Greetings from the Old Country.

And old it is too. In fact, while waiting for a bus, sitting in the shadow of St. Peter’s cathedral in Exeter – itself probably 600 years old, I wandered over to a diminutive little church next to the table and read that it was built in 1065. It’s the little red building to the left of the black and white one which I snapped because it was so old ( and it is ). Notice the cove and ogee detail at the top – the same shape we still use in most woodworking details.

Exeter

We are currently encamped in a weird little college on the Dartington estate in Devon. Darting Hall is the next photo and is quite a building. The college is located about ¼ mile away in an old vicarage or something. It’s a really nice place with an eclectic mix of people coming and going. It’s a bit like being at camp. Amy is busy with classes, of a sort, and I am left to wander the estate, Totnes (pronounced tot ness) or the farms around.

Darting Hall, Devon

London

We arrived in London at 7 in the morning, without having slept and unable to check into our hotel. So we stashed our bags and ducked into a café for an English breakfast: 1 fried egg the consistency of rubber, one fried tomato - whole and very good, Canadian bacon, one sausage, baked beans, toast. It appears to be the same everywhere. We rode one of the sight seeing double decker busses around London, because it was a good way to see the place and because we were too tired to do anything else. It took us two days to work out the jet lag. I’m really looking forward to doing it again on the return. We went Bath for two nights and had a great time, but it was jammed with tourists. We toured a restored 18th century home and got an earful about how they did it back in the day. Bath was known as the place where they came to rely on local stray dogs as a source of power: to run a wheel near the fire that turned a spit to cook the daily meat. We couldn’t take a picture to duplicate the gearing. Our dogs, it would seem, are safe for now.
Bath

Starting Saturday, we will have a car for a week and I am a bit apprehensive, to say the least. The roads are like thin spaghetini jumbled onto the landscape. They go in every direction, split without much warning, are narrow, fast, and jammed with cars. And there’s nowhere to park or turn around. Anywhere. Really. We’ll go to Beer, a small little fishing village, and then North to see some farms.

I hope everyone is well. We are, just missing the sun a little. I’ll write again soon. Cheers!