Early days

Pulling into a layby on the A303 for a bit of a leg stretch on the way down, I was surprised how hard it was to walk along this bit of kerb - although after a pretty hopeless start, I was much improved ten minutes later. Two feet off the ground and I don't think I would have managed at all, at least not without bilateral support. I guess my sense of balance is on the way down.

At about this point in the journey we caught a No.37 registration plate. Warm, but not warm enough. I wondered about whether I needed to relax the rules to modulo 100, not coming to a decision on that point, but finding in the days that following, that it would not have made any difference if I had. No.36 is still waiting.

Then down the lane from our cottage we found quite a lot of the sort of oak twigs which are falling off the oak tree by our micro ponds in our back garden. But while we may not be alone, I still think we are leading the pack. There seems to be something wrong with our tree which makes it shed twigs rather than leaves. Last year during the summer, this year, after the summer's dry spell, during the autumn.

The breaks are neatly domed rather than splintered and I suspect that they happen at some kind of annual growth ring.

But the effect is that there is a lot of dead wood in the tree. I suppose it could just be a natural shedding of the lower, shaded foliage - think how bare the lower boughs of a mature tree are - but I have yet to be convinced.

Never seen Venford Reservoir so low. But it still makes a very pleasant walk. Say forty minutes to get round - nearly always anti-clockwise - plus the twenty minutes to get there and back from the converted cow shed where we stay.

Quite a lot of fly agarics, aka Amanita muscaria, about, a few of which are snapped above. A common mushroom, but one with an interesting story according to reference 2. Beach then reservoir at the top of the snap.

Fringe of deciduous left, mainly conifer right.

From the barrage, looking roughly south east.

One of the various leats up on Holne Moor.

The view east from our kitchen window. Even better from the bedroom above, where BH likes to sit and read at the window.

Geese still present at the Two Bridges Hotel. It would be fun to stay there, as they rather fancy their food and wine there, but we have yet to work out a way which does not involve too much time or expense. 

Crash barrier, Dartmoor style, above the outfall to Burrator Reservoir.

A curious bunker, complete with a door made from a slab of granite. Never got to find out what it was about. Maybe the reservoir supplied Plymouth and was so thought to be a target in the second world war. Making this a bunker for the people manning the anti-aircraft battery?

Another reservoir which was rather low. And I had thought that Dartmoor was a wet place.

Next time we shall take the path down, left in this snap, and see what we can find.

Somewhere along the way, a sheep butting incident in the middle of the road. First time I have sheep at it.

References

Reference 1: https://www.swlakestrust.org.uk/venford. The South West lakes trust manages the leisure & heritage sides of things, presumably leaving South West Water to worry about the water works.

Reference 2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amanita_muscaria.