Down in Devon

On the M5 for the beautiful sunset

Winter in the UK (think short daylight hours, cold and grey) is actually a good time to take short breaks. With hotels and B&Bs outside of the main centres relatively empty, there are some amazing deals to be had. We subscribe to sites like amazon and travelzoo which regularly drop tantalising holiday deals into my inbox in time for a breakfast read. We took advantage of having one of the owners’ daughters at home recently to take a 3-day break to Devon.  The deal we took was £99 ($200 NZ) for two nights for the two of us in a good hotel, inclusive of breakfasts, use of the gym/pool/sauna, and an evening meal for one night. Given that the evening meal was half of this price, they were almost paying us to stay!! We augmented this with a special-rate £39 for B&B in another hotel for our first night.

Me enjoying the seaside ...

Hotels everywhere

So this is how we ended up in an adequate, but tired hotel in Torquay, on the “English Riviera”.  Torquay, Paignton and Brixham seem to run together on the south coast, but they have all seen better days before cheap package holidays to Europe became the norm. Still full of hotels, from the grand through to Fawlty Towers and smaller. I imagine the place is packed in summer, presumably with families and those not wanting to fly overseas. But at this time of year we only saw pensioners. Hence we shouldn’t be surprised to end up in an American-themed diner at our hotel with only a couple of other couples. Which was better than the bar we shared with the barman later for a nightcap, after saying goodbye to the main chef who was leaving early, only having had three people for dinner. And this was a large hotel.

Shouldn’t complain – we were very lucky to be there at all. The week before leaving our car developed a “get gearbox serviced now” warning light on the dash along with intermittent gear-changing issues. Some Googling told us that it is a common problem and typically cost £600 to repair – quite a bit on a £1600 car. On the morning of our departure Vicki took the car to a local ex-Renault mechanic who diagnosed an errant ABS sensor in the front wheel giving the wrong signals to the gearbox. £100 and an hour later it was all sorted and we headed off down the motorway somewhat gingerly, though with increasing confidence over the next few days.

Houses overlooking Dartmouth

Torquay in the daylight was not a great improvement so we quickly headed down the coast to Dartmouth, which you approach from the other side of the Dart River and take a small car ferry to. The views are glorious looking up the river to the Dartmouth Naval college, and downstream to the castle at the entrance to the harbour. We met an 86 year old who pointed out his house on the wharf. He said it still impressed him to think that the house was there when the Mayflower docked outside before heading to America in 1620.

Dartmouth from the car ferry

The River Dart with the Naval College

Where the Mayflower docked

Our turn next

from a noticeboard on the river edge

400 years later the fort & houses still stand

Totnes High Street

Our final tourist stop on the day was Totnes. It is set in a very pretty location on the banks of the river and, with a long history, it is still full of many old buildings, indeed it has the most listed buildings per capita in the country. These days it is better known as a centre for New Age lifestylers. Apart from all the hippies wandering around, there are numerous interesting shops, not at all like the typical main street of an English town where almost all the shops are part of national chains. Strangely we spent half the time we had left there in the Army Surplus Store – a treasure trove of interesting paraphernalia. Not just the full Bear Grylls survival collection, but also telescopes, binoculars, proper outdoor clothes and … camera tripods. We are looking for another camera tripod and they almost had the right one. Almost. Sigh.

It is essential to have a GPS here where there are so many addresses. We have a borrowed one that is a bit out of date, occasionally leading us astray. We were quite sure that our big new hotel was not in the middle of a housing estate but Gary (Gary Garmin – get it?) wouldn’t be convinced otherwise. So good old Google on the smartphone found the very obscure lane that was their main entrance.

