First light on a frosty morning

Determined to put a camera gadget to the test my early start led to the Babeny cul-de-sac between Yar Tor and Sharp Tor. I allowed myself thirty five minutes to reach the spot, having sped down the A38 leaving the dual carriageway at Ashburton.  From there the road leads up to Poundsgate and eventually to Princetown. 

The lane leading to Babeny up past Yar Tor

Frosted tussocks and frozen pools

Sharp Tor

 Just in time to see the sun up at 7.10 am, several pairs of skylark were to be heard in full song but the wind was keen and carried within it, specks of light rain, enough to spoil some images that might otherwise have been of use. 

Ancient field systems

Excited at the prospect of  the ever changing light and seeking out what I hoped would be good vantage points, but the wind chill soon chased me back to the relative warmth of the car, my fingers tingling and too chilled to operate the camera for more than twenty minutes. 

The same scene ten minutes later and the colours have changed

Time to head home for a warm cup of tea

Roots and new Shoots

Dawlish holds quite a few memories for me but a wind of change blows through the palm trees. Here is the terrace overlooking the sea and facing towards the east. We soon moved away to a sheltered town house which faced south and less exposed to the elements. 

The beach sand has been lost over the intervening years

 The gaping hole in the sea wall penetrated to the very foundations of the terrace

A mariner seems to have washed up here

The Mayor and Town council now swallowed up into Teignbridge District Council.  Dawlish might as well have been invaded by a gang of pillaging  thieves.  Much like the UK is being swallowed by the EU

My workplace for a long time

My earliest recollections of the place include that Victorian Terrace that was threatened by the storm, recently breached beside the railway line. My parents moved there with just me and the cat, but the cat ran away and I  was almost carried away following a tonsillectomy. I lost blood but by the good care of my mother and Dr Lees I was whisked off to hospital in the back of his car at midnight to Exeter.

Where the wind of change blows

Before the visitors arrive

And here is the parade of shops where I spent many years of tedium. A self imposed sentence of twenty five years from which escape could not come soon enough.

Sitting on a clutch of seven eggs she gently turns them over at intervals

Dartmoor & Quiet Enjoyment

A start this morning was not made early enough to catch the colours of the sunrise. With the hood down on the Morgan this frosty morning the chill factor was well below zero. The first time for a long time, when I can say the Moor was deserted. Devoid of vehicles, apart from the stray tractor and one or two abandoned cars left by the roadside. Near the Warren House Inn one had left the road and rolled, shattering all the windows. Bits of trim all adrift.
Today the snow had melted and the quiet was complete. 

The drum of the 4/4 motor was drowned out by the quiet, except for the few sections of narrow lane where the ice formed and had partially melted. Here it crackled beneath the wheels to the sound of frying bacon and egg, in a saucepan too hot.
I was so contented with my lot that the camera stayed stowed away for most of the outward drive. Stopping in Tavistock for a slice of bread pudding in the pannier market at about 10 am, searching for that elusive mascot that the radiator lacks. Also watched for, a camera tripod but none was found here today.

The Moor was home to some of my earliest known forebears, so I am fortunate to be able to wander those lanes they would have wandered. Whether they roamed on shanks pony or horse and cart I cannot say, but there would have been no engine.  

At Holn at last and home-bound I found an opportunity to play with my camera and some filters.  I am pleased with the results so far.

At the doctors surgery last week I was questioned by the phlebotomist about my medication (pills for thinning the blood). Was I taking all that was prescribed? She asked.  I confirmed that I was, adding that phrase: "with due diligence".  The lady gave me one big cheeky grin and seemed favourably amused; so I bowled her another googly. "Quiet enjoyment". I said, and told her that it's one of my favourites !

Here is where she became quite joyful with the concept, when I added that its something all of us are entitled to in our own home. Part of our entitlement conferred by way of ownership.
I feel just so entitled to enjoy Dartmoor quietly, hence the title to this post.

