1-30 September: It’s all go here!

Author: Mr A

Location: Bradford-on-Tone, Somerset, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, London, UK

September was a busy month for us, hosting family and other visitors at our place. Catherine kicked things off with her Dad and his wife Sue arriving from New Zealand. It was the first time Catherine had seen him for over three years. Then her half brother Alex joined us and all were there to share in my birthday celebrations.

Catherine and Richard
Richard and Sue joining us for a walk through the village and down to the river
All ready to go walking but sadly rain stopped play up on the Quantock Hills
Mr A’s birthday celebration at our favourite Italian

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Then my eldest daughter Zoe also came for a weekend. I dont think we have ever spent a weekend together like that. It was very special. We had talked for a while about walking a bit of the South West Coast Path together, after both reading The Salt Path by Raynor Wynn and being really moved by it.

Zoe and I on the Coleridge Way, part of our 9km circuit walk
Mrs A standing on a log so she doesn’t look so little! Great views over Porlock Marsh and Bay, the eastern coastal part of Exmoor National Park
An ancient woodland pathway
The South-West Coast Path winds along the back of the beach
In 1996 a tidal surge driven by Hurricane Lili caused the land to flood here, killing these trees

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Catherine’s half-sister Elle and her family also joined us for a few days including fun at the Somerset County Show. Now, when I say fun, that can encompass many things in Somerset, we are learning. So a spot of ferret racing barely made us blink. Yes, the kids loved it, we loved it, and possibly the ferrets!

Scotch Eggs, craft beer and local cider, fairground rides, alpacas and the all important ferret racing at the Somerset County Show
Sweet William
Iris is mastering the art of posing for photos
Skimming stones down at the river, meeting the local Shetland Ponies, marshmallows toasted on a campfire in the garden…a jam packed weekend!
Catherine and Elle

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Family weren’t the only visitors in September. We also had the crew from my school days. Stuart and Karen, John and Catriona, all came for a couple of nights, and as usual we went hard on the first one with a lovely long dinner out at what has become our go to restaurant, Villa Verde in the village of Rockwell Green. The early hours of the morning found us dancing round our dining room! Grow up? Never….

Dinner with the gang – many laughs were had, wine bottles opened and….
…Limoncello shots to finish….!

My buddy Andrew joined for the next day and joined us for a head clearing walk on the beautiful Quantock Hills. This group of friends has been my rock through my whole life, and I love ‘em to bits :).

The picturesque Quantock Hills
Walking from Crowcombe Gate
The whole motley crew – Catriona, John, Andrew, Stuart, Karen, Mr and Mrs A

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Finally on the visitors front, we had Percy, the peacock, who the village adopted after he escaped from a very cramped cage at a local farm. As autumn comes here, his tail fathers have been lost (well we found one that has pride of place now in a vase), and he has taken to resting up on our patio in the sun. Tassie, our Burmese, looks on with horror, and a speech bubble can almost be seen on her expression saying, “Wow, weird place this village!”

Percy doesn’t mind a little bit of seed, but is more than happy to hunt for his own in the garden

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September has also seen us exploring our local area, both hiking and kayaking. Exmoor is just up the road, and Catherine plotted a few great little walks, including one around a reservoir up in the hills. I don’t think there’s any danger we will run out of local hiking trails. We really have landed on our feet here…hah hah.

After all of the hot dry weather the cooler, damper day is a relief
Clatworthy Reservoir is looking a little low after all the dry weather
None of the rowing boats are out for fishing today
Just an 8km circuit for this hike, but a few hills

Another walk started from a tiny settlement, Bury, where we started and finished from a medieval packhorse bridge.

A 9km circuit walk across Exmoor from the little village of Bury with its medieval packhorse bridge and ford
Greens of every shade on our picturesque riverside walk section, following the River Haddeo
Juvenile Pheasants – bred for shooting
The novelty of these oh so green paths still hasn’t worn off
As we walk up river the white water increases
Ancient stone walls are a haven for a multitude of shade and damp loving plants
Old stone steps guide us up onto the moorland
Quintessential Exmoor – a fine spot beside a trig point to enjoy a picnic
Autumnal colours of Exmoor National Park

On another occasion we tagged on an exploration of the River Exe estuary to a visit to a stone mason, and found a great selection of birdlife and some fabulous scenery – we hope to come back here one day. It’s well known as a fertile fishing ground, and there were plenty of Little Egrets catching fish. As always, we were told; ”Oh you should have been here earlier, there was an Osprey catching fish here”…but obviously nothing for us to see!

