Tavistock #2: Rebecca, Matilda and chooks

Wednesday 1st Tony and Ruth took me to Southampton Central. Train to Westbury (travelling north-west) followed by another train in a south-west direction to Plymouth. The most unusual train experience. I was sitting amongst a group of orthodox Jews, adults, children and babies, all speaking Yiddish (not the babies! - I know because I asked them, thinking it might be Hebrew). They belong to a London community and in this case were travelling to Newton Abbott to organise a school camp for 130 children. I had to really expand my mind to encompass the idea of 130 orthodox Jewish children on an outdoor camp as the male adults in the train with their broad-brimmed black hats, black coats and other orthodox attire did not seem quite the role models for the sort of outdoor camp we might expect in New Zealand. But the woman I was sitting next to was just lovely and we chatted much of the way. Again, there was something incongruous in the traditional attire, the Yiddish and the constant use of cell phones. My neighbour broke off a conversation to speak to her son in New York. On the train in Devon, UK, speaking to New York...

Off the train in Plymouth and another one of those tricky toilet moments. This time the turnstile gobbled up my 30p and refused to let me through. I swore at it, put in the same amount again and got through in time. Then found the stop for the bus to Tavistock. Instructions for driver - 'let me off at the Texaco'!! He did. About a 45 minute bus trip which, once out of Plymouth and surrounds, took us straight onto the edges of Dartmoor and through little moor villages.

Westbridge Cottages, where I am staying, were close-by. Here's some googled information about the cottages which are situated between the busy Plymouth-Tavistock Road and the River Tavy.

Dated 1850. One of the Duke of Bedford's housing schemes for his miners. Ten rows of cottages at right angles to the road having 4, 5, 6 or 8 dwellings in each row. Two storeys stone rubble, some colour-washed. Hipped slate roofs. Gables to half-dormers. Casement windows, some altered, one to each property. Gabled weather porches. End cottages have porches in end alevations. Brick chimneystacks, some pointed.

There I found Rebecca, Matilda (four and in charge) and six hens. Rebecca was leaving the following day for a permaculture course, Matilda was staying with her father and then her grandfather. Shortly after my arrival we all walked along the riverside into Tavistock town centre. And this is where the shops come in. One of my daily jobs is to go to Roots and Vines and Oggy Oggy to ask for chook food :-) Rebecca is on a tight budget so I think the hens pretty much survive on these handouts. Lovely people in both shops. (Mind you yesterday I did my soliciting at Roots and Vines to be told sadly that the 'pig lady' had just been in and cleaned them out!!).

Another challenge - Rebecca has a pee-bucket and a toilet paper bucket. If I wanted to I could use the pee-bucket and empty it on the garden. Likewise the toilet paper could be recycled to the compost heap. I emptied both after Rebecca and Matilda's departure but decided that my green credentials didn't quite extend to this practice.

The cottage has a small kitchen, dining and living area, plus bathroom, downstairs and two bedroooms upstairs. No TV and a solar-powered radio. The latter, given the Tavistock 5-day forecast of

1. Few showers 
2. Scattered thunderstorms 
3. Scattered thunderstorms 
4. Showers 
5. Few showers 

is a bit problematic :-)

At some point I'll take some more photos but in the meantime...

Matilda and chooks

Rebecca and Matilda

One end of one row of cottages