Buckfast: the Abbey with an Inn

In the middle of our wet week in Devon, we paid a visit to both Buckfast Abbey (blue cross) and the Abbey Inn (blue pot) next door, with both perched on the banks of the river Dart, a few miles downstream from Venford Reservoir, last noticed at reference 1.

Soft steady rain at 06:30 and plenty of wild garlic on the side of the side roads.

Taking a look at the Madonna and child on the way into the Abbey gardens, we learned from a trusty that the Madonna was all things to all men, which meant, inter alia, that she took local form. In this case the model was a local housewife and the child was her own, actually a girl child rather than a boy child.

Snapped the young araucaria at the back of the public part of the garden, last noticed at reference 3. It seems that it likes the damp, mild micro-climate above the river.

Beyond observing that seen from the right angle, the leaves appear to come in spirals, not any closer to working out the pattern of leaf formation. Maybe one day we will come across a branch, freshly knocked or cut off, that I could dissect.

From there to pick up BH's brother from his flat nearby, then on to lunch in a viral bus shelter erected outside the Abbey Inn. On sloping ground, which was not great, but with integral, customer controlled heating which was. Unconfirmed sighting of a nuthatch on a nearby tree on our side of the river, confirmed sighting of a mallard poking about on the other side. In which connection, quite by chance, I learn that mallards, along with some other birds and some whales can sleep with one half of the brain at a time. In the case of mallards, the idea being that the other half can keep an eye out for predators. See references 4 and 5. To be followed up tomorrow.

I took a rather good vegetarian pizza (if cheese is allowed vegetarians). BH took fish and chips, pretty good, even if the interior of the batter was rather yellow. It also came with rather a lot of dressing, rather as my burger had the day before. Perhaps a regional thing. While BH's brother's dessert took the form of apple crumble served in a pint pot. Another first! But he was well pleased, which was the important thing.

More wild garlic on the way home. Through the back lanes, rather than along the main road, and we were lucky that we met the milk tanker before we were properly into the lanes, where the encounter might have been a little awkward.

Reference 1: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2021/05/round-pond.html.

Reference 2: https://theabbeyinnbuckfast.co.uk/.

Reference 3: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2020/10/araucaria.html.

Reference 4: Half-awake to the risk of predation - Niels C. Rattenborg, Steven L. Lima and Charles J. Amlaner - 1999.

Reference 5: Unihemispheric sleep and asymmetrical sleep: behavioral, neurophysiological, and functional perspectives - Gian Gastone Mascetti - 2016.