A red post

It's the pillar box from Easter Island, sloping backwards slightly (perhaps from a collision with a vehicle) this iconic letter box is on Le Molay Littry Way. No we're not in France - this is Bovey Tracey in Devon which has, as a twin town, Le Molay-Littry in Northern France. The road you see is a by-pass which takes some traffic away from the middle of town to break the speed limit. Like a lot of letter boxes nowadays this one was looking drab and dirty until someone knitted a very nice combination waistcoat and hat for it to brighten things up. After a couple of weeks the knitwear was removed and, guess what, it's has a very spruce paint job! Was the Royal Mail embarrassed into painting it up? I must take a look at other local pillar boxes to see if it's just a one off or a new broom policy by the post people. Or maybe a local resident has crept out at the dead of night with a tin of pillar box red!

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Well this is a new one to me! There is a whole society devoted to surveying historic graffiti in Devon. These are especially found in medieval churches and rather than getting the idea that churchgoers 500 years ago got bored and started to scratch their names on the wall there are other reasons for the appearance of graffiti. In many cases it seems that symbols such as pentangles were created as ritual protection marks, others were stonemason's handiwork and could have been the equivalent of their signature. The Devon graffiti surveyors seem to have particular fun trying to decipher some of the writing styles of long ago, with varying degrees of success.

Here's St Winifred's in Manaton a fine Devon church brimming with medieval graffiti. Manaton (as opposed to Manhattan) is a pretty village on the edge of Dartmoor and on a sunny day we packed a picnic and set off on a ramble having parked our car near the village green but at a judicious distance from the cricket pitch. We didn't go into the church to survey any graffiti but this photo gives an idea of the fine clear day it was. We set off past the remains of a large granite cross in the graveyard - this was sabotaged by the vicar in the mid-19th century as he wanted to stop the villagers carrying coffins thrice round the cross before burials took place. He considered this to be the relic of a pagan rite! There seems to be no record of whether or not villagers carried on carrying coffins round the rather substantial remains of the cross. We took our lunch up to Manaton Rocks a secluded viewpoint well worth the rough climb up.

And to round off this post full of miscellany, here's a selection of beers suitable for mountain runners. Scafell needs no explanation but the brewer, Northern Monk is continuing to come up with superb ales, one of our favourites. Brewdog have a new clear pale ale - and we've traversed many jagged edges on the hills. Buxton Brewery have gained an international reputation and I'm sure the beast on the front of this one chased me on a particularly dark night in Derbyshire. Finally another Derbyshire brewery, Thornbridge has recently teamed up with the North Brewing Co in Yorkshire to produce the excellent North Bridge which is described as a 'Mountain Ale'.

Darting round on Dartmoor

What sort of dogs were around 3000 years ago?

Skip's resting here at the top end of the old stone row on the eastern slopes of Cosden Hill. We'd run up there from the village of South Zeal and were on our way to the top of what is one of the highest peaks on Dartmoor. The stone row is a bit of a mystery and there are many theories as to the function of the many Bronze Age stone rows scattered all over Dartmoor. This row does seem to point towards the summit of Cosden but tracing an exact line towards the peak shows that it misses the top by some distance. Heading in a southerly direction on an old track marked as a bridleway on the OS map we made dismal progress through the bog. We saw no sign of this route being used by any horse riders and the Dartmoor ponies didn't seem interested in wading through the wet ground. And the local council have obviously not done anything about maintaining drainage for this ancient byway - very remiss of them I'd say! The track headed up and round the southern end of the ridge south of Cosden and suddenly, having not seen a soul since we set off, we spotted a couple of runners travelling rapidly along the skyline. A few minutes more of our painstaking progress led us to a clear wide north-south track - what a relief! We plodded up with renewed vigour and close to the peak we bumped into Tim L, whom I recognised from several races I'd done in the past, he was happy to stop and have a chat and we were happy for the opportunity of a breather.

Dartmoor is full of unexpected surprises, for a start what looks like a clear path marked on the OS map may not be found anymore (at least not where they're meant to be), and elsewhere broad tracks exist which are not indicated on the map. You have to have an open mind about route-finding and it's a good idea to avoid a misty day. Following one such broad track recently on Trendlebere Down I decided that I should be heading right down towards the river which could be heard gushing in the distance - I followed what looked like a path but soon found myself (with Skip) scrambling down a steep gully having to look very carefully at where my feet were landing. And what did I nearly tread on - an Amethyst Deceiver (laccaria amethystina) a vivid purple mushroom! What a spot! And a few days before we found a very fine specimen of amanita muscaria which is also known as the Fly Agaric. This is the classic toadstool of children's fairytales and it has a multitude of uses. Not only has it long been known as a hallucinogenic but it's also used to catch flies, hence the name. There are many agarics and the genus agaric encompasses toadstool and mushrooms with gills. Fly Agaric is thus a gilled mushroom as opposed to a grilled mushroom - you can eat them though provided they are parboiled twice before cooking! Here's our photo followed by another one of the Amethyst Deceiver (also edible) which I nearly stood on!

Fancy a bite?

Eat me for a Purple Haze!