Dartmoor and friends for dinner
Got up early this morning to make the most of our one half-day in the week of being together, had croissants for breakfast (well, they all did, I had a banana & strawberry smoothie 
), and got up to Dartmoor by about 10am.
I still don’t see the attraction of Dartmoor, I must confess. It is beautiful in a strange sort of way, I suppose, but it just seems a bit bare, to me. The children absolutely loved it though, went running from rock to rock and generally had a brilliant time, I can see it becoming a habit – especially when we can easily go back to the van for soup & rolls (and the obligatory toilet break) rather than coming home. Carrot & Almond today again – one of our faves, will post the recipe later for you, Emma
Of course this term we are still coming back for Anna’s Stagecoach – if nothing else I’m glad she’s changing stage-school things because of the awkward timing of this one! She went off to that for the afternoon, Abbie did some piano practise then went off to play with Joe and Mollie, and Steve & I attacked the two-foot high mess that was our lawn … now looking neat and tidy, hopefully that will be it for the winter.
Rog & Ruth and their girls popped round for the rest of the afternoon – we chatted, children played, Anna came home, and we had dinner together which was unexpected but really nice.
Since they’ve gone we’ve done violin practise and baths, now Anna and Steve are improvising together on the piano which is really nice to listen to
October 2nd, 2005 at 20:18
Grimspound. Now come on, you have to admit that is spectacular and a bit eerie
Don’t you?
Bit of a climb though, that one!
October 2nd, 2005 at 20:38
rofl, Sarah- I just noticed your link to me on the right- I’m afraid I don’t think I’m going to get any further pasting on the previous blog or writing new posts.
Did I ever link to that or was it just guesswork on your part?
As it looks like Pip will flexi-school soon, I may blog then as I think it might be a *process* worth journaling….and of course I’m going to have rather more time on my hands with Pip doing 3/4 (haven’t decided yet- although I was surprised to calculate that 4 days per week came to only about 150 days per year!) and Titch happily wedded to 2 mornings at playgroup!!!
October 2nd, 2005 at 23:12
Heather – pure guesswork – not too difficult though
Will look forward to hearing about the flexi-schooling, definitely a process I’ll be interested to hear about. How far have you got?
October 3rd, 2005 at 8:56
Lol, Max said “come and explore the countryside round here and then see how appealing Dartmoor is!”
October 3rd, 2005 at 9:09
I’ve been through Grimspound a couple of times.
Dartmoor was where I became convinced I wanted to mountainbike seriously. But walking is a bit tedious there, with just grass and rocks to stagger across. Still if it’s good for the kids then it was worth a visit.
October 3rd, 2005 at 15:39
We like Dartmoor:-)
It’s great for flying the kites, kicking a rugby ball about and playing in the snow in the winter.
It’s free, plenty of parking and lots of nice pubs about too
The kids love it.
Looking forward to the soup recipe….
October 3rd, 2005 at 18:57
I think my only experience of Dartmoor has been driving over it in pea-souper fod praying that we were still on the road. Put me off a bit
October 3rd, 2005 at 20:55
Could have been worse Jenny, my first experience of it was WALKING over it in a pea-souper, with our camping stuff on our back, skirting round killer bogs and wishing the compass hadn’t stopped working!
October 3rd, 2005 at 22:01
The more time you spend on the moor the better it is. It is the extremes that make it for me – the scorching summer days in February, when it’s shorts and t-shirt weather. The pea-soupers that make you really navigate, however well you know it. The winds that make you lean. The morning last February when we woke at -7°C and I didn’t get a drink until about 10 o’clock when my platypus finally thawed inside my duvet jacket! It’s waking up knowing you have to walk for 2 or 3 hours to get to the nearest road. It’s cooking at sunset on a Tor in April, or looking at the stars a bit later at night, tracing the Milky Way across the sky. It’s hearing the skylarks, but taking ages to see them as they float in the sky. It’s the days with no wind when there’s nothing to hear. The days when snow sucks away the sound. Hot soup on Christmas Day.
It’s sharing these experiences and so watching others grow to love the place too. It’s watching a team of 6 teenagers, who have trained through all this for 3 months, leap and limp, suffer and smile, into Okehampton Camp after completing their 35 or 45 miles in the Ten Tors expedition. Priceless.
October 4th, 2005 at 8:40
There speaks a *true* Dartmoor lover