A TERRIBLE TERRIBLE DAY.

To all who read this blog I wont be doing any blogs for a few days, last sunday morning our adopted son Steven passed away suddenly but peacefully.It certainly came as a shock to us all as he was just 44 years old and fairly healthy. An Autopsy is being held next Wednesday, obviously neither Sue or I are capable of much sensible thought, so bear with us and I will pass on information as I get it.
Bob.

COCKINGTON, DEVON.

Cockington is a beautiful little village, unbelievably just 1 mile outside of the bustling seaside town of Torquay, here in S Devon.Cockington is reputed to be the most photographed village in the country. Some of the village itself and its Church and Manor date back to at least the 12th century. The village itself is now a Country Park which covers around 460 Acres and has a small resident population. The lovely old Cockington Manor and most of the Parish was at one time owned by the "Lord of the Manor" Mr C H Mallock, who until around 1900s resided in the Manor house, he also owned and lived in the very large, expensive and extremely beautiful cliff side Villa called Silvermead House.The village stands in stunning countryside with a lovely old Church, Pub, Keepers cottage, Saw Mills with a Water wheel, a School house and a well preserved 14th century Blacksmiths Forge.It has lovely gardens and Stables, these house the carriage Horses, these Carriages can be hired to be travel around and view the whole village.
About 6 weeks ago Sue, I and two of our Campsite friends George and his wife Lyn went Cockington for a day out, on arrival we walked all through the village, on up the long tree lined Avenue to the Manor House, stopping of course for a cuppa on the way, these then are some of the photo's we took.
Apologies for the first picture it was into the sun.
I must thank BBC Devon for the last few photo's.
Do please click on any photo to enlarge it.
Below this is a close up of the "Smithy's Forge" it was in constant use until quite recently.It has quite a collection of "Horse Brasses" for sale here too.
Below, Myself and George walk around the lovely water garden in the "Olde worlde Cafe".
Below one of the many Thatched cottages that abound the village.
This picture of the "Smithy's Forge"shows the Thatch and its unique shape, notice the wooden dogs leg front support.
Below, This old barn is used by the cafe as a shelter either in hot or wet weather.When we went a few years back the fine old flour grinding water wheel was in use, now it and its pool has fallen into disrepair and is quite unsightly which is a shame.
This is one of two pictures of the inside of Cockington Church. This was according to the Doomsday book possibly the site of a chapel from Saxon times, according to it the Lord of the time would have had his chapel here possibly. In 1203 the Manor of Cockinton was leased from the Welsh Monks to "Torre Abbey". The oldest part of the Church still standing is the "Norman Tower" dating from around 1220 and has walls 6 ft thick in places.
Again the inside of the Church, there is a story that still circulates that the "Pulpit"came from a Spanish "Armada"Galleon captured in 1588.
These are the BBC pictures. Below is the Church, this is just yards from the main Manor house.
This beautiful cottage stands guard on the the main gate leading up to Cockington Manor.
Below, Cockington Manor itself, the church lies just out of picture to the left. So why not visit here,for a walk through the lovely narrow tree lined streets, overlooked by Thatched Cottages. Maybe a stroll around the manor estate taking in the lakes, which were reputedly built by the Monks living in Torre Abbey to supply them with fresh Fish. Before leaving do visit one of the idyllic Tea gardens and enjoy a "Real Devon Cream Tea".
Joke of the day.
A WOMAN'S POEM:

Before I lay me down to sleep,

I pray for a man, who's not a creep,

One who's handsome, smart and strong.

One who loves to listen long,

One who thinks before he speaks,

One who'll call, not wait for weeks.

I pray he's gainfully employed,

When I spend his cash, won't be annoyed.

Pulls out my chair and opens my door.

Massages my back and begs to do more.

Oh! Send me a man who'll make love to my mind,

Knows what to answer to, 'how big is my behind?'

I pray that this man will love me no end,

And always be my very best friend.

A MAN'S POEM:

I pray for a deaf-mute gymnast nymphomaniac with

huge boobs who owns a bar on a golf course,

and loves to send me fishing and drinking and biking. This

doesn't rhyme and I don't give a s**t.

