Widecombe-in-the-Moor

Meanwhile, after our trip to Haytor we drove to Widecombe-in-the-Moor, home of the church of St. Pancras, also known as the "Cathedral of the Moors."  Built in the 14th century, the church still functions as an active parish, complete with a parish history organization. Widecombe hosts an annual fair that is not only the subject of a famous folk song of the same name, but also an annual event with its own website.  Here's a brief record of our trip to this lovely little town.

Where we were, and where we were heading.

St. Pancras from the village green.

Another view of the church spire, as well as one of the surrounding buildings.

View of the moors from the village green.

The church spire.

The chapel itself, which is somewhat dwarfed by the huge spire. The entrance is the door at the end of the walkway.

An Easter monument inside the church.

A tribute to the Queen inside the church.

Inside the church, with the steam pipes running beside the pews.

We visited two churches during our visit, and each one had a border collie prayer pillow.

The back of the church and graveyard.

A very mossy bench in the graveyard.

We stopped by this rock wall on the moor as we headed back to Bovey Tracey, and then....

...I turned around and this classic British car zipped by.

Next stop, the Cornish seaside village of St. Ives.

Dartmoor

Some photos from our trip to Bovey Tracey and Dartmoor England.

We spent two nights in the village of Bovey Tracey, Devon, in an inn named the Cromwell Arms. Built in the 17th century, it was a great place to stay with an excellent bar. I spent a few hours one evening drinking local Devon cask ale and talking with a local, who lamented the demise of the true English pub. Our room came with a free English breakfast, including a vegetarian option of said breakfast. While the eggs were wonderfully fresh (the chickens were kept on site), we didn't even try the beans n' toast. The first two pictures below show the front of the inn on Saturday morning when the farmers' market was in session.

We bought some excellent cheese from this vendor, a sharp cheddar and an award-wining sun-dried tomato (pronounced ta-mah-to) and herb cheddar.

Here are some various street scenes in Bovey Tracey, including the local variation of KFC (note that they also sell kebabs).

This is the rear of the Cromwell Arms. Our room was the last one on the left on the top floor. The chicken coop is behind me.

My father was a picture framer, and while I'm pretty sure he never uttered the word "bespoke," it sure seems like a great professional slogan. Methinks someone had best trademark this slogan soon!

Call box? Tardis?

A street view with yon hillside.

The view from our room.

A house flying the Union Jack.

We stopped by the local heritage center and discovered more about Oliver Cromwell's legacy in the area. He fought a major battle against the Royalist forces near Bovey Tracey and this display had a few Cromwellian artifacts (note the Cromwell death mask) as well as photos of a local Civil War reenactment, complete with Roundheads and Caviliers. The local guide said that many locals still have strong feelings about the Civil War. I replied that it was the same way in Virginia.

And to add a bit of levity after a dose of Cromwellian history (remember that Irish and Scottish Catholic genocide stuff?), next door to the heritage society was a shop that made giant dinosaurs and figures, including the big Buddha beside Barrie.

And three more street scenes from Bovey Tracey, including an interesting planter and some English road signage:

We spent a day exploring Dartmoor National Park, heading over to Haytor Rocks and walking up to the tor. The next two photos show the walk up the tor, aka Haytor Rocks.

We spent some hanging out around Haytor Rocks, enjoying a picnic of a vegetable and cheese pasty, enjoying the view, watching the rock climbers, and trying to stay out of the blustery and rather chilly wind. The rest of these photos were taken near Haytor Rocks. Our next stop was Widecombe-in-the-Moor, which I'll document in the next blog post.

Early spring/late winter photos

A roundup of various photos from around Radford and Boone, taken as winter holds on and spring tries to assert itself.

This first is taken on the Radford campus, where the construction fence and sculpture in front of the Covington Fine Arts Center add a Christo-esque touch to the campus:

I was in Boone, NC for the Appalachian Studies Association Conference last weekend, and took a very frigid walk around Bass Lake before ASA.  The next three photos are from Bass Lake.

Snow dusted bench, or prototypical skateboard?

Icy lake edge

Lake and sky

One of ASA's mini-excursions was a side trip to Appalachian State University's Fermentation Sciences lab, AKA the Ivory Tower Brewery (slogan: "It's all academic") We had a tour of the facilities and a very nice tasting. It's an impressive program that's training brewmeisters for the burgeoning western North Carolina beer industry. And their beer is pretty tasty, too.

Dr. Shea Tuberty of the ASU Biology and Fermentation Sciences departments give a tour.

Dr. Tuberty describes the different beers in the tasting room.

Brewing = Science + Art. Here's a sample of the scientific end, a custom built program than monitors the wort.

Meanwhile, back home in Blacksburg, winter still holds on.  Here's our backyard last weekend:

Asta watches Bou scampering in the snow

 And a few random photos: 

Sun poking through the clouds above Blacksburg

Blue bottle, blue ball, yard detritus, snow.

Clouds shroud the full moon early in the evening

Morning sunlight on several weavings.

A clever way to steal a lot of money. Heist an entire ATM machine.

Snow, flooding, and other stuff

The weather provided a bit of drama last month, including this sudden Friday snowstorm. Views are from the top floor of the library looking over campus.

Heavy rains hit the New River Valley which flooded the New River. Water was released from the dam upstream at Claytor Lake and RU didn't warn students in time to move their cars from the riverside parking lot. You can see the flooded river in the photo below and the submerged cars in the photo below that. These photos were also taken from the fifth floor of McConnell Library.

The New River swelling over its banks.

Zooming in shows the tops of submerged cars.

Meanwhile, while the weather raged, I took a few interior shots.

Bottles on the windowsill.

Tops of the same bottles.

Curved things on my work desk.

Repaired section of my backyard fence. A wind-damaged branch fell and took out several boards.  These are the bright and shiny replacement boards. "Good fences make good neighbors"