On the 29th April 2025, our dream finally came true and we moved to our dream home in Devon. I decided to keep a memoir in photos of our first year in our thatched cottage in Langridgeford, Devon, mostly told through what was happening on the land.
October 2025
Old soda bottle unearthed
Old soda water factory - Barnstaple
Static
Pheasant party
Pink sky
Walled garden
Ollie as Gollum
Spooky skyline
Bonfire & tumbledown treehouse
Chasey chasey
September 2025
Mystery ruin...
...but celebrations!
Pickle enjoying the Doom Hazel
Honey enjoying the Doom Hazel
Spindle
Late red campion colour
camera trapped - Nut Hatch
Camera trapped - Long-tailed Tits
Gloomy day...
First of the season mincemeat
Changing leaves (Elder)
Golden light
On the prowl...
Chaffinch under cover
Cleared pond
Glimpses of cows
Autumn mushrooms
Wasp eggs?
Dipper pool - collapsing bank
Nettle leaf - in the detail
Coal Tit
Sheltering from a rain shower
Late colour
Kes Tor
Roundpound
Inclement weather...
but beautiful skies
Great Tit
Ilfracombe Aquarium
Honey enjoying the Doom Hazel
Honey hiding in a bramble den
Ramshackle treehouse uncovered
Possible Willow Tit
Luscious hawthorn hips
A walk with the catlings
Trre identification...
Pickle enjoying the Doom Hazel
August 2025
Pickle in the new pond
Dying flowers
Rainy roses
Tiny acorns
Spindle
Himalayan Balsam bashing
Tree cat
Plant based waffles in Barnstaple
Torrington Mini Rally
Froglet
First brew: pear & sultana wine
Riverbank roots
Guelder rose
Deadly nightshade
Snail
Runners
Juicey elderberries
Accompanying cats
Willow sapling
Dock leaves
Bradninch Black
Rosemoor stag
Sloe gin
Large white
Our meadow from the other side of the river
Ripening hazel nuts
Sloes
Deerling
Devon & Cornwall Longwools at the North Devon Show
Ruins at Halsdon Nature Reserve
First pickles
Garden produce!
Stone Farm open garden
First blackberries
Misty inspecting the new steps
Steps with reclaimed feet!
Sculptural oaks
Liz Shakespeare - North Devon Show
Vanilla nemesia
Candyfloss sky
Not Bryony - Deadly Nightshade!
Umberleigh Garden Show
Honey on a walk
Golden-ringed dragonfly
July 2025
Juvenile Sparrow or Chiffchaff?
Beach at Ilfracombe
First roe deer caught on camera trap
Purple loosestrife?
Chaffinch
Meadow sweet
Apples & pears
Hydrangeas
Gloaming on the land
First pheasant
Axe Valley Wildlife Park
First late night BBQ
Peacock butterfly
Proper gloaming
Developing blackberries
Common bird's-foot trefoil
Bees enjoying the flowers
Developing bracken
Small nectar loving wasps
Red Admiral
Beautiful demoiselle
Himalayan Balsam
Old Langridgeford post
Little shores
Rowan tree
Hydrangeas for show?
Silver-washed fritillary
Bumble bee
Night fox
Oak leaf broach - South Molton Museum
Our local - The Riser, Umberleigh
Dipper pool
Wagtails
June 2025
Bread oven...
Surprise!
Demise of the bamboo
Ghost hydrangea
Mystery deer hoof print
Medieval Torrington
Torrington Castle wall daisies
Forget-me-nots
Nuthatch
Cow parsley takes over...
Less bamboo, more riverbank
Marsh Tit or Willow Tit?
Langridgeford 1981
by James Ravilious
Today
Juvenile Blue Tit
Meadow Brown butterfly
Redcurrent crop
Tawny Owl feather?
Comma butterfly
Dunnocks
Rambling rose
Wandering Pheasant
Impressionistic...
Mystery plant
Siskin
Sinister mood...
The bit at the front becoming a cottage garden
Busy Lizzies
Mystery bird?
Camera trap
Fluffy grasses
Local cream tea: The Old Farmhouse, Dodscott
Bold Great Tit
Mint harvest...
and produce... ice-cream!
April - May 2025
First evening: the land
Working post box
Bluebells & wild garlic
Diverse hedgerow
Marsh marigolds
Healthy ash tree
"There's something rotten in the state of Denmark..."Â
First flower boxes
Local cider: Sam's Cider, Winkleigh
Goodbye nettles...
hello robin
Dark nights
Apple blossom
Common lizard
Cockchafer
Celandine
Dandelion
View: Castle Hill car park, Torrington
May blossom
Baby oak tree
Walk from Yarnscombe
Croyde beach
Applets
More local cider: Honeywood Orchard
Tarr Steps, Exmoor
Red campion
Flag iris
Close-up, elderflower
Deadly nightshade...
Window feeder: robin
Beast of Exmoor
Invasive bamboo
Lupins
Foxglove & bee
Common toad
Cow parsley
Aromatic roses
July 2025