Our last full day away involved a trip up onto Dartmoor – the high and rugged area that takes up a significant portion of Devon. Lots of very narrow lanes with stones walls either side – not somewhere you want to meet a car or tractor coming the other way. A midweek winter morning was probably as quiet as it gets. The scenery is wild and spectacular, lots of big trees, rugged hillsides, lonely farms, little stone hamlets that time has passed by, stone bridges over wild streams, wild horses and wild weather. Actually, we weren’t wild about the weather as we had a bit of hail and Arctic wind-chill. A complete contrast to the quaint and gentle towns of the previous day but equally as interesting and photogenic.

An ancient "clapper" bridge

Wild horses

Buckfast Abbey church

We made a small excursion to Buckfast Abbey on the way back to the hotel. It is the home of Benedictine monks so is quite a complex. Inside everything looked in remarkably good condition, but made sense when we read it had only been built in the 1930s!

Heading home the following morning meant getting onto the M5 motorway and sitting at 70mph for hours on end. Luckily we found a reason to go cross country – a visit to “Clark's Village” in Street. This is the home to the original Clark's shoes. It is a small town with a huge shopping centre containing an outlet store for Clark's and dozens of other outlet shops. A good place to stop and shelter and shop. One new pair of bargain boots [for Nigel] later we were on the road again for home and back to work in the afternoon. Ahhh …

Return to Blighty

November 2014 (before flu)

As usual, mixed emotions.  Sad to be leaving Italy.  Excited to be moving on to the next step in our adventure.  Except this time there's the added suspense of having committed to six to twelve months in the one spot - one we haven't visited before. And there's the icing on top of extra income.  Not just extra, in fact - we'll be virtually doubling the income we've lived on for 17 months. The shopping list isn't long, but it is expensive!  But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Just in case you missed the news, in August we accepted a house-sitting role where Nigel's actually being paid to work as caretaker/estate manager/gardener on a rural property west of London. I don't have a work visa, so I can only stay in the UK as a visitor for up to six months, and I can't work, but I can apply for an extended visitors' visa, based on Nigel having work here.  I'll go through that process in the new year.

In Italy the days had been getting cooler.  We'd had our last swim in Pauline's pool in the latter half of October - the water temperature had dipped to 22 degrees.  Still, it came as a bit of a shock to arrive in the UK to drizzle and 12 degrees.  Just to make us feel welcome, National Rail cancelled our train leaving all passengers to Reading hanging around not knowing when the next train would arrive, then a train pulled up, going somewhere else, and we were told to board.  I'm still confused, but it did eventually get us to Reading.  From there we caught a train to Theale where our home-owner, Caroline, picked us up to drive us to our new home, Kings Copse House.

We lived in Reading for four months earlier in the year - and vowed to never return! - so we're sort of familiar with the area and I even recognised part of the route as we have Kiwi friends working at Bradfield College, nearby, and we'd visited them there once.  In fact, Alain and Anne were the friends who suggested we apply for the position here.  However, it was a bit of a baptism-by-fire to be given the keys to the 'work' vehicle (a fairly new VW Golf that Nigel's insured to drive) and to drive off into the drizzle, dark, and after-work traffic to get groceries, with a very helpful list of instructions on how to get to the supermarket.  Getting back was trickier - instructions written for one direction aren't necessarily as easy to follow in reverse, especially when you have three multi-lane roundabouts to negotiate!  We were beginning to worry that Caroline might send out a search party!

The roads here really are dangerous.  Especially at night out here in the dark countryside.  They're narrow - even 60mph roads are often only just wide enough for two cars; many of these narrow roads have walls of thick hedging both sides, so there's nowhere to get off the road if you have to and you have limited visibility of what's going on around the next bend; often there's a concrete edge to the roads that sits up a couple of inches above the road level, so you need to take care you don't drift over and clip them; and then there's the amount of traffic, travelling at 30mph through villages, 40mph on the outskirts of villages, and 60mph elsewhere, except for the motorways where they zip along at 70mph. Having seen a few, it appears to us that there are a lot of accidents.

