Clovelly

Famously mispronounced by Americans as Clove-ly, Clovelly lies on the North Devon coast between Hartland and Westward Ho! It is a privately owned village estate and as such an entrance fee is payable as you pass through the visitors centre. �15 for a family ticket (the woman on the desk agreed with me that family tickets should be for three children, but alas they are only for two.) So we paid for an extra child. We also collect two Fun Trail quizes. Oh no! I thought, not more questions we have to search for the answers to instead of just wandering around and enjoying ourselves, but this quiz proved to be both informative and Fun - just like it said on the tin.
I used to come to Clovelly often as a child (you didn't have to pay then), and it has changed little, but I saw places today that I have never seen before. And that was thanks to the quiz. There is a Fishermans Cottage set up as it would have been 100 years ago, complete with old fisherman to direct you to the correct places to look for the answers to the questions. And just next to this is Charles Kingsley's cottage, complete with Charles Kingsley (only a model this time). This cottage is where he lived whilst writing the book Westward Ho!

Clovelly is largely a pedestrian only zone and as you can see from the photo the walk up and down from Visitors Centre to Harbour is along steep cobbled streets. The residents of Clovelly use sledges to transport goods around, and donkeys, and the donkeys are around for the obligatory tourist shots and on certain days for people to ride. Today was their day off.

When we reached the harbour we stopped for an ice cream. There is a pub/hotel at the bottom of the hill and many people were sat along the Quay in the sunshine today drinking beer and wine. That seemed like a good idea to me but my husband was still suffering from a night out with the boys. So we strolled along the Quay walls while I had several small heart-attacks envisioning my children falling off the side, then headed for the long walk back up the hill.

Once back in the Visitors Centre we went to watch the 20 minute introductory video we probably should have watched at the beginning of our visit. I actually found it better this way around as we were shown things we were much better off discovering by ourselves. The video, narrated by Joss Ackland, a resident of Clovelly, answered some of the quiz questions we'd missed out. The quiz was then handed in to the desk, where the children were awarded their prize. I was convinced this would only be a small portion of chocolate by the children were allowed to choose from a selection of small toys. My youngest chose a bouncy ball and the middle one a hanging star mobile thing to put in her room. I was dead impressed. All in all Clovelly is definately worth a visit.

day in the life of Brittany Walks

Fairly typical day of association business today: answering email messages from members, making arrangements for the History of Brittany course we are offering in 2009, writing publicity material, preparing the Autumn/Spring programme for printing, listing items for inclusion in the October bulletin, writing out recipes for the booklet we are publishing before Xmas. That was the morning. This afternoon, an exploratory walk to check if a route is suitable for the group for future inclusion in the programme. Yes, it is!

Politics, Part 1 of 2

Oh man, politics are terrible.

I think that�s a statement that few people would disagree with, regardless of where they fall on the political spectrum. So far, I�ve been trying to keep this blog free of politics, partly because it gets people riled up and annoyed, and that doesn�t work for this blog; Sitzblog is a uniter, not a divider. Also, the other reason I don�t mention politics much is because�let�s face it�it�s pretty boring to read about politics. So I�ve generally tried to machete-carve a different path through the blogosphere jungle, but for this post and one that will go up in a few days, I�m going to roll up my sleeves, get my hands dirty, use some tired clich�s, and talk about politics.
I have to admit that McCain�s vice-presidential pick, Sarah Palin, has at least gotten people talking. Or that�s what it seems to me. I haven�t actually watched a TV news show since�well, for months and months. I also missed Palin�s apparently electrifying RNC speech, which I guess lit a fire under both Republican and Democrat asses. I get basically all of my news about the U.S. through the internet media, and there are inherent advantages and disadvantages to that. One of the advantages, though, is that the delivery of eloquently-written and fired-up speeches is largely lost, and only the written content and ideas remain. As a result of this, I have begun to favor Obama, while at the same time I�ve begun to seriously question the veracity of McCain and the competence of Palin.
Let me explain this in an roundabout way. I have been continually amazed over the selling points of Palin, which basically all seem to revolve around three ideas, namely, that she: 1) is a working mother; 2) is a lifelong member of the NRA; 3) apparently can kill and butcher a moose. Somehow, all of these three points are supposed to illustrate that she�s a capable leader who is still �in-touch with the common people.� To me, however, she seems a bit like my mom�if my mom were bat-shit insane and had access to a large arsenal of hockey sticks and guns, both of which she would use to kill moose. Now that I think about it, I still don�t believe that my mom would make a good vice-president (Sorry, mom, but I love you just as you are, and I wouldn�t want you to be "changed" by Washington!), but she would probably be as good as�or even better than�Sarah Palin.
As to the other two gun-and-moose related points, all I have to say is this: If John McCain is elected president, there�s a very real possibility that he wouldn�t finish an 8- or even 4-year term. He�s statistically in the danger zone, health-wise, and if you couple that with the fact that a good number of presidents haven�t lived to see the inauguration of their successor, then you should probably start becoming concerned. Do you really think that she�s qualified to be our president? If so, then vote McCain-Palin. But be sure you can confidently answer a few questions: Sure, Palin can shoot and field dress a moose, but can she do that with an unruly foreign dictator? Sure, she�s mildly attractive in a Republican, if-that�s-what- you�re-into type of way, but she still can�t hold a candle to the Ukranian prime minister, hottie Yulia Tymoshenko (Shown in the picture on the right...her hair reminds me of a delicious bread). And finally, sure, Palin flip-flopped and was against a bridge to nowhere after she was for it, but technically, isn�t all of Alaska basically considered �nowhere�?
All of these questions should be on the mind of the nation, but especially on the minds of Republicans. About 10 years ago, I held no political affiliation, but I personally leaned towards a sort of Traditional, Green Social-Conservo-Democrat-Islamofascit political outlook (I include the �Islamofascist� part because it�s a word that's so hilariously ridiculous and overblown that it makes me chuckle every time I hear it). In the 2000 election, I probably would have voted for McCain, had he been the Republican candidate. I was also one of those who said that if Hillary Clinton won the Democratic nomination, I would vote for McCain. But after seeing the woman that John McCain thinks is the most qualified person in the entire country to take over power should he die, I now realize that he�s just as crazy as she is.

