Weekend recap - Sep 13/14

Saturday was my first proper hockey game in some twelve years.

Thankfully it was just a 'friendly', but judging by some of the on field tears, it wasn't very friendly after all...
As our opponents play in the division above us, we had a graceful, but unlucky 2-1 loss. The last goal, and a fizzer, went in, in the last minutes of the game.


I was surprised and pleased at how little my body ached afterwards, and how un-tired I was! :0
Here is the dork in action:

It was a really hot day! This Indian Summer thing, is kind of proving to be a reality...

As the game was in Dartmoor National Park, and close to another swim spot featured in the book, we decided to check it out and have a swim...

Most of the stream near the bridge was really shallow, with the icy moor water quickly tracing over mossy rocks... but the section just under the bridge was like a huge, (slow moving), whirl pool. The water is peaty, and looks like a strong cup of tea...

Still hot from hockey- and in my hockey shorts, I waded in. The water on the moor is always really bracing, but with the sun beating down, it felt delicious.

Steve took some convincing to get in, but was so pleased he did. We discovered the bridge was a great echo chamber, and gave some good ol' aussie "coeeeees".
I had my first proper visitor since moving here, in the afternoon, with Rob from uke club dropping in. He bought his handmade uke, and a box of ginger biscuits...

Then Steve and I went to a concert, which was part of the Totnes Festival: Baba Yaga...

It was quite mesmerising and really imaginative. I really enjoyed it.

Sunday Steve and I began the morning, enjoying the delicious sunshine with a walk around town. We then had an energetic game of frisbee on Vire Island, where busy squirrels darted between our feet. Hot, (yes hot!), we had a swim in the dart. I don't know if it was the contrast in temperatures, but my head felt like it was going to break off, like an icicle shard...

Then, the life of a farmer being what it is, and the sun actually shining, Steve went to work...

6/7 Recap

I've fallen off the bloggin' wagon... it was only a matter of time. But in hopes of ressurecting this thing, and keeping it up, I write...

Weekend 6/7 September

To start with on Saturday, I had my first hockey training session in hmmmn at least ten years.

It was needless to say, quite a shock to the system!

When the sky grew dark, I slyly did a rain dance, in the middle of our warm up run...

It seemed to work, as the sky cracked open, and the rain came thick and fast-

Arrr what a relief, saved by the rain!

Alas no, in England it rains so much, of course they keep playing, no matter the weather!?

I was very wet, very hot, and very tired at the end of it. I walked like a horse riding granny for about four days thereafter.

This was taken just as I got into the car, having run from training through the driving rain

Sunday Steve and I went on an adventure- just across the border in to Dorset, visiting the 'jurassic coast'. This stretch of coastline, which starts in Devon, has loads of fossils, particularly Charmouth- which is where we went.We were so ridiculously excited by our finds- they were everywhere!

Although we were forced to use some unconventional digging techniques at times! :

But it was well worth it, am-I-not smiling!?:

On our way back to the car, I waited for Steve as he dug out a bunch of iron-pyrite... good thing I wasn't too impatient. Not too far ahead of us, as we were walking back, a huge chunk of the cliff broke away and crashed to the ground...

I feel like a shark these days, swimming pretty much every day, I feel if I don't swim something is amiss.

Our swimming book said that a beach only ten minutes away, was described by "Waterlog" author, as being "Heaven on Earth"- certainly something worth checking out!

We got there at about 5:30pm, and the clouds were just begining to clear, and make way for the patient sunshine. The cliffs which line the beach were like honeycomb.

I announced I was going in. I didn't check the water temperature, I didn't want to- it's always some variable of cold. I dived into the first oncoming wave. The cold made me lose sense of everything for a split second, but then I was off. "Come on Steve, it's great", I hollered, as I bobbed up and down in the gentle waves.

Steve gallantly screamed his way in and quickly swam out to me, grinning. He did a few beeline loop-di-loops in breast stroke before swimming back to shore.

