Yesterday still

After a night's stay in Bowlish House (very nice Regency Palladin)

we moved towards our Devon destination and passed a few landmarks for me personally. The first was Dartington Hall, which hosted an international summer music school at the time that I decided to stay in England for awhile after roaming through Europe for a year.  The Great Hall itself was housing a rehearsal so it was closed to visitors, but I remember sitting at the evening concerts, and taking part in the weekly choral pieces, before walking back to my dorm cot at Foxhole.




Spot the earnest singer from 1984!

The Cider Press shops I remember are still there - Cranks (where I first learned of Nut Loaf and its role in English vegetarianism), Dartington Glass (what was I thinking buying all those seconds when I was backpacking and didn't have anywheere to put them?), another toy shop to replace Tridias (who later became my employer - coincidence!) .
 
We planned to stop for coffee at the Cotyt and I hoped it was still there.  And it was, in all its thatched loveliness. This was where my family enjoyed lunch in our last big family trip together while my siblings and I were still rangy teenagers.  Then, when I needed to figure myself out after a year of roaming, I came to Dartington for a few weeks in summer and ended up staying in the country for 7 years.  On some of the more modern concert nights (and less appreciated by moi) , I would steal away here to have a pint of cider with my new friends.  And now here again, in the middle of an experimental summer where we see if we can really have our cake and eat it, we enjoy its low dark beams and cheery garden.



 Coffee in the Cot

Something obviously draws me here, and it's nice to know I can still remember things as they are, and things are as I remember them.