Weekend in Morchard Bishop, Devon

This weekend I visited my friend Richard, his wife Anna and their daughters (who are my age). They live in a tiny village in Devon called Morchard Bishop which is about 30 minutes outside Exeter. Richard and I met at Exeter University back in 2004 when we were in a study group with two other students. Richard really looked after our group - he would often pick us up, take us back to his house and Anna would cook lovely meals for us. Sometimes they would take us to National Trust houses and gardens and we would take long walks with their dogs. We have maintained a friendship ever since. More than anything Richard and Anna are just wonderful to be around and their hospitatlity is endless. This is the lovely little thatched cottage they live:

My room when I stay there

I've always wanted a door like this!

I also really love the booth wish cushions on it...very cozy.
I will have an Aga someday...this is actually a Rayburn, but same difference.

While I was there we went to their friend's smallholding. The farm is fantastic - organized chaos...or not so organized as it were. They had not one, but TWO litters of kittens...12 total. Andy is lucky I didn't bring one home...I bonded with the black cat with blue eyes. I was even able to help out - apparently the pigs kept escaping so we fixed the fence. The whole experience was wonderful and only made me want my own smallholding even more!

What a view!

Look at those eyes!

How could you say 'no' to that face?!?

We also went for several walks - they have two dogs, Max and Molly. They are the happiest dogs alive, they get so many walks in these huge fields and pastures...and they swim almost everday! Yesterday we also had a picnic by the river...





They also have a horse called Dotty who had a filly back in May...both horses are beautiful.

On both Friday and Saturday night they had dinner guests. One night it was family friends and the next evening it was just people from the village that they called at 6:00 pm and said "Do you want to come for dinner?" I love village life - it's so sweet. Everyone bought wine or little goodies that they had made. And that night I cooked! Anna is a very traditional cook so I think I surprised her with creamy pasta (my mom's recipe) which had chicken, peas, broccoli and red & yellow peppers in it followed by cherry cobbler. But they really enjoyed my dinner (everyone had seconds) and then we played board games til 1:00 in the morning. I think it was the 1982 version of Trivial Pursuit, I only knew like two answers, haha.

We just got back last night and I am exhausted we were busy nearly every minute of the day! But it was great fun. I woke up this morning and went out to the greenhouse and found all of this! I got a lot of cookin' to do. Thank goodness it's a Bank Holiday, I'm home all day!