SUMMERS PAST AND GONE.

Todays blog is a selection of Seaside pictures all taken during this year on our travels. Most of these pictures were taken during the summer months, I did think about keeping this post back to perhaps brighten up our full Winter days, then I thought knowing my memory I will forget and never do it, so then here it is. The first one then was taken just a fortnight ago in Croyde Bay with Sue sitting at a table at our favorite Cafe. This cafe is situated overlooking Croyde bay and beach at the baggy point end of this hugely popular surfing village. They serve great Tea, coffee, Sandwiches, Baguettes, and basket meals, what better a place to take your snacks while watching the surf.
Please do click on any picture to enlarge it.
This picture was taken during a bike ride to Cornwall and is of Fistral Beach at Newquay. This beach is probably the surf centre of Cornwall.
Another beach in Cornwall (Below), again taken during a bike ride this time of the famous resort of Perranporth. Click on it to see just how popular it really is
Below, again of Perranporth beach, with the Millenium Sundial in the foreground,this sundial points across the bay to Gull Rocks.
Much nearer to home (below) taken from the steps of the "Landmark Theatre" Cafe, in Ilfracombe, N Devon.
The shot below was taken just last sunday, we tried to capture the mist as it rose over the cliffs overlooking "Lynmouth", it hung there all day refusing to either thicken or disperse.
This shot captures the lovely little secluded beach at "Lee bay" nr "Ilfracombe", N Devon. The labrador was dieing to leap in after sticks his lady owner was throwing but for ages lacked the courage, eventually "Taking the plunge" after what seemed ages.
One here for "Ex Shammy", this shot of "Combe Martin" (Shammick) was taken from the Tea garden of the "Sandy Cove" hotel.One of the bungalows in the centre of the picture was once owned by her family. The 2nd large hill on the left is called "Hangmans hill" Sue and I climbed this a few weeks ago and will be the subject of a Winter blog.

This shot (below) if I remember rightly was taken from the road leading toward "Porlock" again in dear old Devon.
So i hope that has given you a bit of a "Summer Feeling", with some lovely places to visit here in the West country. We certainly feel very privileged to be able to spend our summers in this lovely area.
Now to come back to earth with a bump, this Video was taken just TWO weeks ago on the day we went to "Hartland Quay", it was taken right by the side of the car in "Westward Ho", blimey what a difference.



Joke of the day.

A chicken farmer went to a local bar... He sat next to a woman and ordered a glass of champagne.

The woman perks up and says, 'How about that? I just ordered a glass of champagne, too!'

'What a coincidence,' the farmer says, 'This is a special day for me, and I too am celebrating.'

'This is a special day for me too, I'm also celebrating!' says the woman.

'What a coincidence,' says the man.

As they clinked glasses, the farmer asked, 'What are you celebrating?'

'My husband and I have been trying to have a child, and today my gynaecologist told me that I'm pregnant!'

'What a coincidence,' says the man. 'I'm a chicken farmer and for years all my hens were infertile, but today they're finally laying fertilized eggs.'

'That's great!' says the woman, 'How did your chickens become fertile?'

'I used a different cock,' he replied.

The woman smiled and said,

'What a coincidence...'

HARTLAND QUAY.

