Tag: Dartmoor

#1381 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Lola1 Comment
Puppacino from Starbucks.

Our post Christmas life has been about rehabilitating Lola as our only dog. Left to her own devices she would sleep most of the day and happily nip out to the yard for comfort breaks. This lifestyle would not be good for her. We have discovered that she is energised by trips where other dogs and humans can give her contact and interest . We had not attempted countryside walks until yesterday when a bright and breezy Dartmoor attracted us.

Traffic calming on Dartmoor.

We walked along the river Dart at Dartmeet. Lola tolerated the isolation but was indifferent  to the history or beauty of the area until she was offered a half share of a warm sausage roll on our return to the car.

Road Bridge 18th Century with damaged Medieval bridge in the foreground.

She sniffed Lichen boulders but not with any great enthusiasm.

Our second walk of the day was more to her taste. Ashburton also took in history with one of the world’s oldest inns. Trading as an Inn since 1140

Nearly 900 years of dog messages expressed on its exterior walls. Lola loves to track and was nose to the pavement once she left this rich trove of Canine communication. She sniffed out a serendipitous collection outside a closed antique shop. Either intentionally or by accident this tiny collection of  objects has been rained on, pissed on and then caught in bright winter daylight.

Lola chose not to leave her own message but I was glad to have been dragged by her to see it. I just love the patina of the teapot against the terracotta, rust and vivid blue plant pot.

In some ways the picture of the day and for Lola, possibly the highlight. She is most definitely more urban than rural for the time being.

#1263 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Serendipity1 Comment

The Avon River but not as we know it. The Avon River at Bantham is a regular swimming spot for us on the coast. But by accident, yesterday evening we got much closer to its source near Ryders Hill on the high South Moor of Dartmoor. Hugely swelled by the last two days of torrential rain it was a noisy, splashy , vivid river. Quite unlike our usual, gentle ideas of the Avon.

Boathouse at the mouth of the River Avon

Burgh Island at the mouth of the River Avon

Normally when we have been paddling about in the River Avon  the dogs smell salty with the fragrances of seaweed and rock pools. Yesterday there was no paddling in the river and they smelled of bog.

Happy Easter.

#905 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Devon, dog walks1 Comment

There was a little bit of Christmas in our Brunch outing yesterday. We had a voucher for a restaurant in Tavistock for Christmas. We love both the restaurant and the town but not its weather. So the minute predictable good weather was forecast we took a trip to Tavistock and had a great brunch seated outside on a Mediterranean/ West Devon Balcony.

The sun was shining and birds singing. Christmas-red shoes and nails were a nod to the occasion.

The dogs were welcome and approved of the quality of the sausages. Remarkably the sun kept shining so an adventure further out to Brentor was planned.

Brentor is a church on a Tor. Brent Tor

Moors & Tors

On good weather days Brentor church can be seen from miles and miles away.

Dinky red shoes and a maxi dress are not normal attire for climbing the Tors. I ditched the dinky shoes and put on something a little more rugged.

The maxidress, while not particularly suitable gave me a fabulous perspective to how women before 1920 would have felt clambering their way to worship, celebrate marriages and births or to mourn at funerals.

Billowing fabric and winds are great as sails at sea but not so useful climbing a hill.

The views were worth every gusty moment.

The church itself is small and simple.

The memorial to Percival Cocks shows that getting married at the later than average age of 43 , in a church on top of a Tor was not the bravest thing he did that year.

Bluebells filled the tiny church with their scent.

A sunny morning filled perfectly. Sensation at every turn.

The story of Percival Cocks is below

https://www.submerged.co.uk/percival-cocks-navasota/

The Legend and the current life of Brentor Church is below.

https://www.dartmoor.gov.uk/learning/dartmoor-legends/the-legend-of-brentor-church

Home

https://www.britainexpress.com/attractions.htm?attraction=2801

#556 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Drawn to the Valley, Serendipity1 Comment
From the moors to the sea.

