More pie

The day had come round for the Buckfast brother-in-law and we decided that perhaps we would not give the Sea Trout at Staverton another go, deeming it all too likely that the cuisine there, as noticed at reference 1, would fail to please again. Eventually, we settled on the Abbey Inn, more or less hanging over the Dart at Buckfast. There were problems with the roof on the day and the barmaid, a lady of middle years, was kept busy with builders, diners and boozers. Fortunately she knew stuff, kept cheerful and did the business.

I opted for pie, entirely adequate with quite decent vegetables. Served on the sort of arty plate which is now popping up everywhere. I think the others played safe with fish and chips.

From there to Ashburton to see if we could find a Guardian and some lentils. Answer yes, with the Co-op visible right doing a Guardian and the delicatessen visible left doing the lentils. The lady in the shop had to climb up a ladder to get to the shelf containing the lentil jar from which she weighed out the 400g or so that we wanted against a festivity later in the week. Rather expensive, but all very entertaining.

Odd sort of town Ashburton, with quite a lot of shops, a lot of them catering to niche markets, but not much in the way of either restaurants or public houses. Perhaps it did better when more people went in for walking holidays on Dartmoor. Perhaps it did better still when the tin mines were still working and it was still a market town. Also a place which used to boast a fine second hand bookshop with a large shrink department (this being the name used for cataloguing purposes), from which I used to make the odd purchase.

The following day, a memory lane job at Dawlish, a modest seaside town which we used to know well, but which we have not visited much in recent years. Also the day of the fish finger sandwich, as noticed at reference 2.

However, fish fingers were later. The day actually started at Daisy's tea room, which was busy, where we took tea and toasted tea cakes.

Other features included the town theatre, thought to have been repurposed as such in the late 1950's.

And the famous black swans. On this occasion, all facing the same way, all in the same pose, head tucked in and one leg tucked in. Plus a lot of ducks and some sea gulls.

I tried asking Bard why these swans do this, and was not terribly impressed by its answer, which I thought was largely made up. Nevertheless, the term 'unilateral' was helpful (one also gets unipedal) and quite a lot of people seem to think that it is to do with heat conservation. From there I got to the rather old-fashioned reference 3, but I have failed to find a satisfactory, short story. Maybe I will try again later.

Major works on the sea front, between the railway and the sea, involving a lot of concrete and including an elevated walkway, but it was too cold and windy to stay long. We will have another look on another day. 

We also wondered who paid for this sort of thing. Some sort of cooperative effort between Devon County Council, the water people (responsible for flood protection) and the railway people (concerned with the integrity of this important railway line)?

All very different from the scene only the week before, when the town was flooded by torrential rain, with the snap above offered by ITV.

The Ashburton route route back to Holne was closed by work on telegraph poles - perhaps telephone poles - and so we took the back road from Buckfast to Holne, a good deal busier than usual in consequence. Passing maybe a dozen cars on this single track road - but only one serious bit of reversing, which was just as well as my reversing never was much good.

Back to our turning just before the cattle grid onto the moor, just after a small herd of large brown cows on the move had got clear. So not a pain, just a bit of local colour to remind us that we were in the country.

On the next day, our last day, back in the lanes, where we were struck by the amount of fresh growth on the gorse - with the delicate variation in the greens not visible in the snap above.

Proceedings closing with a lentil stew, confected from the lentils from Ashburton, together with some onions and left over gammon. Very good it was too.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2023/05/licensed-dining-in-far-west.html.

Reference 2: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2023/10/a-devon-delicacy.html.

Reference 3: Unipedal Postures in Birds - George A. Clark - 1975.