Tree Down

Wydemeet is probably the most remote B&B on Dartmoor.  

At least that is what I have written in all my advertising blurb.  It probably is - we're at the end of a 3/4 mile dead-end lane which looks private, but which is actually public. Occasionally snow ploughs with 'Motorway Maintenance' written on the side can be seen making their way along it, just outside our gate. I think uniquely, we have footpaths and bridleways stretching in every direction from our house - as you will no doubt have already read in the main body of this site, and we're 800 feet or metres (I forget which, but high enough to be bleak and cold) above sea level.

The school run to Beloved Daughter's place of learning, just outside Tavistock, is a twice daily,  26 mile, round trip of absolute pleasure. We start by going up a steep hill, and then we go down an even steeper, very windy one, over a bridge, and after a couple of miles we meet the main Dartmoor B-road that crosses the moor.  This is primarily used by prison officers who fly up and down along it at 100mph, even though its got '40' written and circled in white at regular intervals on the tarmac, bright enough to make the horses shy and refuse to tread on it.

So I need to have a 4-wheel drive in case of ice, hence Bill.

I have never seen anything like this weather, and have been out digging ditches in the field to divert the water and preserve what's left of my drive; and thrusting my arm down pipes and gutters, pulling out gunk and leaves, to stop the water flooding over into bits where it's not supposed to go.

This morning Beloved Daughter and I nearly reached the bridge, to find a tree fallen across the power lines and over the road. This resulted in a 30 minute diversion to the next bridge available, and meant for the second time Beloved Daughter was unable to be presented by the headmaster I mean headteacher with her certificate for 'Musician of the Week' in Morning Assembly.

The phone, obviously, remains down, but so far broadband, oil and electric power are intact.  We have a couple arriving to stay from Norfolk tomorrow.  They are bringing wellies and macs.  I'm hoping they're not going to need torches and a gas burner as well!  In the event that we do lose power, ironically we will have no water (it's electronically pumped up from a borehole and pure enough to sell!) so I expect I will have to find us all alternative accommodation.

Fingers and toes crossed!