Later that evening I ventured out to check on the weather. The mist had cleared and the sky was like black velvet with sequins sewn into it. The Milky Way was beautiful, I don’t usually see it as clear because of all the light pollution, but this night it was perfect. The Great Bear stood out so that it couldn’t possibly be missed and I managed to find Cassiopeia, the W shape.

I felt as though I was in a Planetarium because the horizon was flat, we were on the highest point. As I looked the horizon had a faint glow above it provided by the lights of the various built up areas surrounding The Long Mynd.

Next morning the mist was back with a vengeance and I bravely (or so I thought) walked along the footpath until I could no longer see the van. I then walked another 10 paces and fairly flew back to warmth and safety.

The weather forecast was not good and we still had the dratted Stratus cloud (will I ever get to page 3 Cumulus?), in fact we were actually in it that morning, so we decided to spend a few nights at home and catch up on some visiting and also plan our next outing.

Thursday, it was still dull but dry and we visited Janet at the Threshing Barn. It really is a kaleidoscope of colour and today we ended up helping to wind wool into balls and skeins. Pat became very proficient at estimating the weight of each ball but declined to wind into skeins using a niddy noddy. The yarn was in glorious colours all hand dyed by Janet, if you’re looking for an unusual gift, you can buy scarf kits for knitting or even sock patterns and wool if you’re feeling brave.

At one point Pat was being nagged by myself and Janet plus 3 customers, he had a wonderful day! It especially took a turn for the better when we managed to fly the kite and camera. Dave, Janet’s husband, was interested in the photos and we think we got a couple of good ones for him. When we first let the kite go, Miss Piggy, a massive porker, ran into her sty obviously frightened. I went over to console her and she scuttled out to me almost grinning. She was grunting away quite happily and as I scratched her head the grunts became less and she almost melted into the wall, she was in piggy heaven and if she could have purred I’m sure she would have done.

Christmas is coming and I’m really going to have to get some spinning and weaving done because I’m plucking up courage to approach a few shops that I hope will sell some of my bags and jewellery .

I’m concentrating on spinning for the next couple of days and trying to build a Christmas stock that I can show. We’re also getting ready for a possible trip to the South East next week and we will be watching the weather very carefully.

Saturday and we slowed down meaning that we visited only one village, Polperro. It was a dull and cloudy day but warm.

Polperro is a lovely little village with narrow streets and olde worlde houses, and we wandered up and down all morning. It’s built in a gap in the cliffs, with one road down the side of the stream and all the rest radiate upwards with houses built at odd angles on the valley side. I managed to persuade Pat to climb up a narrow pathway between the houses towards the cliff top believing that we’d get a good picture from there. Unfortunately the hedge was 7ft high and we couldn’t even see the harbour.

The harbour was small with a few modern fibreglass boats moored alongside a couple of traditional vessels. We always think the modern boats ruin the look of these old harbours but they do provide income for the area.

There was not a bit of land without a building on it and many of the houses were without a garden and so pot plants were put everywhere, on stone ledges that protruded from the walled banks of the river. so that as you looked over the bridge a splash of colour was pleasing to the eye. Doorsteps were a popular place as were window ledges.

We noticed that even though it was October there were still a lot of holiday makers carrying their suitcases to and from the car park. You are not allowed to take your car down the narrow streets but there is an electric bus service that runs every few minutes between the village centre and the car park and also a horse drawn bus. The poor horse looked bored to tears, I can’t help feeling that it’s cruel, I wanted to take the horse and let him run on the sands and free him of his life of drudgery.

We also noticed an enterprising person had bought one of those Quad Bikes with a trailer and he was carrying holidaymakers luggage up and down from the car park to the hotels/holiday lets.

As you’ve probably noticed now, I’ve got a thing about yellow lines and the only ones I noticed in Polperro had a car parked on them!
After 4 hours our legs ached and feet throbbed so we treated ourselves to a real Cornish pasty (all the cafés say that) and 100gms of fudge each, delicious.

Sunday seemed a good day to check out Dartmoor except that it was cloudy, dull and the wind was blowing. We managed to find a nice spot on top of the moors near a pile of rocks about 25ft high. Everyone who stopped here climbed the rocks and had there photo taken with arms outstretched including me. They were very climbable rocks, it’s a pity it was so misty because I’m sure the view would have been lovely.

By the time it was getting dark we were on our own, the horses in the mist looked menacing as they slowly wandered all around us munching the grass. The mist got thicker and darkness finally surrounded us. The wind began howling around the van and it was a true Dartmoor night. Thankfully the only horrible noise we heard was a car pipping his hooter as he drove past.

We have now done all 3 moors, got the t-shirt as they say, so we need some new ideas on where to stay.

So next day we decided to check out Princetown, we found the village OK but it was so foggy the gaol eluded us. This decided us, we would not spend another day and night in fog, we headed for Stonehenge.
Stonehenge is a sad place, I’ve visited it once before and it felt downtrodden and unloved by all the visitors. Today was no exception, there were hundreds and neither Pat nor I could face the crush, it feels wrong to treat such a lovely place that was obviously well loved by it’s builders, with such indifference.

That night we stayed on Salisbury Plain, and just after dark we heard this terrible beating noise, like a dozen dragons wings beating as they flew overhead. We dashed outside and there were two red lights heading straight for us, army helicopters. They were flying at about 20mph at 15ft and as they got near to us they veered to the left and continued their search. The army must have been having night manoeuvres, I just hope none of them hide beneath the van.

It was a dead still night and very warm and we can’t help but wonder if we’re going to freeze as we travel slowly North. In the morning it was still misty and dull. The stratus was very very low in fact fog in places. I’m fed up with Stratus now, I want some Cirrus and Cumulus clouds to talk about!

Silbury Hill has had it’s 1968 doorway uncovered this month to enable the archaeologists to check out the supports and find the best way to backfill the earlier excavations which are making the hill unstable. They hope to be able to put it back to it’s original state for future years. They have still not found anything in there and it’s still a complete mystery.

We were so close to Avebury we couldn’t leave without saying Hi to the stones. It was still misty and dull giving a miserable feeling to the whole place. I always lose my bearings here, everything is so big, the stones are massive and solid. I would love to able able to get the camera and kite high enough for a plan photo but with helicopters like those last night I’m wary.

It continued to be miserable and dull and the weather forecast was terrible so we decided to try and outrun the rain. It caught us up at Long Mynd where we have stopped for the night. It’s another moor, it’s wet, it’s misty and the wind is howling around the van, We’re beginning to think we’re doing something wrong!