The almost waves made me miss Australian waters. Distance had erased the component of terror involved in body surfing, and left only the resonance of elation. I tried to catch some waves, but it was useless.

The water by now felt delicious and I was in no hurry to get out, but it was challenging doing breast stroke with the buffeting waves. So, I did the Australian crawl, cutting through the waves easily with my reaching arms. It was a whole new experience having my face submerged in that cold, but I felt more fully a part of nature- I was IN it!

When I was exhausted from swimming, I rolled over and floated on my back. I looked back at my Beautiful Steve waiting, smiling beautific on the beach, the glorious cliffs behind him, and the lumious sky above me.

Moments like this make me feel so connected to, well everything. I felt utterly grateful for being alive, being so incredibly fortunate to experience moments like that. Arr complete bliss

Uke club

Sunday swimventure...

As we woke up to rain on Sunday, Steve didn't have to work...

Arrr one of the perils of being a farmer in the Summer- on nice days you have to work!

Anyhow, luckily for us, it turned out to be a relatively nice day.

Steve and I looked on the local map for a new good swimming spot.

We earmarked a few places, before deciding on one really close to home.

Another weir, further upstream the Dart.

It felt like we had stepped in buckets of ice, when we waded in. The dark clouds didn't help with the mood much. It all seemed very unappealing to me! Then the clouds parted, and the blue flashes of damsels zoomed across the water surface, and the fish nibbled, and somehow it began to feel warmer... With Steve leading the way, we swam,(quickly!) across to the little wall of the weir. The sun warmed our bodies, and we set about adding to our rock collection.

Steve collected a mass of skipping beauties, and we had an impromptu skipping stone competition. With 6 it looked as though I was going to be the winner, than out of nowhere Steve pulled a 12, to become the undisputed stone skipping champ.I put our chosen rocks in my swimmers, and swam back to the shore- before dumping my rocks, and swimming back and forth again just for fun.

Steve and I then had hot water, (thankyou thermos), left over baked beans and bread, as we sat on our picnic rug... Arrr the height of civilization! :)
Steve then made like a squirrel and collected some, (not quite ripe), hazelnuts for us to munch on...
We then drove the long and less traveled way home...
Happening upon this lovely, and distant view of Totnes.

Getting back into the swim of it...

On Wednesday last week, I had my first swim post sickness...
It was a strange moment, before diving in to the river... like being reacquainted with an old friend, one part familiar, one part foreign and unnerving...

The weather has been lovely this week though, after morning cloud, the midday makes way for beautiful sunshine. I have been making the most of it and going swimming every day. Really savouring it. I now swim to the other side of the river and back.

On Friday I got 'my' bike fixed- it blew a tyre the other day. And rode like all hell to get to Dartington in time for one of the last, of their summer concert series... as it turned out, I would have been quite late, plus the hills seemed long and winding, and I was feeling the heat, (it's true!)... So almost there, I turned back and headed for home.
[I had bought Steve's camera with me, but as it turned out it had no battery in it!]

It was a beautiful day for a bike ride though, the warm air driving through my nostrils with the lingering smell of wildflowers.... I stopped at the weir for my 2nd swim of the day :)
When leaving, a bike skidded to a halt right beside me, and an older guy got off and stripped down to his bathers... We had a little chat about swimming, and 'wham', he dived into the water, no hesitation and off he swam.

Saturday Steve had to work, but got off early, and as I was still at the weir, sunning myself post-swim, he decided to meet me there. We had a beautiful swim together, and as we went to leave, again this same man screamed in on his bike.
He asked me if it was any warmer than yesterday, and we had a chat about year round swimming and such things.
With the sun retreating, Steve and I headed to a sunshine laden park, and lay in the grass, him reading, me playing uke.

In the evening with jacket potatoes and homemade baked beans, Steve and I watched "Picnic at Hanging Rock"- A first for both of us.

Sick in the head...

I was sick last week... It wasn't good.

I am still not 100%, but am feeling a lot better than I did when this photo was taken!

Around town...

What a great name for a street... who knows how it came to be? :)

(Always) Excited to be home...