Spring Harvest celebrations in Minehead

We have had a very busy week with our bed and breakfast guests and also Derek's aunt and uncle came to stay for a couple of days so it was lovely to catch up on all their news. It has been the Spring Harvest celebrations in Minehead for the past 3 weeks and we have had some delightful people staying with us - Ted and Pat and also Rod and Una who have stayed before. We have also had guests with their children who tackled Dunkery Beacon and a 8 mile walk and the coastal footpath. Jean and Steven had 3 great days just relaxing and walking in the immediate area - Porlock being the furthest they went.

We have had some lovely sunny days and the young animals have certainly been enjoying having some warmth on their backs and many of the fields around us have flocks of ewes with their lambs. In the evenings especially, the lambs go around collecting one another up into gangs and then start having races against one another. They gallop over hedges and round trees and at the end they literally jump with all four hooves in the air. Sometimes if the ewes are lying down, lambs will clamber onto their mums back and fall asleep - talk about taking advantage of your mother!

We were walking in Snowdrop valley and a herd of single suckler cows with their calves had just been turned out into a field after spending the winter months housed indoors. Although Derek and I come from farming families, we have never seen calves run so fast or for so long - up and down the side of the bank with their tails in the air - they were so happy to be out in the sun and on the grass.

Yesterday we went over to Dulvertonto get a load of wood for the woodburner so we parked up on Winsford Hill for a walk beforehand. It was a gorgeous afternoon - the dogs were pottering about in the
gorse and having a soak in the stream. It was bliss just to sit with the sun on my face and hear nothing apart from the babbling stream and the occasional snort from Abby as she was digging. The air was so soft without any trace of a chill. Peace couldn't last for too long so it was back to work and loading up the trailer with wood which Derek has just spent a happy afternoon unloading and storing ready for the winter!