Walking in the rain

I have to admit that occasionally the sun doesn’t shine down here on Exmoor – in fact it can be a little damp and yesterday was a case in point. The mist had come down and it was starting to rain quite heavily. We had been over to friends the evening before and so had a rather late night and I was feeling tired. Derek had gone to Exeter to pick up Lucy so after I had finished all the chores, I settled down in front of the woodburner to read the paper – bliss! Within 5 minutes I was woken up by a tapping at the window and there were the spaniels all looking at me with great big brown eyes. Their message couldn’t have been clearer if they had shrugged their shoulders and said ‘Excuse me. Walk?’

Clearly there was no way I was going to get any peace. So donning wet weather gear and loading up the dogs, I set off to Cloutsham and Nutscale reservoir – bad move. By the time we got there the rain was coming in horizontally and it was blowing a hooley. I was wet and cold but the dogs loved it and within 5 minutes I was too. We saw a large herd of about 50 stags and hinds only about 100 yards away. A woodcock flew up right in front of us and it was so windy, it was held by the wind current and seemed to be stationary in the air for a few seconds – its plumage was beautiful. We also saw a fox and loads of frogspawn. By the time we got back to the truck we were all soaked but felt 100 times better!

Derek had a very sad incident this week. He was walking in Annicombe when he saw a yearling Exmoor pony in distress. Following it down to the stream he found its mother very badly injured. She had fallen about 10ft off a ravine into the stream and it looked as though she had broken her leg. All the Exmoor ponies belong to someone and all the herds tend to stay in the same area. Derek contacted Joanna who holds all the details of the ponies and their owners and she was able to contact the owner who sent for the vet. Although they are such hardy creatures accidents will always happen and it was lucky that Derek found her and she was quickly put out of her misery. Unfortunately the poor creature had to be put down but the foal was old enough to fend for herself and she will remain within the same herd.


Our last 2 little (actually not so little now) sprollies have just been collected to by their new owners John and Lin who are great friends of Al and Martyn. It is very sad that we won’t have the ‘pack’ to entertain us anymore but we know that they have all got great homes. Feedback we have had so far is that they have all settled in well and nobody can get any work done!

A very busy weekend!

It’s been a mixture of emotions this weekend as six of the puppies have gone to their new homes with Molly and Meg leaving us next weekend. It was similar to when the children first go to school – you want them to go as they need more stimulation (and you need some peace) but it does seem very empty when I look out and there are only 2 puppies trying to chew to death a watering can.

They have provided us with such wonderful entertainment and we have never had so many people drop in. I shall never forget Derek walking down from the paddock with a ‘pack’ of miniature sprollies running, bouncing and rolling on behind! All of them have wonderful new homes and I know that we shall be seeing them again – in fact I’m ‘puppy sitting’ Charlie on Wednesday when Jo rides out with Derek. Our dear friends Lori and Julie came down from Hertfordshire to take one home and ended up taking 2!

I popped down to Dulverton on Saturday to meet up with friends from Exeter College where I used to work. It was lovely to catch up with all their news and I do miss their company but when I compare Exeter to Exmoor there is no contest. Dulverton was very busy as there was a vintage car rally across the moor. All the cars were open topped and when the drivers got out their top halves (including their faces) were more covered in mud than the cars!

We had a lovely weekend with Tim coming down from London and Lucy from Exeter plus Ron from Woodbury. Unfortunately Bexs was away in Korea working and couldn’t make it but hopefully we will see her at Easter. It was a weekend that involved a lot of cooking, lots of laughs and some very vulgar jokes!

Our bed and breakfast is now open for the 2011 season and we have already had several guests staying. One couple went to the Falconry Centre at Allerford on Saturday as a birthday treat and had a wonderful time learning to fly the birds. Snowdrop Valley is looking beautiful – a complete carpet of white. The birds are now singing in the early morning and the sparrows have started visiting the underneath of our veranda. They hurtle in and out of the netting seeking any holes with precision and speed of fighter pilots!

Puppies and deer

The puppies are really becoming quite a handful now. They run out of the shed like a gang of very naughty school children looking to see where they can cause the next bit of havoc. Any plant that tries to get its head above the ground is fair game to be chewed, bowls are wrecked, they continually try to get anywhere they shouldn’t – up in the paddock, under the shed, tearing down the bank and just causing complete and utter mayhem and we love them to pieces! They are the biggest time wasters and so funny causing endless amounts of amusement for everyone who calls in (we have never had so many visitors). We now have homes for 6 so hopefully by the end of February they will all have places to go but they will be sorely missed and I’m not looking forward to it.

Derek took the dogs up to Dunkery Hill Gate yesterday and took these lovely photos of a very handsome herd of Red Deer stags. The weather has been beautiful the past few days and lots of people have been visiting Snowdrop Valley. Lucy came up at the weekend and from the photos I think she was more pleased to see Wagtail than us (certainly Wagtail got more of a hug)!

Winter sunshine

We have just returned from a lovely week in Tenerife – our first holiday in 5 years! I think the best thing of all was feeling the warmth of the sun – after such a long cold winter it really was sheer bliss. And not having to struggle with 4 layers each morning and trying to run around on the ice and snow with an extra 14lbs of clothing. Just to wear shorts and a t-shirt! We met a lovely couple called Paul and Marlene who come from London and gave us the low down on what to see and where to go. They have travelled to the Canaries many times and after such a lovely stay, we can see why.

Our dear and long suffering friends Julie and Helen very kindly (and a touch hastily methinks) offered to hold the fort while we were away. They offered BEFORE we knew that Wagtail was going to have puppies. As a result their relaxing break turned into a marathon of feeding, walking, watering horses, dogs and puppies. We might be wrong but we think that they were glad that we hadn’t gone for 2 weeks! This really was truly a magnificent test of friendship and luckily they are coming down again soon to inspect the puppies and make sure all is well.

We have just spent the day in the garden as the weather has been so mild and warm today. We have snowdrops, daffodils, aubrietia and a primrose out so spring is definitely on the way. We lifted the pups out onto the lawn this morning so they could enjoy the sun. They played like mad chasing one another and Wagtail and Wistful joined in. After half an hour they all had lunch and collapsed in a heap – what a life!

We are now busy getting ready for the 2011 season – spring cleaning, gardening and decorating and we shall be opening again on the last weekend of February and we look forward to welcoming all our old and new friends.