Holiday Day Eight - Moors and Witches

[byslantedlight]

Today (yesterday!) we drove over Dartmoor, via Jamaica Inn, to Boscastle on the Atlantic Coast (we drove "the Atlantic Highway" to get there - I didn't know we had an Atlantic Highway, but it was very pretty!)

Dartmoor was wild and woolly and very gorgeous

and there were many more animals there than I remembered - not just ponies and sheep, but slightly shaggy cows as well! (And frighteningly enough I first typed that as slightly shagging cows... *headdesk*)

Then off to Jamaica Inn for lunch - I'd bought my DuMaurier book to read briefly, and I'd started it the night before (though I didn't get very far) but what I'd of course forgotten was that they have a sort of self-service buffet thing for lunch, of not-very-good-food-at-all, and there was a queue that just did not move and we were in a bit of a hurry cos we had a tight schedule, so in the end we detoured to the gift shop for postcards and fridgemagnets and chocolate-to-keep-us-going and got back in the car - and I realised after that I'd not taken a single picture of the place! One day I'm going to go and spend a reasonable amount of time there, having read the book and knowing what's gone on there! The closest I've managed so far is staying for half a pint with kiwisue, because it's generally so busy and touristy and a bit rubbish (or once, too full of local lads on their fourwheelers)!

Anyway - on we went to somewhere that I think has become one of my favourite places - Boscastle!


Boscastle is a very pretty little harbour village in North Cornwall - the one that was devastated by floods in 2004, you might remember - and I have always wanted to go here for this...

The Museum of Witchcraft! You see, it used to be at the Witche's Mill in the Isle of Man, but eventually moved (they tried Windsor and various other places, but were chased out of town) and ended up in Boscastle. Actually it's their archive and library I want to go and spend time at (and I've discovered there's an IYHA just steps down the road, so yeay!) but I wanted to have a look first, and it was very fab indeed...

It started with some general, very atmospheric displays...


And then it opened out into cases that were packed full of genuinely found witching paraphanalia, and stories of people who attacked others via poppets and charms and the like...

Actually I didn't take many pics of those displays - they were quite creepy, I have to say (and the museum was very busy and I didn't want to be intrusive and all that *g*) It was all very interesting, though...

We wandered Boscastle a wee bit - up the cliffs past the rocky harbour

to see the Atlantic coast (which is my "normal" side - it feels quite odd to usually see the sea from the east coast, these days - *hugs west coast*) which was blue and sparkling and absolutely beautiful - these pics don't do it near justice! As you can see, the weather here has gone all blue-skyed again, yeay!

Then I had a lavender and honey icecream, and we made our way back towards the carpark past all the other little galleries and shops (I will be back!), stopping only at... Boscastle Pottery because it's just my kind of pottery! I adore the skeletal trees (which they don't call "mocha ware" apparently, apparently it's just the media that does) and patterns that they've got, and the next time I have a guest at home you shall drink coffee and eat toast from the most gorgeous mug and plate... the ones in the link above are brown shades, but I chose deep blue/purple, and one dark green, all with the winter tree landscapes... Apparently the potters add a particular herb to their slip and that's what makes the patterns - we watched the guy doing it, and it was very clever and fab...

And then home in a rush, cos we had barbeque waiting for us, for dinner... and Inkheart on dvd for later on, and... then sleeps... *g*