Monday 25 April 2011

Into the biosphere.

The other day, the marvelous weather we've been having over the past few weeks put me in mind to clean out the old Hiace, get it back on the road and take it out for a spin. Surprisingly, all it took was a bit of tinkering and I managed to get the thing started first time. Any road it spluttered a bit going up the lane and just as I was turning on to the Braunton road the bleddy engine cut out right in front of any oncoming Georgeham bound bus. Of course this caused a right old muddle and caper. Fortunately the bus was full of eager young squaddies who at the drop of the hat and without my bidding alighted brushed me aside and pushed the van right up into Trelawney's car park. Thanks for nothing lads. Now I was going to be in a spot of bother as I am banned from using the car park due to several disputes I have had over the years about me visitors coming and going out of it without purchasing some horticultural supplies or stopping in for one of their good value lunches nor cream teas.
In order to avoid another confrontation I decided smartly that I'd better call Annie Cawood sharpish and ask her to pop over with some jump leads or failing that at least she'd be able to give us a tow in the old Landrover back down to the Strand. so rather furtively and keeping me head down I beetled out of the car-park and went down to the Ashford Strand phone box and called her up. She was only too glad to oblige as she needed to get some miniature aubergine plants this would then of course give her a legitimate reason to be in the car park
 As  she was only down at King's Carpets Annie turned up in no time in her ancient but sturdy mode of transportation with her weird looking dog, looks like something out of a Victorian bestiary all bits of different breeds stitched erroniously together, hanging of the window. Still, after a fair few attempts and trying to jump start the whole thing with the aid of some old fellas who'd just popped in for a spot of lunch, we couldn't get it started. However, it seemed a shame now I'd tidied it up and managed to get it out of the hedge to let the opportunity to go out for a spin go to waste, so Annie had the rather smart idea of towing me down to Crow Point where we could park up, take the by now highly excited dog for a walk out and over the boardwalk and then come back for some tea and seasonal pastries, hot cross buns, in the van. Forthwith, she had me hitched up to the tow bar and off we went.

So, after stopping off at Warrens in Braunton the one of killer pasty fame, we soon got down to Crow Point. The bloke at the toll gate only charged us for a vehicle and a half to let us through after I pointed out rather keenly that  as we were technically only one vehicle we should only have to pay the toll for one. I guess he saw some sense in my argument as we came to splitting the difference. Tell you what it was abslolutely glorious down there in spite of the time of the year and the fine weather there was hardly a soul about. Annie let the hound of the leash and it tore off on a haphazard course over the dunes out of view. As we strayed off the boardwalk and made our way along cattle tracks out over towards the coast it occurred to me that we could have been transported into another age. It was like the land that time forgot tha is if you disregarded the small arms fire coming from RMB Chivenor and the constant drone of amphibious military craft coming from the estuary. (There must be somewhere in Libya that looks like Bideford as they have been zooming up and down the Torridge in hovercraft and landing craft for days now) It also put me in mind of that film One Million Years BC. 
 I half expexted a flying dinosaur to come flapping out of the sky, squawking menacingly while trying to carry us away with its tentacious claws. Of course, it would take a great leap of imagination to turn Annie into Raquel Welch, however she aways did turn a few heads back in the day. Although I have to say she was more your Diana Dors type but still, she would have looked a bit special in a rabbit's fur bikini. Come to think of it I think she may have sported one a few years back now when she had a walk on part in 'The Romans in Britain' that the Barum Amateur Dramatics Society put on in the early 80's. They had intended to have her in the nude but the dress rehearsal caused such a storm especially as TSW heard of it they put her in more modest costume
Raquel Welch possibly on Braunton Burrows

I have never been down to the Eden Project but on a good day to my mind when you have got Braunton Burrows who needs to? This is the real thing, a natural phenomenon our very own biosphere on our doorstep, not some man made artifice plonked in a china clay pit in St Austell.

