Blogs from Devon, England, United Kingdom, Europe - page 6

Before we talk about today's tour, a word about the weather. Now I have been looking for the right words to use to describe the weather in the southern part of England and the kindest word I can find is unpleasant. A more apt description would include words like wet, cold, cloudy or deeply overcast or downright miserable. Our weather has been on and off rain, cold and drab. It rains in this part of the world 1 day out of 3, so dealing with rain is a must if you are planning to come here any time of the year. This is my first summer vacation ever where I was happy I brought a jacket. I even spent money on a heavy hooded sweatshirt to accommodate! Oh well, we will persevere. After another fine English ... read more

This is a story of my maternal ancestors. Prior to visiting Devon the first week of May 2019, I had populated my maternal ancestry family tree back to 1103 and then to 240 AD (see prior blog at ). According to "The Baronetage of England" in that year, "Galfridus (Latin for Geoffrey) Miles (Knight) had his seat at Northcote, in the parish of East Down in Devonshire (north of Barnstable, Devon), and that John Fritz-Galfrid (Fritz meaning the son of) held divers lands there, and in the hundreds (a subdivision of a shire which had its own court) of Witheridge, North Tauton, Black Torrington, etc. He changed his name to John Northcote. Galfrid de Northcote (John's son) lived in 1188, and held lands in Colstan, in the Witheridge hundred." According to the family history written by ... read more

Only last week, in the days between the revelation of this journey and coming here, I went to a workshop called (translated to English): 'Shit, I'm awake. Now what?!' It was about the awareness of the journey you make, the Hero's Journey. The concept is by Joseph Campbell, but I can not go into detail about it here, because An, who did the workshop, put a lot of effort in it and it would be unrespectfull to give it away here. Anyway, last night at diner, I had an inspiring conversation with Bruce and Draeyke. It was about how I am learning to talk with the Universe and have courage, talk out loud, what I dream about, what I want to do. I talked about travelling with my stories (as I am a Temple Priest of ... read more

We could have used another hour of sleep last night, but nonetheless, we were up and ready for breakfast at 7:00 with AIS (ass in seat!!) at 8:00. Perfect morning! We drove back through Bodmin Moor heading towards Cornwall and an immersion into the smuggling and tin mining culture of years past. We passed lots of fields with root vegetables, lots of fields with lots of sheep, lots of wind turbines, and lots of solar panels. Cornwall claims to be most eco friendly county in England. Another note of interest...Cornwall grows LOTS of daffodils and there is a lot of research going in to a possible treatment for Alzheimer’s and dementia treatment. Amazing! Cornwall produced 91% of the workd’s tin supply in the 1990’s. We made a good stop in Marizon, a Medieval town. While there ... read more

Folks, this is going to be a short one tonight! It is 9:00, we just got back from a wonderful meal, and we have to meet the group at 7:30 in the morning when we will have breakfast before starting on a LONG day of touring. Touring is NOT for sissies for sure! We have had a wonderful day. As the title indicates, I clicked two big items off of my bucket list today. They included seeing Stonehenge, which I wrote my high school term paper on way back ___ (fill in the blanks!) years ago, and seeing the Magna Carta in Salisbury Cathedral was another long held wish. Imagine doing both in the same day! I could write paragraphs about both, but I am tired and ready to hit the hay, so you are just ... read more