The Chinese pictogram for a crisis shows a challenge and an opportunity. Our weather-induced crisis provided an opportunity both for an afternoon visit to Buckfast Abbey (the logistical challenges speedily surmounted by Assistant Expedition Leader Amanda Ellerbeck) and to savor an evening art exhibit in the town.
The situation of Dartmouth never fails to delight. The Caledonian Star anchors midstream in the steep-sided River Dart with the brightly painted terraces of Dartmouth to the west and Kingsweir to the east. One of England's most ancient harbors, Dartmouth has associations dating back to the Dunkirk evacuation, the Pilgrim Fathers, the Spanish Armada and beyond.
Buckfast Abbey (illustrated) dates back to the eleventh century. It is a rare example in England of a monastery, suppressed during the Reformation years of the 1530s, which has been reactivated. Now home to some dozen Benedictine monks, one of whom guided us around the Abbey, it is very much a living community. Prayer, study and work make up the rule of St Benedict, the latter represented by beekeeping, market-gardening, and the manufacture of pottery and stained-glass.
Brother Adam is a famed apiarist who developed the famous Buckfast bee, disease resistant, innocuous with its sting, and highly productive of the famous honey on sale at the Abbey store. Remarkable gardens have been planted to conserve rare species of plants and herbs. Historians and naturalists were in their element here as the rain gave way to spring sunshine.
