Stonehenge & Devon

On our way from Hampshire (Hampshire is the county Petersfield is in), we stopped by Stonehenge (funny fact-always thought it was called StoneheDge until I just now googled this...what an architecture student I am).

It was gated off, so we couldn't get in, but it was fine to see from the gate (and as it was freezing, we stayed for like 5 minutes). Clair says they only open it twice a year on the winter and summer solstice when they have a festival and the Druids have a ceremony to celebrate the sun's birthday. Although, while we were there, a man in a suit walked in right up to the stones (the security gaurd let him in), so he must have been a Stonehenge v.i.p.)

Rolling plains of Devon

Budleigh Salterton (in the county of Devon) along the Southern Coast of England-the cliffs and ground are actually made of dark red clay, and with the big storm last night, the sea looks red!

Budleigh Salterton Beach

Budleigh Salterton-funny name, beautiful seaside town. We also rode through a town called Newton Poppleford and saw one on the way to Devon called Harcombe Bottom. These Brits are creative with their naming...

Where Jeanie is house sitting, and we are staying. It sits on the beach. Not too shabby!

Budleigh Beach again

View from the gate of Connaught Garden in Sidmouth

Inside Connaught Garden

Had the most beautiful hydrangeas

Connaught Garden

Neat little fact about the Garden...

View of Sidmouth from Peak Cottage

Peak Cottage overlooking Sidmouth-Clair and I plan to buy this house! Well maybe not, but how lovely would it be to live here!

LOVE the little beach huts...

Told you I love them...

So Jeanie, Clair's mom's friend invited Clair and I down for a long weekend in Devon. Clair picked me up on Wednesday night from London. She went to work Thursday, so I just laid around the house mostly and stayed in the garden during the day. We woke up around 6 or so Friday morning and drove the 3 hour journey to Budleigh Salterton where Jeanie is house sitting for some friends. As we drove through the town, we noticed that there seems to be quite a lot of elderly people on scooters, and Jeanie explained that it's somewhat a posh retirement community like the Florida Keys, but with more young families buying into the market now.

Jeanie is effectively looking after the 4 new chickens, 4 turtles, 4 fish, 2 gerbals, one rather chunky Yorkshire Terrier (Mr. Bumbles) who has stolen all our hearts, and Henry, the 16 year old son of the couple. The house sits just along the beach (pebbles) and is three stories with 7 bedrooms and 3 restrooms. There is a lovely conservatory on the first floor that overlooks the front garden and ocean front (where we end up spending most of our mornings and evenings eating breakfast and dinner and watching the boats on the horizon once it's gone dark after 10) and also a second floor balcony which has gorgeous views down the main street.

As beautiful as the hosue is, it needs some T.L.C. It seems that projects have been started and not finished. The second floor-where Clair and I are staying in Haley's room (18 year old daughter on holiday with her mother and friend in Gibraltor), has a restroom with a huge bathtub with exposed plumbing, non working shower, and a toilet, but no sink. This seems to breed bad habits to me (not washing your hands after using the restroom??). The floor to the restroom is unfinished and in some areas has been taken up to expose dirt (on the second floor?). The light pull (not many places in England have switches-more pulls), is pulled out of the ceiling so the wires are exposed, and I'm fairly sure that if I pull just ever so slightly, I will pull the whole thing out of the ceiling (so I rarely turn on the light). We found out on our first night, that in one of the two closets in Haley's room, she actually has a sink (strange) as does the master bedroom (also on the second floor). This restroom really paints a picture of the house which is really quite grim (Clair's word), but I suppose when you wake up every morning and see the ocean, there are better things to do than fixing up your house!

We spent most of the day around Budleigh, walking through the town and along the beach and driving through places like Newton Poppleford (hahaha), Otterton (otters?), East Budleigh, and Sidmouth which are all fairly near to Budleigh Slaterton (amazing how easy it is now for me to write and say this town whereas before I couldn't think of the name for the life of me!). It was a great introduction to Devon!