But at Kings Copse House we feel a very long way away from all the hustle and bustle.  The closest house is a small bungalow a hundred metres away, which is part of the property and rented out to a friendly South African couple.  Otherwise we're surrounded by 100 acres of the house gardens, farmland (with sheep!) and protected forest.  We have chickens for eggs.  There are wild deer, squirrels, badgers, pheasants, owls, red-breasted robins, red kites and buzzards. And wolves!  The wolves are actually a few miles away and we sometimes hear them howling - it's wonderful!  And when the family's not here, which is most of the time, we have this big beautiful house, garden and forest all to ourselves!

Speaking of the family, Caroline and John (the parents) have lived in Brussels for a couple of years.  They're moving to the States in the New Year, so they won't get back here very often - Caroline used to drive from Brussels fairly regularly, but I don't think that's going to be an option from the States!  Their son is already at university in the States and their three daughters are at school/university in the UK, but don't live at Kings Copse.  They will all be here for Christmas and New Year and will all be gone again by mid-January.  Caroline jokes that we'll have our house back to normal once they've all gone.

For Christmas Day we're going to Ann and Alain's for Christmas dinner.  Their sons and their partners will be there too - one of the couples has been working on the sets for Game of Thrones - we hope they're not bored with the subject yet!  

Nigel's sister and her husband, Gail and Janos, have been in the UK working on large estates for nearly five years.  They started off at Twyford, near Reading, then at the time we arrived in the UK, in June 2013, they moved to Cornwall.  They've been thinking for a little while now that it would be nice to be back up in this area so they could be near their girls (who live in Reading), and us too.  We're all part of a network of New Zealanders mainly working on large estates in southern England and through that group we found out about a place near here that was coming available.  To cut a long story short, they applied, were interviewed, and got the job.  They moved up from Cornwall the weekend before they took off for a month's holiday in NZ and start the new job when they return in early January.  Early in that process we discovered that their employers are good friends of our homeowners! 

I'll take a quick back step and return to the subject of critters.  I feed the chickens each day - there were three.  The day after Caroline left (she was here for a few days when we arrived), one of the chickens died.  I found it curled up 'asleep' in the laying box - warm, but very stiff.  Luckily it was the stroppy one that had been pecking feathers off the back of one of the others - the other two are much happier now!  Toby's a springer spaniel who lives with Caroline and John, so he'll be off to the States with them.  I'm not very dog friendly, but I've met a few I like and Toby's included in that group.  Then there's Molly, the elderly cat.  I am a cat person, but Molly does try me sometimes - particularly when she meows at 4am, and when I've found cat poo in a place one doesn't expect to find cat poo.  Grrr!!  However, she is very affectionate and has a great purr.

January 2015 (after flu)

Yes - we had the flu.  It's a month since Anne and Alain drove us to Frome (in Somerset) for the Kiwi group Christmas dinner.  We stayed the night in Frome - a fabulous old village with a lovely street of one-off shops.  Anyway, Anne and Alain were recovering from the flu, and were [apparently] not recovered enough.  We, and they, believe we caught it from them.  I succumbed on the Tuesday and Nigel a day later. And it was awful.  I haven't had the flu, and have rarely been sick at all, for more than ten years.  I was in bed and useless for four days.  It's taking a long time to recover - we're still not back to our usual bounce, but at least it's looking hopeful now!

Because of the flu we missed out on doing several things we'd been looking forward to ....  seeing the Christmas lights in London; seeing the sunrise at Stonehenge for the winter solstice; watching ice-carving in Newbury.  And, while the owners were here, we'd hoped to have a short holiday somewhere exotic, like Morocco.  But it was not to be.  Even our weekend jaunts have been limited.  We've visited Kintbury to see the canal; Hungerford (just because it has a pretty, old main street - and several interesting antique shops); the Highclere Castle grounds (aka Downton Abbey) on a very misty day.  A hunt came through our forest, so we went to watch that too.  But we've been slow and dragging our feet - not our usual energetic selves.