At the start of this blog I must apologise for its length, so sorry in advance.
A couple of weeks ago sue and I decided that as it was such a miserable, wet day that we would go for a drive in the car.We decided on driving down the North Devon coast perhaps heading into Cornwall. So at around 11.00 am we set off, down through Barnstaple on the Atlantic Highway. on route we stopped off at the shopping centre of Atlantic village, this is situated just off the A39 on the Clovelly rd, where we bought a few odds and ends and some food for sandwiches.From here we went into Westward Ho fishing tackle shop for a mooch, then a cuppa just along the sea front. Then on again through Bideford (on the old road) and a look at the deserted quayside, it was hardly likely to be anything else as it was persistently raining and blowing a gale, we viewed this from the comfort of the car.From here we carried on the same road passing the Clovelly turn on toward Bude.A few miles along this road we turned off right signposted Hartland and Hartland Point and Quay.we had a quick look at the town of Hartland then went on to the lighthouse. When we arrived we found it was quite a walk to the actual lighthouse itself and the wind was probably at around 45 to 50 MPH and pouring with rain. We sat for quite a while hoping the rain would ease but after 40 mins or so we were unable even to open the window for photo's so we'd had enough and drove off.The next stop was to be the Quay, where we had heard there was a Pub, shop and Museum these sounded great in that weather.We stopped off in the car park overlooking this wild barren Coastline and made our snacks and a cuppa from the flask. Below the first few pictures show how wild this coast around here really is. Its no wonder that in just over 250 years there have been over 150 shipwrecks and groundings in just 40 miles of coast. The latest of these was in 1982 when the "Joanna" a cargo boat carrying Wheat to Wales ran aground and eventually broke up, luckily with no loss of life. The remains of the "Joanna" can still be seen today on the waters edge at the bottom of the steep cliffs, although she has broken into two parts both are clearly visible. Below this picture was taken from the higher car park overlooking the headland and pieces of the hotel grounds.
PLEASE DO CLICK ON ANY PICTURE TO ENLARGE IT.
Looking toward Bude these rocks are small but razor sharp.
Below, this shot shows the heavy rain and mist, this combination has been the cause of over 70% of the wrecks.

Below, the rugged, wild coast line stretches up to 20 miles in either direction.
This cluster of rocks below you can climb down onto on nice calm days.

Below, You can see that any ship washed up on these shores would soon be holed and in trouble, breaking up very quickly.
Below, This is the Shipwreck museum. It is an absolute mine of information, with dates losses of shipping plus fabulous photo's and drawings. There was also a British world war two bomber that crash landed here in the bay.
A lot of the Artefact's in this Maritime Museum came from the hundreds of wrecks in the area.
Shame about the picture (below) as it shows the Quay back in the days when it really was a Quay and small safe haven for shipping. There was a Quay here back as far as 1321 and was finally washed away in the 1700 century.
Hartland point has been known to sailors for hundreds of years as "Sailors Grave", for obvious reasons. Below I'm afraid we were just too wet to take notes so although we have some nice pictures we have no ships names to accompany them.

The narrow channel around 10 miles wide between Lundy Island and the Hartland area Coast also explains why so much shipping has been lost here. I remember this picture is of a Vessel one of only a few that were towed safely away.If you enlarge this picture you can just about read what is written underneath the photo.
Below, A lot of shipping actually entered this narrow stretch of water to try to escape the vicious gales in the lee of Lundy, only to be washed ashore here.
Once past Lundy you have 3,000 miles of wild Atlantic for the winds to build themselves up in.
As you can see a lot of these vessels were quite large and modern and possibly had accurate navigation systems but they hadn't accounted for up to 100 MPH onshore winds.
Below, what looks like a large Trawler, here I presume they are still struggling to save her.
Loads of Lives were saved by brave local fishermen and lifeboat crews although there was quite a high loss of life amongst these men.
A lot of the local people along this coast also did quite well with the looting of a good many ships. A fair few were also caught and prosecuted, with heavy prison sentences passed. So to sum up a very enjoyable day was had despite the weather. I would recommend a day trip to this lovely part of the coast with plenty for all the family to do. The fishing here can be quite good with catches of mainly Wrasse, Bass and Mackerel.

Joke of the day.
THIS IS A GOOD BUT NAUGHTY ONE SO PLEASE BE WARNED.
Tesco's have installed medical machines, For £5 and a urine sample it can diagnose any condition, a man went with a sore elbow, the computer printout read " you have tennis elbow soak it in warm water and avoid heavy work for two weeks", impressed he wondered if he could fool the machine, he mixed tap water with dog s**t, urine samples from his daughter and wife and then pleasured himself into the mixture. when he placed it in the machine the printout read: 1.. your tapwater is too hard, use softener.
2.. your dog has ringworm, give it antibiotics.
3..your daughter is on cocaine, get her to rehab.
4.. your wife is expecting twins, not yours get a lawyer.
5.. and if you keep playing with yourself your elbow will never get better.

THANK YOU FOR SHOPPING AT TESCO'S
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