Glorious Devon

Some people who read my blog will already know that I won a competition in The Edible Garden magazine for 2 places on the Get Growing course at River Cottage, I've been getting excited about this for a few months. The prize also included a nights B&B and dinner at River Cottage Canteen. What a special treat.

My plus one was my sister, Sally, who is looking into growing her own and needs lots of advice to get her started so it was ideal for her. I'll blog about the course in my next post as I want to share a bit about our lovely B&B and the glorious scenery of this part of England, on the Devonshire/Dorset border.

We travelled down on Friday 5th July, at the start of the heatwave, the course was on the sunday and we travelled back on tuesday, no point in going all that way just for a couple of days. We had been booked in for one night at a B&B on a small-holding called Spillers Farm in Musbury which we extended to cover the extra nights and what a find that was. Keith and Bridget who run the B&B are such a lovely couple, clearly passionate about what they do and properly living the "Good Life". We were greeted by their friendly cat, Silla and dog, Merrick, the rooms were immaculate and as for the breakfasts, home-grown sausages and bacon. Delicious. Here are the cat and dog keeping us company at breakfast

They have chickens, ducks, geese, a pig and some orphan lambs on the farm and they grow their own vegetables, there is a lake and they also lease a small bit of their land for the Landshare project. I would definitely recommend this place if you are in the area. Its handy for both River Cottage HQ where they run the courses and also for River Cottage Canteen in Axminster. Its also close to Lyme Regis and other coastal villages.

 

 

The lambs are in the field near the lake and they came rushing over to greet us when we walked there, liked having a bit of a rub behind the ears.

 

 This is me saying hello to Marlene the pig, I also got a bit of a mud splattering from her the day after when she had a mud bath to keep cool.

It was so peaceful spending time at the lake in the evening at dusk, watching the swallows and then the bats come out.

The view from our room.

 The friday that we arrived we went for a cream tea in a little seaside village called Beer.

On Saturday we walked from Beer along the coast to Branscombe. It was another glorious day, hot but luckily there was a nice breeze along the coast. The coastal scenery in this area is stunning, especially on such a lovely sunny day.

 

 

  

We arrived in Branscome to the welcome sight of the Sea Shanty Beach cafe for some much needed refreshment.

 Which has a lovely walled garden but we recuperated in the cool of the main cafe.

 

Heading the opposite way along the coast you are in Dorset and Lyme Regis, I love it here and Martin and I stayed in a lovely chalet here last year and  had a wonderful time. The year before that we stayed in a proper thatched cottage, in a village just outside Lyme Regis. There are some more photos of the coastal scenery in this post. Lyme Regis is a proper seaside town, a wide sandy beach, lots of gift shops and some nice restaurants.

 

 

 

If you are fans of Jane Austen's Persuasion then you will know all about the Cobb at Lyme Regis. I'll leave you here while I go off and daydream about Captain Wentworth.