PigPog

I was sitting at my desk at work, when I looked out of the window, and high up in the oak tree outside was a white bird. A big white bird. I had no idea what it was.

It looked like a heron, but herons aren’t white, and it looked a little shorter than a heron. Fortunately, Simon recognised it, as he’d seen them before in Dartmouth – it was a Snowy Egret – a small white heron.

(Here’s the photoset on Flickr in case the slideshow above doesn’t work for you.)

It stayed in the tree, preening itself and relaxing, for maybe an hour and a half.

This was the first time I’ve regretted switching to carrying just a pocketable Panasonic Lumix » [ | : UK, US], rather than my Nikon D90 » [ | : UK, US]. I regretted it a lot. I carried the Nikon for a couple of days afterwards, but it didn’t return.

Since all decent work opportunities seem to be in the big city rather than the little old ‘burb we now call home, I decided that after a year and a bit of resistance, it was time to look for work in Exeter.

I’m no stranger to commuting. Back when we lived up country we had no choice but to commute – driving a good 20 mile round trip to get to our respective places of work. Michael now, fortunately, has the job of his dreams and it’s right on our doorstep. I’m more of an awkward bugger and have had several attempts of obtaining the same but with no luck. So, off to the big city I go. My temp agency told me of a chance of a long term job coming up at County Hall so today I took a trip over to Exeter to see how I would handle commuting.

Michael dropped me off at Tiverton Parkway station, and picked up a ticket. Just under a fiver seemed very reasonable – I think it’s cheaper than the local bus service. I got rather pathetically excited at the thought of travelling on a train. I do it so rarely that it’s quite a treat. Whether I feel like that in two or three weeks remains to be seen, but for now, it’s definitely a case of “TRAINS! OMG! They’re SO cool!”

On arrival at Exeter St David’s, I became overwhelmed by the BIG CITY. The station seemed huge in comparison to little Tivvy Parkway, and at the peak of rush hour, the place was packed with busy people doing busy things and more students than I’ve seen in a long while. I had no idea how to get out of the station, never mind into the city centre, so I bought a map and wandered around like a wide-eyed tourist.

I found a bus and asked the driver if he was going to County Hall. Instead of giving me any information, he decided to entertain me with his impression of Latka Gravas. There you go folks, an exclusive. Andy Kaufman is indeed alive and well, and he’s driving buses around Devon.

Clutching my map, I decided to pick a direction and just go for it. I found a pedestrian route to the City Centre and followed it, stopping at various bus stops to see if any timetables could give me a clue as to my whereabouts. I have never felt like such a dim-witted grass-chewing yokel. The much talked about “different pace of life” really hits home when you try to navigate a big city after nearly two years in a cosy little Devonshire town.

Relying on nothing but guesswork, I arrived in the City Centre. That’s when I caved in and rang my agency – and as it turned out, I was mere metres away from the right bus stop. My urban groove was coming back and my internal GPS was working as well as ever.

I arrived at County Hall, had a look around and left feeling good. Commuting to Exeter is doable. And it’s fun. Good thing, really. I start my new job there tomorrow.

One of the things that really surprised me about coming to Devon was how common buzzards are here.  I’d only seen one once or twice in Nottinghamshire, but here there are plenty.

Yet somehow, I’ve not managed to get a photo.

They aren’t the friendliest of birds, I suppose.  They don’t come close, and although I’ve caught glimpses of them quite near, they’ve mainly been from a moving car on a main road.  I got a much better sighting on a wallk a while ago, but I only had my Canon G9 with me – a great camera, but not quick enough to catch a buzzard on the wing.

I got my chance on Sunday.  We were walking along Canal Hill, when a buzzard flew across in front of us and perched on the top of a house, right on the nearest corner to us.  This time, I had my Nikon D40 in my bag, with my 55-200 VR lens fitted.  I only got a couple of shots, but they’re the best I’ve managed so far, so here they are:

We’ve lived here in Devon for over a year and I’m still bowled over by the beauty of the place. Moving from a fairly nondescript suburban housing development where the view was just more of the same houses to, well, this:

It’s incredible. I’ve spent a great deal of time staring at this view open-mouthed. I still can’t believe we live here.

The great thing about being here in Tiverton, not far from an attraction known as “Devonshire’s Centre”, is that we can travel to either of the coasts in the time it used to take us to get to work on a wet morning. And when the weather’s good and we have the time, we love to get out there and make the most of it. Here are some of my thoughts on our recent visits to just a few of Devon’s fabulous coastal spots.

The North Coast – Lynton and Lynmouth to Barnstaple

The north coast is rugged. Seriously rugged. It’s walking boots and things with “The North Face” stamped all over them, and Real Ale and an excuse to blow a fortune at Millets. As the sign welcoming you to the area will tell you, it’s where Exmoor meets the sea which it does so in an explosion of breathtaking scenery.

Lynton and Lynmouth are villages separated by a gorge. Normal people who visit Lynton at the right time of year would travel between the towns using the clifftop railway. But some people either aren’t that sensible or arrive out of season when the thing is out of commission and find themselves very delicately negotiating the route down on foot and, fuelled perhaps by fish and chips in Lynmouth, charging back up again but pausing every five minutes to beg for oxygen, sherpas and St Bernards bearing brandy.