Of course like many things in the area, going out on the moor, walking the coast path you always promise to take a greater advantage of them and to tell you the truth I hadn't actually been down there for a few years now but there was a time when we'd come down as tackers and watch the army on manoeuvers picking up their spent bullet casings as we went stealthily following them through the dunes. When I was a young man and before myxie did it's worse I'd come down with the old boy and Wes Twardo and his old boy with a couple of ferrets and some nets to bag a few brace of rabbits. Of course back then the place was overrun with them because before the Second World War it was actually run as a commercial enterprise providing rabbit stew for the nation. I've seen pictures of the rabbit trains which would regularly leave Braunton Station and head up country laden with them. Today, the rabbit is once again very much in evidence......
In the seventies when I fell in with the hippies we'd come down on many a summers evening to get nude, do a bit of skinning dipping drink cider and wine around a driftwood campfire before retiring into the dunes for a bit of nookie, taking care not to get your bum bitten by an adder. Today, a sign at the entrance to the dunes warns against such 'naturist activities' which is a bit rich coming from Christie Estates the landowners seeing as Hector Christie himself, a barley reconstructed hippy, can be often spied walking about with next to nothing on. Fair play to the Christies though as they do allow pretty much hassle free access to the land. I suppose in this light they are entitled to but up a sign or two. I think they may not actually be against naturism but be alluding to those activities which often occur in a state of nudity. Annie told me of a school geography field trip she went on to trace the River Caen from source to the sea apparently by the time they reached the Burrows and Crow after along hot day in the field the trip became more of a study of biology rather than geography.

Eventually, we reached the beach beside the mouth of the Taw and Torridge Estuary and at a low incoming tide you can see just how narrow the channel is between it and the open sea. Vast quantities of water racing in on treacherous currents. On a low tide you could fool yourself into thinking you could just wade over to Northam, if you really wanted to. At your peril.  A few fools have tried and periodically continue to do so, and have been dragged under to be carried out into the vast blue yonder never to be seen again. We sat up on a sandy cliff and out in the bay a ship was waiting to come in, riding the white horses off the bar. It was absolutely bleddy beautiful. Soon the dog came lollopping back to us bedraggled and barely able to stand upon it's mutant legs.  As the sun set in a western sky the breeze picked up and we headed back to the not so trusty Hiace for a lovely cup of tea and a toasted hot cross bun. Smashing.

Friday 15 April 2011

Anne Cawood sells sofa on e-bay

Annie Cawood dropped by this morning with some wonderful news, she has managed to sell her sofa on e-bay. She was as pleased as punch with the transaction which in spite of what some people had warned went extremely smoothly. She told me that things had really started to hot up and became quite thrilling when, half way through the auction, a bidding war broke out between a woman from Woolfardisworthy and a bloke from Petrockstowe. This contagious conflagration succeeded in pushing the price up from a rather lowly £3.49 to the all the more impressive sum of £17.75.  However, towards the end of the auction a lady from Wrafton came in with a killer bid of £23.15 which remained the top bid at the close of sale. She is now the proud owner of Ms Cawood's sofa. Anne was delighted that the much loved sofa has found a home in North Devon as it was originally from this area but it in it's lifetime has had a rather nomadic existence.  It was bought in Chope's of Bideford at the turn of the century, so it is a period piece, and it's provenance shows that it was first given pride of place in a living room in Westward Ho! It then found itself on the move this time rather further afield, up the M4 to Staines where it remained for a number of years before being relocated to a semi in Harlingdon. However, in 2007 the sofa was returned to the area, initially to a garage in Landkey but after a couple of months it was dusted off and was more recently found to be located in a modest Roundswell reception room.
As you may be able to tell I am fast becoming a fan of e-bay as I have heard nothing but good things about it.  Inspired by Annie's beneficial experience I have opened an account and in the next few days I shall be putting some of my beachcombing and mudlarking finds up on the site to invite bids from all and sundry.  Who knows where my collection of single flip flops and sea shell craft pieces might end up?