Monday, July 18, 2011

Have your say!

Every now and then I am asked to help a student studying some aspect of the romance genre. This time is a little different.  Here is your chance to have input to a survey of romance readers on a variety of topics.

Help a student learn more about our genre and complete the survey.  Here is the link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/65TCL33

I'll be blogging again later in the week trying to finish off my trip to Clovelly, if blogger will cooperate on the uploading of the pictures, that is.

Monday, July 11, 2011

More Old Devon



Deliciously Debauched by the RakeOne of the most interesting spots we visited in Clovelly was the Fisherman's cottage in Providence Row.

Here we got to understand something of the life of the people who lived among the twisty narrow streets clinging to the hillside.  And they are clinging by the way. Several have slipped down that hillside over the years.

The villagers used what they had to hand to build their houses.  Stones from the beach, earth from their excavations, lime from the kiln after it was build in the 17th century.   They created what are called cob and stone walls. The stones formed the foundations for the wall and the cob was a mixture of mud and straw and small stones formed into bricks.

 Here is a picture of an exposed cob and stone wall. Plastering, the covering over the cob and stone was mud and hay and lime putty. Later more lime was added to the plastering mix.


This is the kitchen taken from two directions.

I love the way one cupboard is tucked into the corner and another let into the wall. You have the feeling that not an inch of space is wasted.

It was interesting to learn that they melted down fishbones to make a very good adhesive.
Up stairs, and very steep and narrow stairs there are there are three more rooms. Can you see how the nightgown hangs across the corner of the room. There is another corner hanger like this on the other side of the window.

This is what we would call the master bed room.


And this next one the children's room.

And according to the information provided, boys who worked on the farmland might occupy the attic.  Or my guess is that it would also serve as an overflow for older children.

And below we have the tools of the owner's trade.

I have many more pictures of Clovelly to share, but once more Blogger has exhausted my patience with waiting for photos to upload, so until next time, Happy Rambles.