Bodmin Moor. at last.

last night, it rained and blew a gale and rained.. somemore. I was beginning to think that we were in some kind of tropical typhoon. And we woke to rain. so it was a bit of a downer really...
I wanted to go back to Tavistock to visit a church I had spotted when driving yesterday.

the water table is saturated and the water has no where to go..

we drove along roads, not much bigger than goat tracks in places.. all washed out and flooded by the rain.. on the way we saw a kestrel, hovering just above us. they are stunning birds. so graceful.

Our Lady and Mary Magdalene, catholic church.. [funny how Mary Magdalene has accompanied me on this pilgrimage]

it was not as old as the anglican churches [which apparently were catholic before King Henry V111 decided to reform it all] but simple inside, although the design was taken from a Roman Basilica, it was still very impressive compared with Australian churches.

then we decided to go to Liskeard for lunch.

on the way, we took a detour to find a Holy well that i had read about - Dupath Well.. believed to cure whooping cough.. but came to a dead end at a farm.. and decided not to trek through the farm looking for the well...

Liskeard is what is known as a 'poor town'..and I can see sadly, that many shops are closing down, much like at home.
we found an op shop [where I bought a cup commemorating some kind and queen] and a junk shop.. obviously the junk shop doesn't know that the country is in a recession as they had a similar mug for sale for 10 times the price! there were lots of treasures in the junk shop though.. but sadly, too crowded and damp to even want to look inside for too long. lots of water problems in many buildings here.. rising damp and leaking rooves.

after our browse in Liskeard we headed for the second well that I wanted to visit..

Holy Well of St. Cleer - 15th century

[St. Clarus, a benedictine.. the Benedictines are a big part of my life. I love the Benedictine Way..]

the Holy Well, was originally used to treat the insane. they were tossed up and down in the water until their sanity returned

 

sounded good to me....

 

but of course.. modern times, safety issues.. the well was covered.. so I had to be content with dipping my hands in.. [and this is where I placed my little rock that I had bought from home]

it was quite sad actually.. the Holy Well seemed neglected.. aluminium cans and rubbish littered the crystal clear water.. if I lived here, i would adopt the well and clean it up, decorating it on the feast day of St. Cleer ..

next to the well was an ancient 7 foot cross

then we drove towards the Moors... towards Minions..the highest village in Cornwall.

we stopped to look at The Hurlers. Bronze Stone age circles from1500BC.

I must admit that Bodmin Moor was beautiful. very cold and windy. and of course wet. but the part that I saw was gorgeous. I walked around for a very short time as alot of it was so wet, so much so, that I kept losing my wellies in the mud.. it touched my heart and I am sure if I spent more time there, it would steal my heart... but anywhere like this always touches a part of me that cities and towns don't. Of course, this is only a small part of Bodmin Moor, but it will have to do.. I know that I have been to yet another area where my ancestors most probably were at sometime. satisfied? yes. yes.

then home to Ingledene.. to an invitation from a couple that we had met at the Fowey Hotel.. for lunch tomorrow.. [they live in North Devon and we clicked immediately on meeting them last week.. they were also grieving being away from family at Christmas time.. their children and grandchildren live in Australia!! She is the Mayor of her village.. they once hired a motor home and drove to Cairns.. oh the tales they told us of that adventure!]