One week Home Alone

Helen has been enjoying some Mediterranean sun while babysitting for Sophie and Max, which leaves me fending for myself. Today the wind was chilly at Brixham. An early lunch of cheesy chips by the harbour checking over my replacement camera lens (second hand). Mifsuds happily swapped the one bought earlier which was faulty. The black backed gull at the header of this page shows its sharp as a 70-300 AF Nikon lens should be. Given free along with it came a quite useful soft-back on landscape photography which I am impressed with. Consequence being I shelled out yet more cash on some graduated neutral filters.
A hot tea went down well beside the lifeboat station while the 4/4 was safely tucked away alongside the yachts, high and dry at the slipway.

Earlier in the day these Canada Geese were spotted rising from the marshes at Exminster.

I Don't Believe It.. Operation Weasel

Gravity waves exist for sure. Einstein proved it a hundred years ago.
This week the excited Americans claim to have proved it by observation.
The listening device was not directed towards any particular point in space.
The lady announcer said that they had been exceedingly fortunate in having switched on at the moment two black holes were seen to have been merging 1.2 billion light years away from the USA and much too coincidental for my liking.

We are shown a computer simulation of the said two black holes merging, which is all very well and makes for interesting footage on screen, but is no verification of gravity waves actually detected anywhere.

Within two arms of split laser light beams, shone at right angles to one another, inside a couple of tunnels four kilometres long, might have been lurking a Money Spider dangling from the tunnel roof.    Weasel in the Works - Update

The nail in the coffin for me was the scientist at the rostrum, gesticulating the words: "We have done It".   

That was my Victor Meldrew moment. Please repeat the experiment a dozen times to persuade this doubter.

      On the opposite side of our planet the LHC collider is a machine consisting of 16.5 miles of a circular tunnel 100 metres underground in Switzerland. It incorporates massive superconducting magnets. Two particle beams are made to cross paths and are guided to smash head on into one another with the equivalent energy of a Eurostar Express Train travelling at full speed. Theorists work around the clock aided by supercomputers to understand what happens here,
Some say it is possible to create minute black holes in this process, but assure the rest of us that they quickly decay and evaporate.

As yet, no one claims to have detected a graviton; the theoretical particle which may help explain gravity.
However, the new claims for gravitational waves detected in the USA may have accidentally discovered the first graviton, shot at point blank range (in cosmological terms) from the particle physics laboratory CERN, near Geneva when a "severe electrical perturbation" occurred in the early hours of Friday morning caused by a weasel in the works. Needless to say the little creature did not survive the high voltage encounter.

Wild winds and water meadows

Powderham Cork Oak avenue

A break in the clouds and escape from the confines of the garage this afternoon. On my home patch of Devon there is plenty to see on a short round trip to Topsham to check progress of the Thames Barge under slow renovation.  Little to report in the past few months sorry to say. 

Trout's boat yard

From the quay the Pride of Exmouth steams up as far as the barge, loaded with bird watchers  spotting from the comfort of the top deck, telescopes to hand. All on board dressed against the chill wind. At low tide there was barely enough water to reach this point. 

The pride of Exmouth

Despite the gales and wet, spring has sprung very early. Early Arctic Terns are here already, crocus and daffodils in bloom too.

Thames Barge under renovation

Years of hard work still to be done

Stern timbers exposed

Funds still being raised 

Looking south down the Exe towards Exmouth

Golf course regularly grazed by geese

Escaping the Arctic shores and Siberian winter

Gale force westerlies approaching

Brake OR Stop

Crisis EU immigration. NHS in crisis. Calais at crisis point. The railways underfunded, roads underfunded, Doctors and Teachers leaving for places overseas right now.

The UK cannot halt, stop, reduce or influence immigration into our little island without leaving the EU.

Throwing wholesome, edible fish back into the sea is a waste of good food but the EU insists we do. Catch an immigrant criminal or terrorist and throw him back to where he came from?   "Oh No! "  His or her rights are to be respected says the EU.

Vote OUT the 23rd June -- Stop this nonsense.