Easter Week in North Devon Day 1

After last years's Easter Week trip to Istanbul and a few Easters in the States with the grandchildren, this year we have returned to our Easter Week tradition of a holiday in a National Trust cottage somewhere in England. We have spent past Easters in Yorkshire and Cornwall and Lincolnshire and East Anglia. This year we are heading west to North Devon. Stopping at the Windmill Inn in Portishead overlooking the Severn Estuary south of Bristol now also seems to be a tradition. 

Next stop is for food. The Witheridge Farm Shop found on the internet, advertised as The Delicatessen in the Middle of Nowhere, and miraculously found on the ground despite the webpage emphasising "we really are in the middle of nowhere." The next village is named Nomansland, no kidding. Set in the middle of a working farm, we picked up fresh veg and meats and eggs and local cheese.

And here is our cottage, Woolley Lodge, on the National Trust's property at Arlington Court. This one really is a cottage which is a generic term for the Trust's rental property. Cottages can be in any sort of unused outbuilding on a property: flats in houses, terraced rows, barns, schoolhouses. Sometimes they are less comfortable than anticipated, but they are always interesting. Back in the day, estate workers were happy to have two rooms to call their own. Woolley Lodge was one of the most comfortable we have rented.

And it was surrounded by gorgeous banks of primroses, my favourite  spring flower.

Since it was Easter, we brought along some old friends to mark the holiday . . .

. . . and our special Chicken for the door.