to it actually took us over the Exeter Canal so some photos of it after all.

 Killington house...not a bad place to visit, would have been perfect in the dry... shame about the rain then! Dodging a particularly heavy squall that came through by going into the house, saved us from being drenched.... but only for now though! Decided to give a bit of info about the place so here goes.

 It was owned by Sir Richard Acland until he gave the Estate to the NT for the princely sum of £130,000. Seems a bargain but in 1944 that was a considerable sum of money. He may have owned it but decided it was against his principles to keep it. I took this excerpt from Wikipedia, which is a bit long-winded so skip to the photos if you feel so inclined instead.

As an advocate of public land ownership, Acland felt it impossible to reconcile his possession of the Acland estates with his politics; in 1944 he sold his West Country estates at Killerton in Devon and Holnicote in Somerset to the National Trust for £134,000 (2011 equivalent £13.5 million),^[6] partly out of principle and also to ensure their preservation intact.^[7] This decision to relinquish the Acland property led to disagreements with his wife and the possibility of separation, but they eventually reconciled; Anne Acland, before depositing her letters, destroyed all those relating to this period of disagreement, between mid-summer 1942 and January 1943.^[8] Corresponding with the National Trust, Acland said: "I am not giving you all my property. I am keeping some of it to live on, some of it to buy a house, and some of it I am giving to Common Wealth. With what is left I pay off as much of the debts as possible [these being £21,000 death duties on his father's estate, and £11,000 accumulated debt, equivalent to circa £3 million in 2011], and then hand over the rest to you, leaving you, I regret to say, to look after what is left of the debts."

The Bear house below, unique and so called because in the 1860s it was used to house a black bear called Tom, brought to Killerton by the 12^th Baronet's brother, Gilbert, on his return from Canada. Three small rooms all with different flooring consisting of cobbles, wood and would you believe, deer knuckle bones!

The bone floor is bottom left.

And in the house,

We had been told about the mice found in every room. Wow, this turned us into competitive rivals. It was really for children to find, but that didn't stop us. Made us look in every nock and crannies and ha I found one more than Ian although of the ten scattered throughout, only 6 were found,

Thankfully the rain had stopped by the time we left the house so with loads of walks to do we headed off to find the deer park. Well we got hopelessly lost! Mud was also a problem and to avoid the worst of it, a scramble down a steep bank was necessary more than once. Thank goodness for my brolly! Used as a prop, it stopped me from ending up on my derrière many a time. We never did find the deer. Maybe if our shoes had been suitable then the mud wouldn't have been an issue but as it was, when we both grew by 1/2 inch because of the amount of gloopy stuff stuck to the soles, we gave up as a bad job.Still, we managed about 5 miles, not bad for a cripple like myself!

And that lot was just at the start of the walk.

 Oh did I mention the rain? Well we did get drenched, even the brolly almost gave up when the wind nearly blew it inside out! 

 

 On the way back to the farm, my goodness we were amazed just how much the rivers had swelled. Lying water on the roads, well it washed the mud from the underside of MB where the wheels had spun in the soggy ground yesterday so I suppose that was a bonus.

Tomorrow, Cornwell here we come. Fair weather and less wind, that's what we hope for.

A few more photos to show of the house grounds and of course the wildlife.

Magnolia??

More wildlife. These have to be avoided at all cost!

We make a break

 Saturday 12th March

Not quite spur of the moment decision as we had planned for a trip away to Cornwell. I think I mentioned the Eden Project somewhere in a previous post, but anyway we had sort of decided to leave on the 11th for a week but even the best laid plans can be well and truly scuppered. It was MB that let us down! MOT was due, and our confidence was right up there assuming it would sail through. T'was not to be though, and it was all because the emission light wouldn't go off. Those doing the test had no idea on why and suggested we take it to someone who would know. Phone calls to several garages all said the same thing, it was a specialist job! We eventually found one near Hucknall that would do a diagnostic on it and of course the quote just for that was an arm and leg but, as the saying goes, if needs must....Anyway the van was booked in for the Wednesday just gone, the pennies were being deducted from the holiday fund when Ian had a light bulb moment and, I might add, not quite in the middle of the night.  It was very dark and only a head torch to light his way but he was determined to give it a go. He had read on a forum a suggestion that might do the trick. Long story short, he disconnected the battery, reconnected it again, turned the key and yea it worked, no emission light. So Thursday a retest was organised (it passed this time) and today (Saturday) and only a day later, we managed to set off.

 With it being just a week away not much stuff to be stored, so MB was loaded quickly, water tank filled, loo set up and by 10.45 we were on the road. The glorious sunshine as we set off was soon to be replaced by cloud and then came the rain the nearer to Exeter we got. The wind had also picked up and boy was it strong! At least 50 mph according to the Met Office. Crossing the Avonmouth Bridge, MB kept being buffeted and Ian had a job to keep her from wandering across the lane! Scary or what! After 5 hours we eventually arrived at our destination, a fabulous rural working farm but the lane getting to it was really, really narrow. 3 attempts to get up a short straight uphill section only to be thwarted by cars appearing over the brow on the way down. Then because the weather was abysmal and because the pitch allocated to us was on grass, we got well and truly stuck! The farmer had to pull us out with his pickup and find another suitable place for us to park. This he did but in front of his barn and because of the inconvenience, he reduced the site fee, gave us Wi-Fi and got us hooked up to the electric. No TV though cos the barn was in the way of our satellite! Never mind, we have a Roku dongle so Netflix and Prime will be our viewing for the next couple of days. 

 

If the weather improves tomorrow we may get on our bikes and head for the Exeter Ship Canal. "Only a couple of miles of up hill and down dale" said Ian, "How hard can that be"? Hmm, I'm yet to be convinced.

And today's wildlife,

Ever seen how a cofferdam is put in place?

 No neither had we until CRT decided to inspect the paddle gear at the feeder. They arrived last Wednesday to install the scaffolding (I missed that bit but was told two burly guys entered the feeder in wetsuits,  promptly sunk into the silt up to their chests and struggled to manoeuvre cos that gloopy stuff kept grabbing at their boots). Anyway I did get the photos on the Thursday so feast your eyes on these.

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Will you look at all that silt! At least 3 foot of it!

Inspecting the paddle gear

I have to commend CRT for completing this in one day which meant the back pump could stay off. The water level in the basin dropped by a mere 3 inches

So now I know how it's done 👍😀 and next time I see a cofferdam in place I will appreciate all the hard work that it took for those men to do the job.

Oh and we also went to a place in Leicestershire called Bradgate Park. Full of Deer, the scenery was stunning and the walks not too challenging. Put it this way, I managed a 4-mile walk without my knee giving giving up and clicking (although the next day boy did I know about it!)