Everyday Activities

We've had several nice walks, taking advantage of some truly gorgeous weather. Ari and Robin walked to Scorhill (picture), an ancient stone circle next to the Teign River. We all had an exciting hike through the darkest wood I've ever seen, down a hill to another part of the Teign, where it rushes over boulders and under a little bridge. We've been to Tavistock to shop, and have discovered the play park in Chagford. The Chagford swimming pool is open, too, but it seems a bit chilly yet to indulge! Robin likes playing on the lawn and watering all of Jill's container gardens with the assortment of watering cans. He has new, rainbow-striped wellies for the job.

Miniature Pony Centre

Over the weekend, we made our first visit to the Miniature Pony Centre near Moretonhampstead, about a 15-minute drive from our house. This is an adorable family fun spot, and we have season passes. The weather was cool but not too damp, and Robin loved running around the grounds, petting animals, and especially riding the toy tractors. There are pony rides, too, which Robin almost enjoyed, but decided at the last moment that he didn't care for being lifted onto a pony by a strange girl, no matter how nice she was. He got a rosette anyway, and we'll try again on our next visit. Probably tomorrow -- the weather is wonderful now, sunny and mild.

We've said a sad goodbye to our luxury rental car and are now tooling around the moors in the Ford Escort Rob and Jill are kindly renting to us. Ari had to have a crash course from Toby in driving a stick shift, and mastered it in one afternoon! He did thoughtfully allow me to drive us around the busy -- and very narrow -- streets of Exeter yesterday, though. The Escort is the perfect car for moor driving though -- the roads often narrow to one lane between high bramble hedges, and cars have to squeeze around one another wherever it's wide enough -- sometimes backing up a 1/2 mile to do so! So we always drive with "moor care," never more than 35 mph, and always alert for cars, sheep, or ponies suddenly appearing in our path around the hidden curves and hills of the moor roads. Every trip is an adventure!

Furlong

Here's Furlong, the lovely home we're renting. It's a medieval building that was converted into a barn a century ago and turned into a dwelling more recently. Jill and Rob have done most of the work of turning it into a luxury dwelling themselves. Robin loves all the open space, but especially his play area in the front hall (picture 1) -- in the medieval tradition, we're now calling it the "solar." It's perfect for lining up his Playmobil animals and practicing somersaults. There are four bedrooms (pictures 2 & 3), 2-3/4 baths upstairs, and a 1/2 bath downstairs. We mostly hang out in the farmhouse-style kitchen (picture 4), where the AGA stove cheerily warms the whole house (it's been mostly cool and rainy since we arrived). The back garden is completely landscaped by Jill and Rob -- it was all concrete and outbuildings before -- and provides a view of the hills and Castle Drogo (picture 5 -- not ancient but 19th century -- in fact, I think it's the last real castle built in England). We couldn't be more delighted with the house. As Robin says, "I want to stay here FOR-EVER!"

I've added a few more pix of the exterior of the house, courtesy of Jim, who visited us this week en route from London to Wales.

Arrived safely

We had a smooth journey here starting last night -- all flights on time, Robin a real trouper (he slept for nearly the ENTIRE 7-hour flight from Detroit to England), rental car big enough to hold our TWELVE pieces of luggage. Jill and Rob have rented us their gorgeous renovated Devon farmhouse while they take a dream vacation on their very own canal boat through the rivers of England. We've already had a visit from Wendy and Toby (Brian's in New York for the week), and Robin is fast asleep in his own little room. Tomorrow -- unpacking, grocery shopping, and maybe the Minature Pony Centre! Pictures of our spectacular home-on-loan to come soon. BBC.weather has promised us a rare sunny day tomorrow. We feel well and truly welcomed.