Yesterday afternoon and evening I had the pleasure of receiving and unpacking the work of 42 artists who had submitted work to the Drawn to the Valley Spring exhibition.

On average the artists had submitted 10 pieces of work. That is a lot of glorious creativity to unpack.

Work that beautifully swoops from the moors of the Tamar Valley down to the Atlantic Coast.

Sometimes in minute detail.

I know that I witter on about art a bit but last night was such a delight to see how people are inspired by our local and dramatically changing landscape.

It is also just the loveliest thing to spend some time with the artists themselves. We work away in our studios like solitary bees only coming together infrequently.

For local people a trip to Meavy Lane in Yelverton might be just the thing for a long Bank Holiday Weekend.

I’m going to pop along on Monday to see the exhibition in full show-time mode. More pictures then.

#552 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Art for sale, SerendipityLeave a comment

Six original paintings and 3 prints , wrapped, labelled, priced and packed along with 20 cards, ready to go to Dartmoor for an exhibition later in the month. It has been a busy month artwise. Some of my bigger pieces have been hanging,for sale, in a large waiting room for some years. Relocation and an interior designer with differing tastes has returned the unsold ones to my studio. Some have subsequently sold but others will find their forever homes later in the year.

All the pictures for the latest exhibition look like classical landscapes but there is a twist, I have been galvanised recently to represent wind in pictures, using abstract imaging to demonstrate buffeting and movement, or not, when the experience of gusting storms affects the way the landscape feels.

One picture is vaguely accurate but is actually entirely imagined. The Rock at Yelverton is a place to go for families, hikers, dog walkers and lovers. This rocky outcrop is a destination and holds multi generational memories. A virtual geocache of love.

It is both exactly as I remember it and yet always different whenever I visit.

Currently it is in a box with all the other artworks. Memories and sensations trapped first on paper, then mounted and framed, snuggled in travelling blankets and boxed up ready for their big moment. A Spring Exhibition at Yelverton on Dartmoor.

#494 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn dog walks1 Comment

When I was young and we took our holidays in Devon I was always thrilled to see a Dartmoor pony. Wild horses did not roam in North East Essex. Wild horses were the thing of pop lyrics and imported American dramas. At 30 I moved to the west country and took a job that required me to commute across Dartmoor for half of each year. Commuting is tedious wherever it takes place. I realise I have had some of the most picturesque commutes in Britain. 10 years along the seafront at Brighton, 20 years crossing Dartmoor and 10 on the number 3 bus, or walking across the Milleniun Bridge from Tate Modern to St Pauls in London.

Only a fool could ever be bored on such journeys but a commute is exactly that. A journey between A and B with a time constraint. The pressure to be somewhere on time and ready to perform. So when I visit these locations as a non commuting person some of the old commuting anxieties flood in. The London commute was obviously complicated by traffic, protesters and terrorism at different times in my ten years. Similarly Brighton, the IRA bombing The Grand Hotel on Brighton seafront affected an already congested seaside city for months. Dartmoor was a distinctly different sort of commuting jeopardy. Livestock grazing on common land have no respect for a busy clinic schedule up in North Devon so meandering slowly up a road is their birthright. Similarly Dartmoor farmers, slow moving tractors with rickety trailers and truculent attitudes rarely bothered to pull over. In Devon and Cornwall many people really do check to see if you have a local numberplate before they decide if they will let you pass. The summer months bring the joy and wealth of tourists. Tourists who think nothing of abandoning their cars on the side of an already small road to capture a photograph of a wild pony. Which is exactly what we did yesterday.

I have no shame and no commuting anxiety.

Catkins on Hazel
Lychen on twigs
Dogs in a tree-stump cathedral.

#394 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Art for saleLeave a comment

A busy day in the beautiful Tamar Valley helping to set up an art exhibition has given me no free time for a blog today. There have been some amazing pieces of art delivered, and I will share some stories from there next week once the curators have worked their magic.But one picture caught my eye today. When I moan on about greige weather I should remember that not all greige is dull and tedious. Sometimes it is as beautiful as this painting.

