Waiting

Guess who was waiting when I got back from the school run?

Tiggy was waiting on the window sill hoping to be let in.

His favourite waiting place!

Housework

Most of today has been spent catching up from the weekend and thinking back on the weekend.

Revisiting Greenway

 Being used to rising early I was wake and drinking tea on the balcony by 7am. On opportunity for some morning light pictures of across the river Dart.

Having wanted to visit Greenway for some time I have now been there twice in a month! We decided on a much shorter walk today and parked up in Diitisham to get the ferry across to Greenway. This time we walked on up the road and entered Agatha Christie's old house by the main gate pasthe the small lodge house.

We took a short walk above the house grounds before heading into the gardens. We met another means of reaching the property on the drive.

The gardens were still looking good.

And we spotted some cucmelons which I have never previously see. They are smaller than a plum.

It was soon time to get back on the ferry before the journey home.

Dartmouth to Totnes and back

I was not looking forward to the walk today as 8 miles is more than we normally walk. I convinced myself that it was only like doing two 4 mile walks! We made our way down through the steep streets of Dartmouth to the waterfront.

It was only later in the day that we learnt the story of the station building in Dartmouth built by Brunel. It was built before the railway that was planned along the side of the river. This was eventually constructed on the Kingswear side of the river and so the station was never used for its original purpose.

We boarded a ferry to Diitisham where we were to start our walk.

Passing on the way the boathouse at Greenway that Brian and I had visited two weeks ago. We also learnt that this had earlier connections to Sir Walter Raleigh.

On arrival at Diitisham we began the walk to Totnes.

There were plenty of climbs up and down.

And some interesting as well as obscure sights a long the way.

There were some novel ways of crossing the creeks. Fortunately nobody fell in.

We finally arrived in Totnes rather foot sore. We soon revived after a sit down and a cuppa and were ready for the ferry back to Dartmouth.

On the return trip we saw kingfishers, egrets, herons and a seal. These were difficult to capture without a telephoto lens but I was able to capture one of a group of fellow passengers.

The climb back up to the house was hard going so a photo shot was a good excuse for a rest.

.

Walking in Dartington

OWe made a stop off at Dartington for a walk on the way to our walking weekend. The Dartington Estate large and includes a group of craft shops. We had a coffee in the famous vegetarian restaurant Cranks before we started.

The route was not very obvious so frequent map checks were needed.

The route took us through the gardens of Dartington Hall. 

Autumn crocus were growing amongst the autumn leaves. 

Dartington Hall itself is a magnificent building with the oldest bit dating back to 1400. It is now a trust and mainly used for conferences. 

After getting lost and taking a short cut we made it back to the cars!

On arrival at our house we found we had fabulous views over Dartmouth.

 

Potato Harvesting

We grow about 10 acres of potatoes which is small in comparison to the big farmers. Today they finished harvesting them so there was a big cheer all round. The dry weather has been ideal for potato harvesting and they have been busy all week.

This is helped by an efficient harvester and careful preparation of the ground before planting to remove stones. It used to take 3 or 4 people on board to remove mud clods and stones but this year they mostly managed with one.

The ground is cut and the potatoes are pulled up onto an elevator.

The mud, stones and helm is riddled and shaken out and deposited back in the field.

The belt runs along the top where any debis left is manually removed.

Then the potatoes drop into a hopper.

The hopper is then tipped into a trailer.

So all is safely gathered in leaving empty rows waiting to be ploughed.

Potato ground needs no extra manure to grow corn next year so it will be ploughed straight away.

Summertime Photography Scavenger Hunt Summary

The end of summer is here and the Summertime  Photography Scavenger Hunt is officially over. I have already posted my pictures and sometimes more than one. I have collected together one of each for the final link with Rinda

I have had great fun doing the hunt, being new to blogging it has been a good opportunity to link up with other bloggers. It has made me keep my eyes open and has involved help from both family and friends.

No.1 A Sign Welcoming you to your home town or village.

I chose a stone sign to a local village that was placed in celebration of the Millenium.

No. 2 A Garden Gnome

Gnomes eventually seemed to be appearing everywhere! I have chosen one in a friend's garden that I visit regularly but I had never noticed him before!

No. 3 Birds on a Wire

 It was interesting to see how many people lived in areas with no over head wires. Lucky them! We often have power cuts or interference to our phone line in bad weather. It does however give an ideal chance to watch our summer visitors the swallows. I have indeed followed the swallow chicks on my blog. So here they are! The chicks newly fledged collecting outside my kitchen window.

They are now gone until next summer. What a lot of miles they have ahead of them!

No 4 A Group of Tourists

My first visit to the USA gave me just the chance to snap some of the other tourists in Washington.

 No. 5 A Rack of Postcards

Again easy to achieve on holiday!

 No. 6 An Urban Street Scene

I snapped this one pretty early on and could have done better but I am still fascinated as to why anyone would want to sit on a piece of artificial grass in a city like Bath with so many beautiful parks and squares!

No.7 A Rural Landscape 

Plenty of choice for this one when you live on a farm but the field with a view plus the combine harvester depicts our summer.

No 8  A tattoo on a person

I did feel rather intrusive catching this one. The hot weather certainly meant there wer plenty on view!

No. 9 A Bakery

None of the bakeries I saw looked very appealing so I chose a historical aspect. The bakery in the kitchens of a stately home called Dyrham Park.

No. 10  A photo Bomb

Whoops! There were several heads in the wrong place when trying to photograph my daughter at her prom.

No 11 A Horn

I again found quite a variety but this sheep certainly had a winner.

No.12 A Mascot

A trip to a Baseball Game ( not a match as my Canadian/ American 2nd cousin told me) was a first for me. What an interesting experience! What an added bonus to have a mascot. Screech the Washington Nats Mascot appeared during the Presidents Race (and what a curious thing that is too!)

No.13 A Sunrise

I only got up once to get this one! 

No. 14 A parade.

The Royal Welsh Show had a grand parade of all the prize winning stock.

No.15 A juggler

I guess I cheated slightly on this one. My visitor found me this picture in a children's book at Dyrham Park.

They are juggling!

No. 16 A Sign in another language other than English

A visit to Wales gave plenty of scope for this. The Welsh are very proud of their language and everything is in Welsh and English. Welsh is taught in all schools and it's importance I depicted in thie sign.

No. 17 A lamp post

This challenge has really made me notice lamp posts and I could have photographed hundreds in all sorts of places. Thie was the first I found and is very local. Quite surprising as we are int the middle of nowhere!

No. 18 A Waterfall

We walked to a beautiful waterfall in the Sherandoah National Park which was full of water.

No.19 A public garden

It was interesting to visit an American house and garden. It was more modest than many in the Uk but Monticello is certainly a picturesque place.

No. 20 A Bus with a picture painted on its side.

Nearly every city has it's open top bus tours and what a great way to get a first taste of a city. New York was no exception. There was quite a choice and not all of the same calibre as we were to discover! I hasten to ad that this is not the one we went on!

No. 21 A picture of myself depicting the season.

I did find the hot humid weather in Washington hard going when we were sightseeing. All was not lost at the zoo. I was able to find some temporary relief from the heat!

So well done Rinda for setting the challenge. Don't forget to have a look at everyone else's finds via the links on Rinda's blog and roll on next summer!