Today was a fabulous day to be out on the Exe, courtesy of Stuart Line Cruises as they celebrate 50 years of cruising the estuary and the coastline. 

Like many of our guests at Sandays, we love a cruise on the wonderful Stuart Line boats and for all “fair weather sailors” it was a perfect day to be out on the water: very warm, calm & sunny.

Some warm spring sunshine is bringing about a transformation as nature leaps forward. The Warren crocus is appearing all over the place; our Echiums are growing like weeds, and the landscape is turning green! Out on the Warren the most striking colour is yellow as every bush seems to have burst into flower all at the same moment!
Very beautiful.

The Dawlish Walking Festival returns soon, full schedule available on line or in hard copy (leaflets around the town).
So whether you fancy a saunter around the town centre or hike take a look; there will be something there for you and a warm welcome awaits.
We will certainly be joining in from Sandays.

Look out for this movie which is in cinemas from next weekend. Set in the Channel Islands in the aftermath of WW2 … but much of it was filmed in North Devon! Sites included Saunton Sands (where a Dakota lands), street scenes in Barnstaple, and the picturesque Clovelly.
So do look out for lovely Devon and no doubt lots of Devonian “extras” too.

Sidmouth is rather beautiful at any time of year but is particularly lovely in the Spring due to intensive bulb planting over the last 5 years.
The benefactor was Keith Owen, who frequently visited his mother in Sidmouth and had a great affection for the resort. On his death he left his whole estate of £1.5 million in cash and £800,000 in property to the town with the stipulation that the interest should be spent on keeping Sidmouth, Sidford and Sidbury beautiful. He also wanted some of the money spent on getting the whole community involved in planting a million flower bulbs in the town!

Planting started in 2013 and five years on there are plans for plenty more in the coming years. The result is lovely and the blooming beautiful town is now “on the map” for a Spring visit. This year the first “Daffodil Day” was held on Easter Saturday.

As a result of all the recent rain the brook in Dawlish is looking rather full and charging along vigorously. The gap between the water and the bridge (by the bowls club) is very small!

At least one of the Black Swan families doesn’t seem to mind at all and we were pleased to see four wonderful cygnets doing very well and attracting a lot of attention from Easter visitors.

The weather forecast is not wonderful but as I write this the sun is shining and there are simply loads of Easter events happening around the area over the school holidays.
For new inspiration from your phone have a look at hubcast.co.uk/devon where there is no need to download yet another App: it is a dedicated mobile site that is very easy to use.
Happy Easter from Sandays!

Well, after years with no snow at all, we now have another dump and it is still coming down! No guests can get here so we built a snowman instead, which is making people smile.

We would really like to welcome back the Spring, but it is very pretty and it’s not everyday that Red Rock turns white!

There is an enormous amount of water on the Warren at the moment. I took these pics standing by the Visitor Centre and the new lake (!) with the snow coming down this afternoon. There were Canada Geese acting as though it is always thus, and a couple of ducks swimming down one of the footpaths I usually take through the trees.

Wear wellies is our advice!

View from the Visitor Centre, Dawlish Warren

Snow falling on the new lake at Dawlish Warren