Well, we had a good break (though another week would have been ideal). The campsite at Padstow was a great find and we had good evidence the Rick Stein really has taken over the place. The queue for his takeaway fish and chips stretched round the block at all times of the day and most of the evening.
But the above is a picture of me and Molls reading in the van following a (mercifully short) shower. (I would like to state here that Himself did not drink all that Bass, nor did I drink the entire bottle of wine. Hic.)
The book in question was The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and her niece, Annie Burrows. (When Mary Ann became too ill to do the necessary edits, she asked her niece, another writer, to do it for her.) I would wholeheartedly recommend this book, which I intend to read again in the near future – but the story of how it came to be written is one in its own right.
We have many memories of our trip - 10pm in the wash rooms at the campsite when they were inundated with everyone brushing their teeth. As a sign of the times, the room hummed with overzealous electric toothbrushes.
Port Isaac on a wet Monday morning – watching the fishermen bring in crates of fresh crab. A dismal mother crouched on a drizzly beach with her two children, trying to interest them in rock pools.
Driving over Dartmoor in teeming rain. (You get a recurring theme here?) Dartmoor to me is one of the most special places ever, and bad weather only makes it more atmospheric.
Walking along the edge of the river Dart one morning, when a cormorant skimmed the surface, heading purposefully upstream.
A boat trip down to Dartmouth, and seeing clouds of steam rising from the dense woods on our left – a steam train wending its way through the woods and over a viaduct.
And lastly, coming home to Falmouth carnival and seeing our friends all cavorting round a wooden whale. Lucky for us – and them – the sun came out.
And now it's Monday and back to work. The morning started with a wet dog walk and having to weigh the cat. Ever tried to do that on a pair of kitchen scales?
