Unconnected as they are… Apart from being in Devon. Applebrook is named after the orchard and the stream upon which the Roberts’ new home is now located. Pretty name. Two Bridges is the hotel where we are staying tonight. Can’t think how it got its name.
A good sleep, waking early enough to pack ourselves up and get away soon after 09.00. Correction – for me to pack us up …
The drive was easy, along the A303, involving none of the usual hold ups or congestion. It wasn’t even particularly slow. We arrived chez Roberts around midday.
Dave’s brother, Mike, and wife and 3 children were over from the IOM, where they have lived for precisely 3 weeks. Well, wife Ella , grew up there, but they have lived in Singapore for about 15 years, teaching, then involved in management of one of the larger International schools.
Most senior Management had changed but the school rested in colonialism so it was time for them to return to the UK.
I haven’t met Ella or the children before, and I have not seen Mike since that Iceland volcano Eyjafjallajökull last spewed out its glassy dust and stopped planes from flying. Around 2010 I think. His return to ‘Singers’ was delayed a few weeks.
Recent changes , to the school and in Singapore in general, as well as family concerns, have brought them back to the U.K.
Now, Applebrook – Pen and Dave’s new (dated) house will be stunning. It is stunning for the wrong reasons at the mo, because it is pretty much a shell. Its insides have been entirely gutted to reconfigure it to suit modern day living and to adjust the room sizes to more sensible proportions. Some were stupidly huge. The main bedroom for example. So a studio for Penny has been squeezed out of the redesign. Dave has a large study downstairs. The windows and doors are being replaced. And heat pumps (2) are going to do the heating. There are a lot of old radiators, copper piping and bits of wood lying around. And also old lighting or old wall lights. Pen got £400 on ebay for the kitchen, but no one wants the lights. (not surprised) We had ones of similar vintage, and they always look better in situ but as a heap, they become dated, unwanted items.
There is quite a lot of tree surgery required – in particular two cupressus which defy belief!
Our journey from Aylesbeare across Dartmoor to Two Bridges revived many gappy memories of two years ago when we were homeless before moving to Moulsford. (happy memories?)
Our hotel was extremely busy this afternoon with trippers of the day variety. When we were here two years ago, Covid regulations were still very much in force with one way passage through the hotel , inside and out, including to and from the car park whilst inside the car. It is so different now,
We settled on a cream tea but with coffee. Aka a cream coffee.
H had a biscuit which was a bit of a challenge.
Then we went off into deeper Dartmoor for a bit of a stroll. The day was lovely, warm, but not too warm, and it was sunny, but not too sunny. ie there were clouds. But it was not too cloudy.
Ponies came to say hello, and the cows just gawped from a distance.
green grass
Thought for the Day
Happy Birthday Mr Roberts. You are 50 tomorrow . We wish you a very happy birthday, and are looking forward to your party.
Somewhere – probably deep in North Wales, is that black sheep of a son of ours, who will be 50 on 31/8. Desperately sad, but no regrets that he is not part of our family. Safer that way. Definitely no regrets. Too much serial unhappiness. It is 21 years now.
As a mother, it is sometimes hard to understand what you have spawned.
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