Photo diary
And here’s the last, but key part of camping out on the moors. A nice little breakfast cooking up. As you can see, my mug of tea is already done, lid on to keep in the warmth, while my eggs cook. All the pots from the titanium collection by Alpkit.com. Fabulous little website by fanatical climbers and other lunatic health freaks! The kit’s fantastic, though.
I do like this. It’s just the way that the hills in the distance look so faded compared to the foreground. That’s what happens when you have a little mist on the moors, though!
There are some parts of the moors where you just have to stop and take a look around you. Here, though, I was a little reluctant. Mainly because there was a platoon of squaddies trudging along behind me - and much though I respect and admire our troops, they do get in the way of a good photo, so I was hurrying all this afternoon to keep ahead of them and make sure the pictures looked OK!
Just a picture I liked. It’s been a gorgeous January, with sledging and mucking about for loads of folks. Thank goodness the snow lasted long enough for the kids to have a good play. They don’t usually get the chance. Most years the snow is so thin, a sledge can’t go on it. This year it was a genuine alpine drift, which gave us a piste on every hill!
With all the snow in the last month, the dogs have been having fun. Even Ridgie enjoyed herself, bounding through drifts, while the Berner spent her time rolling in it with delight.
The snow’s all gone now, sadly. But there is a good side to it. It means I can go off for a walk and sleepover again in February. Probably on Friday, so I hope the weather will hold!
For those who don’t believe how cold it is up on the moors this week . . . This wasn’t ever a fast stream, but it’s damn deep, even if it is slow, and I couldn’t make an impression on it for the dogs to have a drink. This ice is thick!
It is ruddy cold up on the moors just now. Down here in the warmer, low-lying parts, we hit minus 8C last night. Up there I think it was colder. The ice was more than two inches thick, which is rare, and some streams had completely frozen, with a trickle coming out from beneath. That’s something i’ve never seen.
So, with all this chill in the air, there’s only one thing for it. Friday, I’m going to take a tent and plenty of warm clothing, as well as a good 7cm high blow-up bed (filled with down to insulate me from the cold, cold ground) and have a sleep over. Still trying to figure out exactly where I ought to go, but somewhere high, far from street lights, and ideally out of the wind. Oh, and I need it to be close to some wood for a little fire. I have a new pride and joy, a little log-burner called a Bush Buddy. Made in Canada, it is a great device. Made of lightweight steel, it packs small and light, but allows you to boil a quart of water in eight minutes - and you don’t have to carry all the paraphernalia of cookers, fuel and all that gubbins. Just collect some stuff on the way. Bits of dried and dead furze, twigs from the hedges, and that’s about it.
And although I’m mad, I’m not stupid. Today I ordered a pair of lined, warm, Craghopper Kiwi trousers. It may be cold up there. I won’t be!
It is rare indeed to go to a church which is still as beautiful, if simple, as the Church of the Holy Cross and the Mother of Him who died Thereon at Crediton. My family’s enormously lucky to know the rector there, and he and his family have been wonderful hosts at several events. Best of all, we join them each year for the Christingle service in Crediton, and catch up afterwards.
This scene is one that I really like. It shows the different periods of the church. The window with the simple stone work, which illuminates the two warriors left of centre. They are part of the memorial to one of Britain’s noted Victorians, Redvers Buller VC. An enormously brave soldier, he fought with great distinction in a number of colonial wars. However, his success was in strict inverse proportion to his rank, sadly. The higher up the staff he rose, the more effective was his proof of the Peter Principle: every employee in a company will rise to his own level of incompetence.
Such was the case with Redvers Buller, it has been said.
However, he was a career soldier in very tough times, when the whole concept of war and warfare was changing. He made mistakes, certainly, but he also had forty six years of enormously successful service before that. And there is no doubt that his fellows in Crediton respected him hugely. There are statues to him in Exeter, roads named after him, and this magnificent memorial to him in the church in which he was buried.
There is much else to see at the church, though. It’s one of the recommended sites to visit on the Jecks tour of the West Country!
Happy New Year!
Here they are. The terrible twins. But luckily for me, the Ridgie’s calmer and the Bernese is finding fewer interesting things to roll in. This year’s been tough, and I think that next year will likely be tougher, but hopefully you, dear readers, and we will survive the coming collapses. Let’s all hope for a brief stall and a rapid recovery in the financial markets.
The weather is variable as hell just now - but we’re getting some fabulous days too. And this one was perfect. I had only a very little time, because I’d planned a new day’s work - because the forecast was for rain and sleet. Well, there was none. Just beautiful, bright, sunshine. I had been planning a walk along the southern parts of the moor with a friend - and only had a brief couple of hours instead.
I’d like to meet a forecaster some time.
