Definitely Autumnal.

We have been lost in the clouds all day long. In town it was slightly damp with a gentle drizzle while at home it was distinctly wet. As I set off for work this lunchtime the driver of a car parked by the ponies' fields came and over and asked if it would be possible to have a look at the outside of our house before they made an appointment to view. Peter was at home so I sent them on down. Peter gave them a very quick tour of the downstairs so we shall see if they do make an appointment to come back. At school I worked with one of my last year's classes who are now Year 2. I got them to vote for their new school council members and we did a bit of PE. Then I collected my car from the garage where it was having the lock unjammed before heading back up into the clouds.

Now back to sunny Lundy - Part 1 of our longer (7 miles-ish) walk. 

No day visitors so the main track was fairly empty. This is a continuation of the road up from the landing beach and is the only 'road' on the island.  

We were soon into the wild part of the island and came across our Highland friends who were just dozing in the sunshine.

The soil gets thinner as you approach Quarter Wall. Here we walked through great masses of flowering heather and it was possible to smell the sweet scent of the heather which really did smell like heather honey. In the distance was Tibbetts the most isolated of all the properties you can stay in. 

The main purpose of our walk was to find the remains of a neolithic settlement. It's not a lot to look at in the photos but there are the remains of circular dwellings and animal enclosures. To stand there and look at the same views that stone age people saw or to sit on a stone that was placed there up to 3,000 years ago for me is awe-inspiring. The drawback to living on Lundy would have been the limited fresh water. Being 400 feet up there are just a few rainwater ponds but the surrounding sea would have afforded a lot of protection from invaders.

Leaving the ruins behind we carried on to the very tip of the island passing wild goats and Soay sheep.

Finally we made it to where we got a good view of the North Light. Both the North and South lights are fully automated as are most (or all) of the UK's lighthouses.

We didn't go right down to the lighthouse which was a good thing in a way because as I took photos I could see a couple (of people) below who had settled on a concrete platform with their picnic and a radio blaring away!

Turning to my right I could see a much more expected Lundy sight, somebody climbing a rocky crag.

We then swung westwards again passing yet more Soay sheep before stopping by the Cheeses to eat our lunch. 

Will continue with this walk in tomorrow's post.

Autumn.

Yesterday's rain turned into a proper storm followed by what can only be described as a cloudburst. I looked out of the window to see 2 rivers running down the drive, flooding the yard and overflowing into the waste water tank. Quickly I donned waterproofs and went out to see what I could do. First I raked up some of the gravel in the yard to help divert the water away from the tank and then I went up the road where I constructed a dam right across the road. That stopped any more water coming down the drive but this morning I could see that an awful lot of gravel and bigger stones had been washed into the yard. Some of the ruts in the drive were a good 6 inches deep and my little car would not have been able to get up the drive. Today, between us we filled up the worst of the holes. I tried to pace myself taking 3 half barrow loads up each time before having a break. 

Now to happier times, Lundy - Friday morning walk. Another day of lovely sunshine had me up and out early for my morning constitutional  up to the top of the Old Light.

Look closely and my shadow can be seen to the right at the top of the lighthouse. All was well with the world, sheep were grazing and the sea was a brilliant blue. 

Looking north (above & below)  I could see right to the end of the island while closer the sheep were grazing on the runway by a small light aircraft.

Looking south I could see the church and just below was Stoneycroft, the cottage we stayed in on our first holiday here.

Next to Stoneycroft was the ancient  cemetery dating back 1,500 years. 

These stones are by the remains of a welsh king's grave. His remains were later moved to Hartland.

 These gravestones bear Roman names and date back to the 6th or 7th century.

The rest of the graves were much more modern and included past owners of the island. It felt very poignant to be reading all those inscriptions so I cheered myself up saying hello to the happy piggies though of course they are destined for the table. 

Rain All Day.

There was a bit of a drama last night when I went to collect Peter. I pulled up by the cattle market car park to find Peter had gone to the assistance of a drunk/homeless person who was collapsed on the pavement. Initially the bloke had not been breathing though when Peter put him in the recovery position he began to breathe while remaining out to the world. At the same time 2 girls from the coffee shop had come over and one rang for the emergency services. Eventually we ended up with 2 paramedics in cars and an ambulance by which time the bloke had revived enough to mumble his name to the paramedics which was when we left. Peter was most cross that several cars had driven past and a couple of pedestrians had walked by before he had intervened. A life is a life after all even if it is a very lost soul.

I haven't done much today but I carried on with carefully removing the grease from the top of the rayburn. Peter thinks I am mad or at least OC to  be doing this but I maintain that it looks better. In between I have been happily browsing Etsy as Peter has asked for ideas for an anniversary present. (40 years next month!) 

Now back to Lundy, we seem to have had the best week weather wise, the previous week it had been so bad that for 3 nights some campers slept in the Tavern and others in the church.

Thursday - no pre-breakfast walk for me. We had planned to go up the main path to try and find the neolithic ruins but we found ourselves behind a trail of people who had come up from the boat. Instead we cut across by the Old Light and walked up the western coast and then down to the Battery.

We had a good explore around the ruined cottage where 2 families had once lived, at one point there were 13 people living in the tiny dwellings. 

Peter is very interested in military history but I let the many details about the 18 inch cannons flow over my head and instead watched the sea below and a couple of climbers who were disappearing over the edge. The cannons were only in use for 15 years after which rockets were fired off in foggy conditions and 15 years after the place was deserted.