By the way, if, like me, you happen to be living abroad during this coming election, then there�s still a good chance you can cast a ballot. Follow this link to the Federal Voting Assistance Program to find more details about having the last state and county you resided in mail your ballot to you. I did it, so we�ll see if the democratic process�as well as international postal service�really works.

(Tymoschenko photo credit: www.ukraine-observer.com)

wild wet walking

The Monts d'Arr�e are best seen in wild weather. Yesterday the association outing of 14 courageous individuals braved heavy rain to view the neolithic all�e couverte at Mougau Bihan, but chickened out of walking the Korrigan trail on planks through the marshes. We went to my house for coffee instead. Once fortified with cake in traditional Brittany Walks style we ventured out again, having a short walk at Le Relec and visiting the 12th century abbey church before going on to meet Dartmoor ponies on the moorland of the Landes de Cragou. The theme of the day was landscape (landes et tourbi�res, moor and marsh) and man's earliest traces in this distinctive region, the highest hills in Brittany. We finished at the menhirs of Pont-an-Illis. The name ('the bridge of the church') recalls a legend of St-Conven whose followers attempted to build a church between the two menhirs but found their work destroyed during each night. Finally a statue of the saint was put on an ox cart and the beasts allowed to wander where they would. At the final stopping point, the new church was built. They were clearly patient animals, as the current position of Plougonven indicates.

Moscow Seen By Non-Politics -My Virtual Trip

I was tired to listen and to hear all these political stupidities and decided to look at the photos made by the persons living in Moscow. Than I thought you could be interested to make this virtual trip with me and post here some of the photos I like. I have photos I made a year ago too, but I wanted to see this city with the eyes of it's residents.


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Places To Live In

Linkinn.com (where are these photos from) is one of my favourite sites. I find there often very interesting photos that remember me something interesting or -as in this case- something like a dream. I wrote often that I'm surprized where the persons can live. In the last period I wrote about Salerno. The old town is based on the walls build in the Roman times.

Here you can see other interesting solutions. Would you like to live in a place like this all your life? It's difficult that the residents can/could have the modern education for their children or to have great earnings. These are Houses on stilts at Fisherman�s Point, Orinoco Delta, Venezuela.

Here we are in Town of Koh Pannyi Phand, Nga Nay, Thailand. Incredible, mmm? Some days ago I've seen a documentary where in the houses like these there were hen-houses and gardens too.

But this is a real dream. The Corcovado overlooking the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. This is the best photo of this city I've ever seen.

"What to see before you die"... as publicity writes.

Braunton Burrows

After our meal at the Williams Arms yesterday a brisk walk was in order. So we took the turning just opposite the pub and followed signs to Braunton Burrows and Crow Point. The Burrows is the largest sand dune system in England and is an SSSI, National Nature Reserve and a UNESCO biosphere reserve. There are several different ways to access it but the easiest is to follow the toll road. It cost �1.50 for cars. The single lane road is a mile and 1/4 long and is full of speed bumps but is well worth it for the amount of wildlife you can spot. We saw a white bird we didn't know the name of, moorhens, swans, ducks, and a heron, all in the stream that follows the road.

Once you reach the car park you can either climb the sand ridge over onto the beach or follow the boardwalk for a stroll through the dunes to the same beach but further out towards the estuary. We chose option 2. The landscape in the burrows is very strange with lumps and bumps everywhere. Lots of different vegetation grows. We particularly like the evening primrose. There were bumble bees darting in and out of flowers and lots of different species of butterfly flitting around.

And the beach there are fantastic views across to Appledore and over to Westward Ho! We followed the beach out towards the sea for a while then headed inland again to try the adventure of finding our way back to car park without using the boardwalk. We did eventually manage it and all that up-hill-and-down-dale effort was worth it for the photos I took. I'll post some of these on my PhotoJournal blog tomorrow - just follow the link.