Church flowers.

(Post card in extra)
Yet another perfectly peaceful pastoral dawn. The sun doesn’t have to shine to make me appreciate daily life, as my friends and family know I’m extremely grateful for every waking opportunity to see each day and be aware of the beauty of where we live. Today being no exception Dippy and I set out for The Clovelly Herring Festival.
Having parked at the Court gardens we strolled through the glasshouse and found a few ripe figs for brunch before heading along the track towards Mouthmill and the rocky coastline. I picked some seaweed and a couple of dozen large limpets for starters later on. The walk back was interesting in that I walked back up the old road/track which turned into a narrow alley through the trees and led to the main pheasant shooting area where luxury wooden platforms had been constructed for those with guns could presumably have their comfortable armchairs waiting for the birds to be herded into their range of sight?
By the time I had reached the top of the trail I was about a mile away from the coast path and had to retrace in the main track nearly into MillMouth.
Dippy danced up the long drag to the top whilst I use the viewpoints for an excuse for little rest now again.
We met some interesting people who were fascinated with Dippy and how he interacted with their apparently timid dogs, the dogs seemed to enjoy his playfulness and performed unseen fun and chaotic interactions in and around the close proximity.
We dropped down into a sparsely attended Herring Festival being held on the harbour. About a dozen gazebo/stalls were exhibiting with the most popular ones being food and ciders.
Some people had managed to purchase some fresh sardines before the small stock had sold out, the Herrings were probably waiting out in the bay until the day was over.
I chatted with friends and strangers whilst we sat on a lobster pot eating our home made lunch before joining in with a few of the sea shanties being sung near the lifeboat house. We sauntered back to the top of the hill in the company of a well known local ice cream owner and generally solved most of the world problems with a couple of simple changes. After saying hello and goodbye to the famous Clovelly donkeys we headed back to the car via the Court gardens and the pretty little church yard
Home to Amadeus where I prepared a liver and onion casserole and created some flapjacks whilst enjoying some of delicious limpets baked in butter and with a little balsamic dressing.
A full day with Dippy and one of the first times I have seen him “ready for a long snooze”!
Zzzzz