Having made it back up to the top, I did find it easier the second time, we walked southwards until we found a natural level platform where we sat and ate our picnic looking out towards Devon and Cornwall. 

Refreshed we walked along the south coast of the island not going too close to the Devil's Limekiln (above). It's a sea cave with the roof fallen in at one end making it look a bit like a volcano with vertical sides going down to the sea below. The pyramid shaped rock to the right is called the Stopper because legend has it that it blew out of the limekiln and landed in the sea. From there we cut back to the village not yet visiting the castle which can be seen in the photo below. 

Later that evening while we were playing Scrabble we saw a piece of a rainbow  ending in the sea. It looked more like a vertical coloured beam of light descending from the clouds. There was also a spectacular sunset which I tried to photograph but I'm a little rusty with the manual settings so the photo doesn't do it justice.

Wet.

Unlike yesterday which was hot and sunny all day long, today started very wet and only began to brighten up late in the afternoon. Earlier I drove Peter into town as he planned to meet up with some of his ex-workmates for a drink. Anytime now I expect the phone will ring and I'll go and collect him. At home I have been cleaning in the kitchen. First out came all the saucepans so that the shelves and the undersides of the saucepans could have a good scrub. Peter doesn't see the need to clean the bottom of a saucepan though maybe now I've pointed out how much work not doing so causes he might deign to wash the outside as well as the inside of the saucepans. Then I was slaving over a hot stove, not cooking but attempting to scrape off the baked on grease from the black enamel of the rayburn. Difficult to do and I did burn myself a few times on the ever-hot stove.

Now back to more happy memories of Lundy. Still Wednesday - while Peter relaxed with his book after our long walk I took off down the steps by Millcombe house and headed down to Landing Bay. While I was walking I could hear a group of lively ladies on one of the many paths running over the hillsides Part of the conversation went as follows 'How old are you exactly?' 'I'm 69.' came the answer. 'So am I' said the first lady. It made me wonder what we consider as old these days. Is it an age or is it a state of mind/body? I saw those ladies in the Tavern and to my eyes they were older but definitely not old.

On my way down the road I saw the Oldenburg leaving with the day visitors. The total numbers on Lundy were now; 25 permanent staff, 5 volunteers (you get accommodation but pay for your food and fare and work 6 days a week), 94 people in the various properties and up to 40 on the campsite.

The tide was out so I was able to explore the shingle beach that lies between Rat island and the main island. 

On our last visit we had walked over the rocks below for a rock pool safari with a ranger and then when we went snorkelling. On the southern side the rocks drop down very steeply making it good for snorkelling though a bit worrying for a beginner like myself who isn't a good swimmer.

Then I crossed back to the bay side of the beach and put my feet in the water just to say I had been in. It was very cold.

                            

At that point I got distracted by the sight of  a number of compass jellyfish bobbing about in the water. Its very hard to take a photo of something that is not only pulsing but being washed back and forth by the waves. 

Eventually it was time to walk back up the only road on the island and join Peter in the Tavern for yet another lovely meal and a game of scrabble.

That day I spent about 6 hours walking though it was at my gentle pace.

Back to School.

Today was a non-pupil day so it wasn't too early a start. Before we had our first staff meeting of the year I was presented with several bouquets, a card and presents including a sizeable amount of garden centre vouchers. As my birthday falls in the holidays I don't usually celebrate it with my work colleagues. There were even pictures of me (nice ones from Vytas' wedding) pinned up around the place. We had all brought food for a bring and share breakfast but first we had a general staff meeting to catch up on a few changes that had happened during the holidays and welcome a new teaching student. After all the festivities I helped in one of the classrooms sticking on tray labels etc until 1.00 when I considered my half day done. Then I went over to BJ's to buy some gardening tools as a thank you to Jack for looking after the cats, picked up a t-shirt that had been custom printed on the back with the Tree of Gondor and did some shopping in Lidl's and Tesco's.

Lundy - Wednesday's main walk with Peter. For our walk I suggested that we walk along the east coast as it is a fairly level path. (The path can just be made out running mid-way through the green hillside in the 2 photos below.) I had forgotten that the first part contained a lot of up and down over uneven rocks - oops. 

However you do get lovely views looking back down into Landing Bay with Rat Island and the smaller Mouse Island hidden behind it. (I didn't take so many photos when I was walking with Peter because he finds the constant stopping rather irritating.) 

The are 2 big quarries cut out of the cliffs where once upon a time blocks were cut out and lowered to boats below the cliff  but that venture didn't prove profitable especially as the granite is not of very good quality.

In one of the  quarries  there is a memorial to the last owner's son who  was awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross in 1944.

Soon after the quarries we followed the path inland up to Halfway Wall. It was cool in the wind so we walked right across to the western coast where we found shelter by Jenny's Cove. There we sat and ate our picnic lunch.

The rock where the people are standing is where in the morning I had been sitting perched right on the edge as I scanned the area for those elusive puffins. A good illustration of how I have lost my fear of heights I think.

After our lunch the wind had blown away most of the clouds and the day became much brighter. We carried on southwards and eventually turned back towards the village and our cosy cottage. 

PS One of my friends at work went for the day to Lundy and not only saw the seals and dolphins but a basking shark as well!