Late evening Dartmoor by Paul Kemp

#197 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Art for sale, SerendipityLeave a comment

What to do on a damp Bank Holiday Monday when the dogs are at the groomers? Take ourselves off to Delamore Arts, a, not dog friendly Art Exhibition set in beautiful surroundings. This year is the 20th Anniversary of the event and I am ashamed to say that we were newbies, never having been before. In our defence we were not living in the South West for much of those twenty years but that seems a poor excuse to miss something so gorgeous and quintessentialy British in the very early summer. Regular visitors probably have a better chance of concentrating on the art,we were all over the place. Wowed by the parkland and the formal gardens before we even thought of looking at 3d or 2d artwork. Open for the whole of May this is an experience not to be missed. Full disclosure, there are lots of Drawn to the Valley Artists and Makers involved. I will only mention one DttV artist in this blog. Tessa Jane, who has been heavily involved in the organisation of this years exhibition as a local ambassador for Overcoming Multiple Sclerosis, the charity that is the beneficiary of Delamore Arts 22.

He Says Live With the World Inside You. Tessa Jane

The image below is the view looking out of the OMS Carriage Shed Gallery. Curated by Tessa Jane. So much to learn about OMS, the organisation, and Tessa Jane’s perspective as well as the valuable work being done by the University of Plymouth, all contained in a welcoming small space.

OMS seems to me, as an outsider, an organisation that supports people with MS to look outside and beyond their diagnosis. Hence my outside and beyond image.

I suppose in writing this blog without too much actual art I am encouraging local people to go and see this event for themselves. I am also supporting my own decision to go again and be able to write another blog that does talk just about art. Some hope!

Looking at plants like this was both diverting and the perfect preparation for looking at 2d art like this.

Wet Apples © John Hurford Hon SWAc

Wet Apples by John Hurford catches the eye at the Stables Gallery further away from the main house. Still authentically a stables, horses were being exercised as we exercised our minds. The Stables Gallery was the first one we visited after following the pencil trail.

A trail that took us, two cold water swimmers, past a swimming pond.

You can understand the pull and the fascination we felt towards just a quick sneaky dip in this tranquil water. But like the dedicated art lovers that we are we pulled our attention back to the job in hand and found life imitating art.

Gravel at Delamore
Azalea Leaves by Louis Victory

Then nature beguiled us into observing the search for pollen, by a very busy bumble bee. Who was up to his many armpits in the flowers of an Ichium.

Time to head off into the woods…

Portrait of Feathers Dawn Brooks-Ensor
Shattered Steve Hedley
Please Sit Isabel Coulton

Time to finish this particular Delamore Blog with my favourite sort of pictures. Its complicated…

Purbeck Form Four Andrew Thomas
Duet Dianne Griffin
Walnut Leaf Richard Cresswell

Pandemic Pondering #513

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Out, outLeave a comment
©Uphill Farm

Another Saturday night at the fireside. A month ago we went to a wedding, the first in many years. We so enjoyed the wedding and the venue that when they advertised a Fire Feast we were very swift to book a ticket.

©Uphill Farm

Sharing platters and communal seating under a marquee without sides made for a really comfortable event that felt more like a village fete gathering than a tentful of strangers. More comfortable than a village gathering because village gatherings always have the local personalities you would rather avoid. ( My own growing-up village had the post master who at only five feet 4 inches tall was also a peeping Tom, rather a challenge, but one that he rose to at weekends)

The marquee is within a walled garden on the edge of Dartmoor so everything that grows there is slightly ahead of our coastal yard.

The food was magnificent and music from Winter Mountain was very chilled as the name suggests. We had a great time, so good that we failed to take many pictures so this is a tiny blog. Below are some pictures from the Uphill Farm website. Have a fabulous Sunday, wherever you are.

https://www.uphillfarm.co.uk/

©UpHill Farm