Travel Tuesday : Dartmoor

Hello m'hearties!  And how are you this fine day?

It's a bit dull here today, so I took the opportunity to look through my holiday snaps whilst The Photographer convalesces after a week in hospital.  It's the first time in four years that he's had a planned operation and with no unplanned complications.  I am so grateful for that. 

So he's nicely relaxed in his armchair, and this makes the perfect time to wade through the snaps of my recent holiday, a few of which I'd like to share with you over the next few weeks.  These days one has to wade through several hundred snaps to make sense of it all, and it becomes quite a chore, eh?  I'm thinking back to a different time when one packed 2-4 x 36 exposure film rolls in one's suitcase, got them printed after the hols and displayed them with much thought in a pretty album. 

A simpler life, eh?  

So here I give you my first batch, Dartmoor. It's a national park in Devon and where TP used to live, BITD.   It's moorland and quite barren with rocky outcrops.  We visited Dartmoor twice during our holiday in July and here are a few shots to give you a flavour of the place.  I've thrown in a few internet shots too because as I've visited the place many times before, I didn't take scenic stuff. 

Yup, and I call myself a blogger!

And talking of blogging, sometimes I go a little crazy and try to act like a professional blogger.  This week I've decided to give the impression I have a structure to my postings (which clearly I don't!).  So yesterday, was Mode Monday, today is Travelling Tuesday … I'm going to make it up as I go through the week and have fun with the days' alliterations. 

Yes, I don't get out much …!

Dartmoor

The interesting stone piles dotted around are called tors.

One has to drive carefully on the roads as the animals roam freely - manoeuvre around them or enjoy the scenic wait.

Postbridge has a pretty stone clapper bridge, which allowed those with horses and carts to cross the river, BITD.

It is one of the tourist spots on the moor.

And here's another tourist attraction!

The Dartmoor ponies come from a line of ponies that were used when the moor was a thriving centre for tin mining.  As the mines closed, the ponies were let loose on the moor.

Down the bottom of the lane from TP's old home.

Dartmoor is mostly chilly/blinkin' cold - this however was a loose linen dress day, v. hot and humid … el skorchio, don't ya know!

We used to stay on Dartmoor frequently when TP had a home there.  Waterproof jackets, fleece layers and sturdy walking boots made up my OOTDs back then. There was much hiking around the moorland.  I usually got wet.  Occasionally I fell in streams when attempting to jump them.  This trip was so different, no trekking, no mishaps, no drenchings.

I leave you with some picturesque scenes.

Remains of Bronze Age settlements dot the landscape.  I find walking through these spaces very moving.

Walking through these abandoned settlements is a spiritual experience.

I kid you not, these ruins bring out my inner homemaker.  

On one trip with Sis I became very still and pensive.  She awakened me from my reverie, asking me where my head had been.  "Oh, I've been working out in which little niches in the stone I would keep my lanolin oil lamp, where I'd hang my bunch of sweet-smelling heather, which space would be warmest for the children …"  Yes.  Really.

A la perchoine.