The Barn Owl is getting clever, it leaps out of the Dovecott and flies off making it impossible for me to take pictures, unless of course he stands on top of the Dovecott in the pitch black (in these parts of Devon I mean pitch black, the sky is like a planatarium at night, very beautiful) hence the not great picture of him taken with a flash, but you get the gist!

Or he sneaks out and I spot him way in the distance, way too distant for my camera!

Our travels have led us to Docton Mill which is a 1000m away from the Hartland Peninsula which is an area of outstanding natural beauty. It is sheltered in a deep hollow so frosts are very few and the ground never freezes and is also sheltered from the ravages of the sea. It is my kind of garden, very natural looking, in places it is so covered in moss you would think that if you stood still long enough you would be too!

The back of the house is beautiful, who wouldn't want to spend an evening in this room looking out at the garden and wildlife?

This building contains loo's for visitors, but in my dreams it is a studio for me to work in, notice the moss.

Just a short walk across the road through a nice old gate, is a weir that is beautifully cool on a hot day like the day we visited. The rocks in the river and weir are a lovely shade of copper and black.

In other parts of the garden are woodland walks and large flower borders crammed with the unusual.

The gardens are very soft and natural almost magical, the short 1000m walk to the Hartland Peninsula is a whole different story. Natural and Magical yes, but soft doesn't really describe it. It's a very beautiful rugged volcanic looking piece of coastline, with amazing pieces of slate and rock and the huge Speke's Mill Mouth waterfall cascading down to the sea.