Yachts at Turf Lock
Seeking new fishing grounds
Got one!
Chasing off the competition
Bar-tailed Godwit, Little Egret, Buzzard, Blackbird, Mute Swan and Black-headed Gulls galore

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Then it was turn of our arms to get a workout, as we paddled across an area called the Somerset Levels, which we live on the edge of. With 160,000 acres at an average height of only a few metres above sea level, its is one of the flattest and most flood prone areas in the UK. It also home to rare species of birds, and our kayak gave us glimpses of some of these thanks to Catherine’s big lens. We weren’t sure how good the kayaking was going to be in the UK. How wrong could we be, certainly with the kind of weather we have had this autumn. So another tick in the move country (and hemisphere!) box for us.

Kayak inflated and ready to launch
A Grey Heron takes off across the river
A Sandpiper crosses the water in front of us
A pair of Mute Swans take flight
A Great Cormorant sits up in an oak tree
A Common Buzzard keeps an eye on us from a fence post….
Buzzard decides to take flight…
The River Tone – just us and the birds

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But it is not all visitors and playtime. We have been busy planning modifications we want to make to the house, and already have started on one project, converting a room used by the previous owners as an office (only accessible through the garage!) to….a bar. Yup, we are getting a whole new extension to our kitchen, having had a wall knocked down creating access to the room directly from it. Planning permission is in for bifolds to be installed as well, to open up the view. Much work to do but its great to get started on making the house our own.

Goodbye wall, hello doorway…

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Catherine also as been working, doing her voluntary advocacy work, talking at conferences, contributing to research papers, managing an ever growing support group (approaching 6,500 members now!) and meeting fellow sufferers of the rare disease she has. She also manages to find time to do some paid work for a company in Australia. A right powerhouse she is, also squeezing in a flying visit to her cousin, auntie and uncle somewhere in that mix.

A long awaited (postponed from 2020) presentation at a Speech and Language Therapist and ENT conference in Newcastle-upon-Tyne
A flying visit to Catherine’s cousin Karen, aunt and uncle Pam and Brian, followed by a lunch with three ladies in London

Thank goodness for our easy rail connection here from Taunton. Well, when they aren’t on strike, or have leaves on the line, dead sheep, kinky rails, strong winds, overhead power failure, or the many other reasons we get given for delays. It’s not especially reliable, but mostly gets us there more easily than by car when London is the destination.

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What about me then? Well, not too much to tell amongst the flurry of visitors. I have kicked off volunteering in the local community shop though, and they want me back for a second go. I know, surprised me as well 🙂 I did go along to the local Morris dancing club night, given my philosophy is to give things a go.

If you don’t know what Morris Dancing looks like, then this will give you a clue – men in white dancing with hankies and silly hats – ancient tradition has these folks blessing harvests and welcoming in Spring amongst other things…

Well, let’s just say I gave it go, and leave it there.

We are really loving the community here, never having felt part of one before, given we’ve mainly lived in larger towns and cities. I think we will always be ”the Australians at the Brodie’s place” (our previous owners), but that’s fine. One resident was telling us about ”The new people at The Old Schoolhouse”. It later emerged they’d lived there five years.

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Change seems to happen slowly here. For instance, I can’t believe how attached every government department is to sending letters! Yes, actual snail mail. They seem to take pride in taking as a long as possible to enact a process. I started applying for my Government pension at the end of August. By the end of September I had made 23 phone calls, and finally received an application form for it through the post on the 29th. I said to one call centre operator, ”But can’t you just send me one from your computer?”. ”Ooooh no”, she says, ”That’s a whole other department that do that”. All part of the charm? Sometimes. Other times its all just frustratingly slow 🙂

And while we are on the idiosyncrasies of this country, none were more evident then when we saw the nation mourning the loss of it’s Queen. One bloke even got arrested (later released) for holding a sign that read ”I didn’t vote for you”, referring to the new king.

Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral – a moment in history watched remotely

In the land that reveres its tolerance of free speech, I realised there are some very touchy subjects, and the monarchy is definitely one. I even saw local councils around us have cancelled food festivals where small businesses show case their wares. Apparently they are not appropriate at this time”, to quote the council minutes. Very strange.

There is much to learn. Best done by listening and keeping quiet and trying to keep my eyebrows under control 🙂

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