A brilliant afternoon's fun!

It was the annual August Bank Holiday Raft Race in Minehead on Sunday. Groups of totally mad people got together to ‘design’ and create all sorts of weird and wonderful rafts to get them across the bay at Minehead. While even madder people start further along the coast at Blue Anchor Bay. This year Lucy took part – an experience that she is not likely to forget!

Dressed in fashionable attire to compliment their theme of their raft (cowboys, super hero’s, farmers, Bill and Ben etc) and with one wet suite between them, they all bravely entered the water. If you can remember the weather last weekend it was true to form for a BH - i.e. not brilliant sunshine, very windy and the water was freezing.

Once afloat, Bill of Bill and Ben realised that he had left his paddle on the shore. The raft rapidly started going round in circles while he struck out for land to retrieve the paddle. Once safely back on board the raft started to sink and they had to be rescued. Things weren’t going entirely to plan with the stagecoach and tractor rafts either. The models where so tall that they acted like sails in the wind and despite valiant rowing attempts, both rafts started to sail backwards to where they started from.

Further on, Lucy’s more streamline super hero’s raft was doing well until they got caught in some pretty strong currents. They all had to be unceremoniously dumped into a fishing boat and Lucy has the bruises to prove it. Whereas the Smurfs stayed in the same place for about an hour – just going nowhere!

Needless to say the moment the race finished and the last lot were brought ashore, the wind dropped and the sea became beautifully calm! BUT everyone had a great time, lots of money was raised and the evening concluded with a great firework display. An event definitely worth going to next year.

P.S. Click on the photos to enlarge them.

View from work!

Like most people in life, I do occasionally get a little fed up with work and sometimes, just sometimes, I really don’t feel like making another bed or polishing another chest of draws. But then I look out of any of the bedroom windows and realise what a wonderful place to work! Derek took these pictures from The Dunkery Beacon on Thursday and I think you would agree that it’s not a bad view!

I knew that we were going to be pretty busy so I took the opportunity of taking the dogs out for a beautiful long walk along the River Exe from Winsford to Exford, up over Room Hill and then followed the river on the other side of bank back to the truck. It was perfect walking apart from one heavy shower. Soda and I took cover under some trees while Wistful and Wagtail had a happy 20 minutes routing around in the gorse bushes totally unaware of the rain!

Abby has become too lame now to go for long treks so I had to leave her at home to help Derek with the gardening. When I looked back in the mirror she was sitting in the drive looking so sad and apparently remained there until we came back some 4 hours later!

Fabulous few days

It’s been a very busy few days with lots of guests arriving and making the most of the lovely weather. The weather conditions of the past year have resulted in a glut of beautiful Dunster plums and greengages and we often have bags given to us. Each morning, I gently poach some, add a little sugar and put on the buffet table for breakfast. With a dollop of natural yoghurt they are perfection on a plate with the fresh fruit salad being relegated to second place!

Ron has been to stay for a few days and we all went to Dunster agriculture show on Friday and I should think it was a record number of visitors. It is held in the grounds of Dunster castle and with the sun shining, all the showing cattle and sheep groomed into an inch of their lives, live music plus all the stalls it really was a lovely day out.

We went to The Doone Valley yesterday afternoon and had a cup of tea at Cloud Farm in the tea garden. We then headed up into the hills up above Malmsmead and walked over to Dry Bridge. The sun was really hot and the sky was blue and enormous with just a few clouds dotted around The views over towards Aldermans Barrow and down towards Lynton and Lynmouth were fantastic. The smell of the heather was quite heady and full of honey.

On the way home we stopped at the top of Porlock Hill to have a Styles ice cream looking out over the Channel. Then onto Paul’s to get newly dug potatoes and freshly picked runner beans for tea. Ron drove back to East Devon with 40 pounds of runner beans for his poor old mum to prepare for the freezer! Up here on Exmoor you don’t have to go very far to get the best out of life.

Exford Show

On Wednesday we went to Exford Show which is held in the middle of Exmoor and surrounded by the most stunning scenery. Despite all that goes on in the world there are 2 things that remain constant – the show is a lovely day out, a real social gathering and secondly that the wind always blows up there!

Our friends Julie and Lori are staying with us and they had 2 of Wagtails puppies. They managed to meet up with John and Lin who had another 2 of the litter. The dogs all got on well and it was great to see how they have grown and what characters each of them have developed. For about 60 seconds they stopped playing which enabled Derek to get a picture of them.

The standard of entry in all the classes was very high from Exmoor Horn sheep to working hunters, Exmoor ponies and of course all the family dog show classes. Many of the Exmoor characters were present plus lots of craft stalls and local produce. I managed to buy a couple of presents – I just have to remember where I put them for safe keeping between now and Christmas!

I’m waiting for Derek to return from his walk so I can nip up to Wheddon Cross to sample my first zumbar class. I have a horrid feeling I am going to ache and feel rather tired tomorrow but it should be good fun.

Exciting weekend at The Dunkery Beacon!

We have a very busy time of late with our B&B guests enjoying Exmoor in the lovely weather – walking, riding, cycling and general just relaxing from their busy lives. Sarah is completing her PhD and needed a break from her research. Sarah used to come Exmoor a lot with her parents and she bought Neil down to show him some of the beautiful places she visited.

Lizzie and Lawrence made a return trip to stay with us and on the Saturday while they were at Watersmeet, Lawrence proposed to Lizzie. He had planned everything from buying the ring to the surprise trip and the dinner in the evening at Reeves. Who says romance is dead?!

I had been doing some gardening in the front beds - (well a bit of weeding as Derek once said that my attempt at gardening was if a chicken had been scratching around). After that I decided that he could get on far better without my help! Soda does love to help when we are gardening as she potters around getting in the way by wanting to investigate EXACTLY where we are trying to work. She became very excited and kept on returning to the same place despite repeated attempts to get her out of the lavender. A little while later I discovered why. As I bought guests up the front door, there was Soda eyeballing a very beautiful 3ft long grass snake on the veranda! Unfortunately by the time I had got Derek with his camera the snake had gone but Derek did manage to find him curled up in the plants and take this photo.

A dear little baby wren flew into the conservatory and Derek managed to get a quick photo of him before he was put outside.