OUTING TO COCKINGTON – MY BIRTHDAY TREAT
Yesterday was my birthday, and today we visited the beautiful Devon village of Cockington, to have a meal out, and to do some sketching.
Cockington is full of picturesque thatched buildings, many built in the Arts and Crafts style. We had lunch at The Drum, which was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens. We have been there several times and always had excellent food and service.
This has been a busy time with a lot of celebrations – my hubby’s birthday earlier in the month (meal out at Yum Sing, our favourite local Chinese restaurant), our ruby wedding anniversary on 24th May, celebrated by a meal out with friends a few days later at Jun Jaow, our favourite local Thai restaurant, and today’s celebration of my birthday. We shall both need to go on a diet after this lot, and it’s going to take me a bit of time to get back into my normal routine and try and catch up with things, having been out so much!
Some views of Cockington
The Visitor Centre on arrival.
An interesting thatched archway.
The Weaver’s Cottage.
This curved thatch was most intriguing and very Arts and Crafts in style. This was the first building we sketched. I did mine with a combination of a fine permanent black marker and an Elegant Writer pen and subsequent blending with a water brush. I wasn’t very happy with the result and may attempt it again from this photo as a reference.
I didn’t get the proportions right, and the whole thing came out overworked and too dark. Oh well, you can’t win ’em all!
There were beautiful flowers everywhere. I loved these white roses with the clematis.
Exploring further, we came to this old water mill. We thought this was the best view we’d get, but finding another path, we were able to see it in all its glory.
This was our second choice for sketching. This was my favourite effort of the day. It was done mostly with the fine permanent black marker, but later when we got home, I darkened the shadows with the Elegant Writer pen but didn’t add any water this time.
It was quite a challenge, because of all the different angles but we both managed it in the end.
Moving on from the mill in search of lunch, we found these intriguing curved steps.
Rose Cottage. I love how the thatch extends right down to the ground on the right. This is very Arts and Crafts in style. A very pretty extra bit of thatch over the front door, too.
Everything is so lush and green now. I loved this little stream running along beside the road.
Approaching The Drum, where we had lunch. It’s such a gorgeous Arts and Crafts building with magnificent thatch. More curved steps as well.
Enjoying our lunch
Hanging on the wall in the dining room is this gorgeous inn sign.
Our starters – my hubby had this creamy mushroom dish, and I had falafels on a hummus and grain base.
I forgot to photograph our main, which was a vegan Wellington served with traditional Sunday roast veggies – quite delicious! For dessert we both chose the small dessert accompanied by coffee.
In the restaurant there is some interesting upholstered furniture. I took a couple of photos of the fabric as I particularly admired the hare with peacocks, and the geese in flight.
Another view of The Drum, from above.
In front of the building there is some interesting brickwork paving and steps.
This building used to house a lovely craft shop, but sadly this now seems to be closed. A lovely view down the winding village street. So many attractive thatched roofs and lots of trees.
Another view of the old craft shop with some fun straw animals climbing up the thatch.
After lunch we returned briefly to the mill to complete our sketches, and I photographed this gorgeous old rusting machinery in a patch of ground on the other side of the path.
Presumably this was once part of the mill mechanism. The mill is now a private house.
Moving away from the mill we found another old piece of machinery – I think this may have been some kind of knife grinder.
Court Cottage. Lovely stonework, and as palm tree in full bloom! My hubby tells me they only flower every seven years.
Finally we came across this very intriguing thatched cottage, which was our final sketching venue.
My second favourite sketch of the three. I used the same materials as before, adding some of the Elegant Writer pen (minus water) on our return home to darken some of the shadows.
Thatch is quite interesting to draw!
We had such a great day, wandering around and sitting together to sketch. We should do this more often! It was, all in all, a great birthday treat and a great meal, too.