Highclere Castle (aka Downton Abbey)

Mustn't grumble!!  We're here with fabulous opportunities all around us.  We're nearly well and ready for a lot more action - watch this space!

Ugly but practical

Before we arrived here we did something we've never done before - bought a car before we'd seen it and without having someone check it over first!  We bought the car owned by our predecessors here - Liz and Jim from Akaroa!  They've headed home and needed to sell their car.  We needed to buy a car.  Deal done.  And the car's great - ugly but great!  Heated leather seats are almost as good as chocolate!!

Sabina (again)

After just over a year we found ourselves in the Stimigliano station parking lot waiting for our HelpX host, Pauline. We had such a good time here over two weeks last September that we wonder if it can be as good again? The short answer - Yes! Casale Benedetti is Pauline's home in the country sporting first-class accommodation, a stunning view over the old hill town of Tarano, and a wide slope of giant brambles to clear!

The standard of accommodation we have to put up with ...

Those views from the house ...

Tarano from our bedroom window in the evening

and in the morning ...

Pyromaniac at work ...

Despite us having cleared about a third of the brambles last year, and other helpers in Spring having partially re-cleared it, it all had to be done again. Though progress was initially fast as we were redoing areas, it slowed once we hit the primordial forest. Needless to say we were both very sore, tired and scratched all over. And suffering from numerous bitey insects. But there are benefits - we are getting stronger and Vicki is in her element lighting and feeding numerous fires.

Happy strimming

Unhappy strimming

An olive tree rescued from the brambles

Missed a bit ...

We had expected to be picking the olives here this time (we were too early last year). But they have been badly hit by the fruit fly this year (as have many throughout the Mediterranean area). The fly lives in the soil and lays eggs in the individual olives which then ripen too quickly and fall off. It is a constant problem but this year is much worse, possibly due to a wetter than normal Spring. If there are only a few olives damaged this way then they can be harvested, though the infected olives may taint the oil. One neighbour has 1500 trees which he makes his living off. He was in tears as he won't harvest any this year. There also appears to be a bacteria hitting some of the trees in Italy, the only "cure" being to chop off infected branches or cut down the trees. We're expecting the price of oil to rise next year due to the very low harvest. Vicki did have the job of filling plastic bottles with a mixture of vinegar and washing liquid, putting small holes in them and stringing them from  the trees in the hope that they deal to some of the fly.

With Pauline, Maurizio and Corrado 

All this work is far outweighed by the benefits of being here. Once again we find ourselves with a very good cook who is also prolific. And plenty of dinner parties too! We’ve had a couple of groups over for dinner and been out to other people’s places several times. As is common with ex-pats living abroad most of their friends appear to come from the ex-pat community, though they are of very mixed nationalities they all speak good English – which makes conversation very easy for us.

How Italians eat pizza ...

This seems to be the norm outside of restaurants: for takeaways just spread boxes out on table and cut yourself a wedge with scissors. No other utensils required.

The end of another day in  paradise

The weather remains dry and warm. Still minimal rain since we arrived in Italy back in September, and the temperature just warm enough to take a dip in the unheated outdoor pool and laze in the sun after work. Love being in shorts and sandals for months on end.

Another birthday passes and we’re lucky enough to be invited to our friend Corrado’s for an evening meal. Superb food and plenty of Prosecco. We shared it with Corrado and Pauline plus Gaby (American) and Stefano (a real Italian). We had been to a pizza evening at their place the previous week where Stefano presided over the outdoor pizza oven

Orvieto snapped from the motorway

This is certainly an area we would love to spend more time in. Very rural but within easy reach of Rome (1 hour by train) and many interesting villages and towns. Orvieto is a great example of a beautiful medieval town set dramatically on cliffs with the main access being by a funicular. The cathedral frontage might even (just) eclipse that of Siena’s for beauty. A highlight was having coffee in a bar on the cathedral piazza and having the waiter – seeing us with our cameras – invite us down to the ancient cellars. It was full of racks of dusty old wine bottles, vats of wine, and old barrels that must still be full as many of them were covered in a white mould.

