Joy’s Mystery Tour

Another great day weather wise and as usual we mustered outside my house with Joy at the wheel. She was in charge of our celebration of Jackie’s birthday treat and only she knew where we were bound. The birthday girl has the privilege of sitting in front,

so Margaret and I caught up on the news. After months of trying to sell their house in a dead market they had suddenly had two excellent offers and accepted one of them. Then they shot off to the area they are hoping to move to and very quickly found something they both were happy with and had their offer accepted.

On returning – full of beans - they learned that the buyers felt they had overstretched themselves and had backed out. This will be a familiar story to most people who have been through this particular mill but I really admire the way they dealt with it. Not wanting to lose the house they would be happy to end their days in, and close to their family they drastically reduced their house price ‘ it’s only money’ and were back on track with the original buyers. Fingers crossed all round – I’d rather have a happy friend some distance away than an unhappy one here.

The first stop was at Kilve car park for coffee and we saw the first sign of leaves turning. Joy is almost as skilled as Margaret in finding ‘out of the way’ delightful places down twisty lanes - which I tend to avoid. After a long bumpy approach we reached Nettlecombe Court - a Tudor manor house which was home to the Raleigh and Trevelyan families. The setting is in a secluded valley on the eastern edge of Exmoor. When we got out of the car and looked around we couldn’t have been anywhere else but England – at its best.

Today the house is used as a Field Studies Centre and being nosey we rang the bell and were told by a helpful lady that they ran courses but weren’t allowed to advertise as their catering facilities were less than the powers that be demanded. The church next door looked interesting so we explored and found a beautiful font, exquisite stained glass and the effigy of a 7’ man.

Back in the car we continued our journey with none of us able to guess our destination. It was Wiveliscombe, commonly know as Wivvie. Most unusually Joy hadn’t booked anywhere so we parked in the free car park and drifted round. The first pub we chose and went inside we felt wasn’t quite us. The next one we felt the same

and were gazing at an interesting shop window when a lady who obviously was blessed with great powers of observation pointed over the road and said there was a nice restaurant down there.

Eventually we found 10 The Square which had a pleasant garden, a marquee and the sort of summer food we enjoy. We sat upstairs drank wine, broke bread and chewed the fat. A very lucky encounter with the Wivvie lady we felt. After wandering round the garden where the fig tree – which supplied the fresh figs we had eaten we drifted towards the shops. We remembered two shops from a previous visit – both of them like Aladdin’s cave; the larger after the style of Liberty’s as I remember it, and the other full of eastern promise with the fragrances that go with it.

Basking in the sunshine we recalled that in countless trips over 20 odd years the foul weather ones could be counted on one hand We’ve been lucky. It’s great having keen gardener friends who grow their own; I came back laden with damsons, tomatoes and green beans. We have two more dates; coffee at mine and a trip to the local to see ‘Lorna Doone.’