Hexworthy

Another pleasantly warm day for our visit to one of my brothers-in-law, whom we carried off for lunch at the Forest Inn at Hexworthy.

Reliant

Before picking him up, a pit-stop at Buckfast Abbey, already busy with five bus loads of visitors. We thought that some of the buses at least were for groups from churches. While some of the people were actually smoking real cigarettes, including some ladies. Somewhere along the way we also spotted our first Reliant Robin for a while, reasonably common forty years ago. Wikipedia tells me that they were big in the 1970's and 1980's, while my recollection was the fact that the (resin in the) fibre glass shell burned very well was a significant factor in their ultimate demise. Bing offers lots of horror stories about fires involving the stuff.

Interesting flower

New-to-me bed of blue flowers thriving outside the entrance to the cafeteria. BH thought first ajuga and second shrimp plant, with both of them having features in common. But it is not the first and I don't think it is the second, described as an evergreen Mexican shrub, also known as the false hop. More work needed.

Beech tree

Impressive beech tree across the road from BIL's flat. Followed by lots of sheep and ponies, young and old, on the way to Hexworthy.

Ponies

Lunch at the Forest Inn entirely adequate, although I found the lemon meringue pie a little sweet, pleasantly served. There was a farm just down the road selling lemon curd, perhaps a way of dealing with surplus eggs, but I did not think to ask if that is where the lemon bit of the pie came from. In any event, more likely to have been ready made. Unless, that is, making pies is what the cook does in the slack season?

During our meal we were entertained by a young lady sat right in the middle of the bar area, working her telephone and laptop pretty hard. It seemed that she was the advance guard of some film unit on its way to doing something army flavoured on the moor. She also had a fine sense of her own importance and tactless enough to make an extensive restaurant booking somewhere else, despite there being likely to be plenty of space where she was sitting. I don't suppose the proprietrix minded that much as it provided her with a bit of company in-between times, but we thought she could have taken herself off to the side somewhere in the dinner period.

We also had an older gentleman who remembered tickling for trout in the river below.

Bird feeders

Back via the Ashburton Road which meant that as well as a whole new menagerie of sheep and ponies, we could take in that well known beauty spot, Badgers Holt. Really nice place to wander along and sit by the river, although I dare say on a summer weekend it might get uncomfortably crowded. But maybe we will get around to trying its restaurant next time (reference 4).

Someone had hung a range of bird feeders on a tree next to the car park, but while there was plenty of bird song to be heard, no birds to be seen. Note the moss in the tree - evidence of it being damp, not to say just plain wet, for a good part of the year.

Reference 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reliant_Motors.

Reference 2: http://forestinndartmoor.co.uk/.

Reference 3: https://psmv3.blogspot.com/2017/10/fine-dining.html. I feel sure that we visited the place in 2018, probably more than once, but no trace to be found.

Reference 4: http://badgersholtdartmoor.co.uk/.