Detail on the cathedral

Orvieto cathedral

The bar above ground

The bar below ground

Mould!

It was sad to depart from San Giorgio for our flight from Rome back to England (where we were greeted by heavy rain – but that is another story). A big thank you to Pauline for looking after us so well and taking the time to explore the region with us. By the time this gets posted she will have been to the middle east, NZ, Australia, and then due to head to the Galapagos and back via the States. One of many epic trips for her.

And a final memory – popping down to the local supermarket and bumping into friends Frank and Sharon at the conveniently attached bar in time for superb food and wine for lunch. Ahhh, the Italian lifestyle is so good ..

Ciao!

Festas

Many villages throughout Italy manage to have a festival day (or weekend) sometime during the year. The summer weekends can offer many choices so, provided you have transport, there are always options for attending a festa. We were lucky that our host in Sabina – Pauline – took us to two and a half. The first (the half) was at the little old village of San Polo, just down the hill from Pauline's home in San Giorgio. The reason it only qualifies as a “half” is that we got there at midday and it was all over! And it wasn’t a true festa either. A group of Roman photographers (if you don’t want the image of people in togas carrying wax tablets then think of photographers from Rome) are making a year-long study of four historic villages, including two from near us: San Polo and Tarano on the other side of where we are staying. They turn up every so often and photograph the inhabitants and the buildings. The village turned on some “scenic” activities for them including horses in the streets and opening up the wine cellars.

Maurizio (left) getting our "glasses" filled

Though we missed the main event we, with the help of an Italian friend, Maurizio, were shown around the cellars of a house where wine was being bottled. Of course we were “forced” to sample some and I’d have to classify it as somewhat agricultural. Full of flavour indeed. We were then invited into someone’s house where Maurizio was having lunch, and duly made to sit down and provided with the best lasagne we’ve ever had - apparently made by someone's elderly Mum. And plenty more farmyard red (which I’d develop quite a liking for). It wasn’t awkward at all as there must have been 20 or so people including most of the photographers. The usual wonderful hospitality we’ve found here.

At San Polo

San Polo clocktower

Italian fashion, circa 1350

Our first real festa was a visit to the town of Civitella San Paolo. We knew this was a big event when we saw people walking along the roadside before we got near. And this is serious as you never want to walk along a road in Italy unless desperate – the roads are very narrow, poorly maintained, no footpaths, and full of psychotic wannabe F1 drivers in old Fiats. They had managed to put on a park-and-ride and, for the first time in Italy, we saw people forming an orderly queue.

The old parts of the town are surrounded by a castle wall and inside the inhabitants were dressed up in medieval costumes selling traditional goods at stalls. They even had a vat of boiling water containing silk worms from which the threads were picked up and attached to a spinning wheel. The event finished with a sound-and-light spectacular depicting an event in history where the townspeople beat off invaders who supported an alternate Pope. All a bit lost on us with our lack of Italian.

Traditional board games

Citta della Pieve

Judging at the theatre

Our second big outing was to a saffron festival at Citta della Pieve. We rented an apartment in the old town with Pauline and a couple of American friends Meg and Chris. While it wasn’t a big event there was a market with stalls selling all sorts of food flavoured with local saffron, from cheeses to chocolates. Unusual for this area the walled hilltop town is made of brick, reminiscent of the east coast towns. 

One highlight was a music competition featuring two teenage boys in an old theatre. The only audience was the five judges and a few onlookers like us who had sneaked into the boxes.

Chris, Meg, Pauline and Nigel getting their morning caffeine fix

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Inhabitants of Citta della Pieve

"Kisswoman Alley" - one of the narrowest alleys in Italy

Discussing shoe sizes at the market

And a couple more of Civitella San Paolo ...