TOTNES IN SOUTH DEVON - PART 2

We stopped and ate lunch in one of the pubs, The King William IV.  This is where we discovered how much we liked cider.

The four of us thought our meals were excellent.  Our niece ordered a chicken dish...

Our nephew and Gregg ordered a Thai Chicken Curry

I had the Steak and Mushroom Pie cooked with Merlot...

and we shared the Cajun-seasoned onion rings (obviously as these meals were on the menu in 2015, they could have changed several times since).

I am always on the look-out for inspirational signs, and this was on one of the walls in the restaurant.

After lunch we looked inside a few shops.  One was W.H. Smith and hubby grew to love their stationery selections from his two years spent in England.  He purchased a couple of fountain pens this day.  

I had forgotten how hilly it was so we certainly got our exercise that day, with lots of steps up and down between streets.  It was nice to see the familiar and smaller family-style shops instead of the large supermarkets that we are used to.  

We also passed by pretty courtyards on our way back to the car.

We walked over the River Dart bridge.

There were older school children rowing down the river.

It was fun watching them for a while; a school physical exercise class perhaps?  I would have enjoyed that PE class.  A teacher was in the last boat and there was at least one young adult in the others.  A rope tied each boat to the one in front.

I have always thought this river was very pretty.

The bird is a Jackdaw.  I found the following information at this link.  There are a lot of pop-ups on its site, so decided to share the following information about this interesting bird if you don’t want to deal with those. 

"The Jackdaw, also called Daw, (species Corvus monedula), crowlike black bird with gray nape and pearly eyes, of the family Corvidae (q.v. order Passeriformes).  Jackdaws which are 13 inches (33 cm) long, breed in colonies in tree holes, cliffs and tall buildings.  Their flocks fly in formation around the site.  They lay four to six light, greenish blue eggs that are spotted and blotched.  The bird's cry sounds like its name, "chak".  The species ranges from the British Isles to central Asia.  Eastward it is replaced by the white-breasted, white-collared Daurian jackdaw (C. dauuricus).“

Before going back to the cottage we drove to Torquay (one of those funny spellings again as it is pronounced "Torkee").  My niece had heard about the aquarium and we all enjoy those so we were looking forward to it.  However, by this time the clouds had darkened and it was very wet and windy, with huge white caps on the sea.  After almost being blown over trying to walk down to the aquarium, with heavy rain stinging our eyes, we decided it would be better to go another day, when it wasn't raining.  The walk was invigorating but you can only take so much invigorating, eye-stinging rain-walking.

One last stop at the three village shops, which are all joined together.  There was a newsagent, a hair salon and a general store for essentials.  They have been there for as long as I can remember.  My mother and sister visited the hair salon on occasion, and my father bought all the newspapers from the newsagent, and we would  pop into the general store if we needed anything just before a main shopping trip.

  

The man behind the counter of the general store was amused as we all walked into the shop in single file, and asked us to join the conga line.  We also looked sopping wet, though we were sure to dry our feet and tried not to overly drip everywhere.  It was a small shop and not a lot of room, sort of like walking into your front room.  Loved it and the friendly people inside, and it took me right back to when I lived in the village.  

There were waist-high freezer containers in the middle, quite a lot of variety.  Our purchases were cider, two six-pack packs of eggs and bars of chocolate.  The lady thought our purchases were amusing, and asked if that was all we were going to get.  With a smile I told her that I thought we had covered all the necessary food groups (not telling her we had done our main shopping the day before) and she laughed.  These shops are just up the hill from where we were staying, and Gregg enjoyed a walk each morning to get the newspaper, and also any necessary items we might need before we started our day.  We were all in a good mood after our lovely day out, but were exceedingly tired and slept well that night.

Thanks for following along with this old post, and I hope your day is a great one.