The rugged landscape continues along to the west of Lynton and emerges several gut-churning miles in Combe Martin. From there it’s just a few minutes along some more impressive scenery to Ilfracombe, one of the larger coastal towns in North Devon. I haven’t really got much to say about Ilfracombe, as it seemed the entire town was closed. Maybe another visit between April and September will see it with more life.

There was certainly no shortage of life in Barnstaple, the next town along, when we visited yesterday. Barnstaple is the shopping destination for North Devon holidaymakers and Michael’s parents certainly seemed to enjoy wandering around its variety of shops with us despite the bitter cold wind.

The South Coast – Exmouth and Sidmouth

The south coast is altogether more tranquil than the rugged North. Although there is no shortage of hills and beautiful scenery anywhere in Devon, the towns along the south coast suggest a more relaxed pace. It’s cream teas and craft fairs and sitting on a bench by the sea and watching the world go by. Exmouth is our most frequent destination along the south coast as it’s only about 20 minutes from Exeter. In comparison to the towns on the north coast, Exmouth was positively buzzing with activity when we visited last Sunday – a car boot sale at the Hall and an Antiques Fair at the Pavilion. A perfect way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

Sidmouth is utterly gorgeous in just about every way. It’s the ultimate Devon seaside town. Streets of interesting little shops, cafes and hotels, a sandy beach, and as a backdrop, the magnificent Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site. You can be admiring little seaside souvenirs in the shops, and then just up the road be admiring imposing red cliffs and preparing yourself to tackle Jacob’s Ladder.

There is so much of both coasts that we haven’t explored yet – out further west to the north are Croyde, Westward Ho! and Clovelly; and to south further west are Dartmouth, Salcombe, Plymouth and going on into our neighbouring county that we’re really looking forward to exploring at some point – Cornwall.

We we are very lucky to be living in such wonderful surroundings.

Hele Bay, near Ilfracombe.

Sidmouth

Exmouth

These pics and others will feature in a piece I’m working on to finish off Devon week.

Enough of playing with old photos – time for some new ones. Here are two words you see a great deal around Devon – “Tea Gardens” – and they’re always enjoyable places to sit back, relax, and enjoy a cuppa (when the weather’s nice).

This particular Tea Garden is at one of our regular stops – Mad Hatter’s Restaurant in Tiverton. Best coffee in town.

I enjoyed making the photogrid of Michael yesterday, so I decided to make another one. This grid features pictures taken in and around our home town, Tiverton.

We had a bit of a trip out at the start of November, to Budleigh Salterton and Sidmouth, and happened to be around Sidmouth for the sunset over the beach.

At the same time, looking the other direction gave a completely different view – it barely looked like time for sunset at all:

We walked along by the sandstone cliffs:

Finally, we climbed Jacob’s Ladder, back up to where we’d parked, before heading for home:

First in a series of posts celebrating the beautiful region we now call home.

I Should Blog More

I should blog more. That’s hardly an original start to a blog post, especially one on a long-neglected blog, but there you go.

I’m using Emacs for much of my day-to-day stuff at the moment, working in PlannerMode. I never use the ‘Schedule’ section (I use Google Calendar), so I’ve changed it to ‘Blog’ instead, with the idea of tapping a blog post into it during the day, then posting at the end of the day. If you’re reading this, it worked. Once.

So, what’s been happening recently? We’re still enjoying Devon. My calculator obsession seems to have faded somewhat, leaving me quite settled with the HP 12C financial calculator. There are far more powerful things around, but they’re sitting unused in a drawer. The 12C just does the basics really nicely.

I’m left with my current obsessions being pens, notebooks and Emacs.

Pens

I have bought a few new pens recently:

A Sheaffer Tucky Vacuum-Fil set. I bought these on eBay, at a surprisingly good price. They work perfectly, and the vacuum-fil mechanism works smoothly, giving a good fill. They date back to somewhere between 1943 and 1949, so they’re doing well to still be going and in such good condition.

A few cheapies from an antiques shop in Sidmouth. I pop into antique shops from time to time, but I’ve never before actually found any fountain pens. This time, there was a little box full on the counter, £3 each. I grabbed an unknown lever filler, in full working order, a Sheaffer No Nonsense cartridge pen, a four-colour ballpoint, and a Conway Stewart No 116.

The Conway Stewart is the most interesting of the bunch – not a fountain pen as we know them now, but an ‘Ink Pencil’. The nib is like the nib in a real technical pen, like a Rotring Isograph. It’s a metal tube with a wire in the middle. The wire is pushed up by the paper, and moves a weighted seal to stop the ink from flowing. It has cleaned up quite nicely, but needs a new sac. I’ve ordered a set of sacs from Ian at Cathedral Pens, so I should be able to get it fixed up when they arrive.

I’ve also finally bought something from Andy’s Pens – a Sheaffer Clipper Snorkel, and a (reasonably) matching pencil. It’s a very nice looking pen, with a good smooth fine nib.

Photography

I’ve been taking plenty of photos recently, but not getting around to processing them and uploading them. I’ve been catching up on that a lot today – lots of new pics in my Flickr Photostream – you can just start at this one and keep clicking on the next in the photostream to go through them, if you like.

Some of the best ones to finish this up on, then I shall wallow in the bath for a long time before it’s Top Gear time…

Maybe if this idea works out, I’ll post again in less than a month.

Maybe.