Harvest time

It has been a beautiful September so far and we are still very busy with our bed and breakfast visitors. For many of our guests it is their second visit to us this year as Exmoor is especially beautiful in the early autumn. Several (including us) have enjoyed particularly good walking weather this month with clear distant views, magnificent skies and lots of sightings of deer and Exmoor ponies. We have had a couple of early evening walks in Codsend Moor. There are some breathtaking views right across the moor towards Devon and Dartmoor. We walked for about 2 hours each time and had the whole place to ourselves apart from the fantastic number of deer and there wasn’t a manmade sound to be heard (when Derek stopped talking)!

Many of the farmers around us are ploughing up and working down the corn fields and getting them ready for replanting. The hedgerows have been full of sloes and blackberries and the trees all have plenty of fruit. As the squirrels have been busy beavering away adding to their winter larder – so have we. Setting off with basket and wellies plus the dogs to the fields around Blackford – the scene could have been from a Cath Kidston advert. 2 hours later having been stung, scratched and bitten my basket overflowed with lovely blackberries – but there is no such thing as a free lunch!

Enjoying the moor

As with most people nowadays, we seem to be constantly busy but this week we both managed to get out and enjoy Exmoor. I took the dogs for a beautiful walk on Wednesday up over Nutscale. The wind was blowing and there was definitely a touch of autumn was in the air. But with big, clear skies, sun and wonderful views – it really swept the cobwebs away.

Lucy came home for a couple of days this week on holiday so Derek and Luce were able to get out for a couple of rides on the horses – through the lanes and fields and up on to the moor for some cantering. Our neighbour Paul lent Derek his saw bench today so Derek spent a happy 5 hours logging up our wood pile!

Although the heather is still beautifully purple, on the higher slopes of Dunkery it is now starting to turn brown so the deer are perfectly camouflaged. Two of our guests recently bought a new camera and were keen to try and get some pictures of the deer. Derek directed them up to Cloutsham and they managed to get some great shots of some very large herds. Another couple of our guests have come from New Mexico this week and are retracing their steps from 40 years ago and Barry and Anne have just left us after 5 lovely days walking all their favourite paths throughout the moor.

Friends

We have had a very busy time recently with lots of guests staying with us for the first time and others who have become good friends. Julie and Lori came down again and we went out for a lovely meal with them to Lapsewood Restaurant in Porlock.

Derek has been able to bring back his 2 horses from their summer holiday and start riding them this week so he took Julie out for a lovely long ride through Huntscott and Luccombe then up to Webbers Post to Dunkery and down the track to home. It was a beautiful day and both horses and riders had a wonderful time (Lori and I had coffee and a chat on the veranda with the dogs for company – very civilized)!

We are very lucky to have made such good friends with lots of interesting and lovely people - Barry and Anne from Cornwall have just returned today for another weeks holiday and Julie and Helen are coming down again in October (which is always a guarantee of a good time). Helen is coming down also in October and we are planning to walk from here over to Malsmead with the dogs (but not Abby this time as she is getting a little old for such a long walk) and Derek will drive over and pick us up. Another Helen is coming again this October with a group of 14 friends for a few days walking.

The Red Deer rut starts in October so hopefully all our guests will be able to see some of the magnificent stags. Some of our guests have just returned from a morning with a friend of ours who owns Red Deer Safari. They were thrilled at being shown so much – herds of deer including stags, Exmoor ponies and lots of different birdlife as well as being told about the history of the area

I managed to grab a couple of hours last evening and walked up to Span Gate and home via Annicombe. It was a different climate up on the slopes of Dunkery with magnificent clouds and strong winds. The dogs loved it and spent a happy time chasing about in the bracken. On the way back there were loads of blackberries which the 2 younger spaniels love. Wagtail will wait until you pick them and give them to her while her daughter Wistful will pick them off the brambles (very carefully). As we walked home, I looked down from the path and saw 2 big hinds eating the leaves of the bushes – they were no more than 15 feet away from us but because of the direction the wind was blowing they were totally oblivious to me. After about 5 minutes one glanced up and did a double take to see us standing there and they wandered off down into the valley.