Escape to reality!

You'd be forgiven for thinking that its already October on Exmoor...At the moment we are suffering from temperatures more reminiscent of autumn than August, monsoon levels of rain, force 10 winds and - on the days when its not blowing a gale - pea-soup fog.

The horses are mostly in medium-weight rugs, I'm wearing 2 thick fleeces and the woodburner is going in the evening. The dogs are refusing to go outside, the cattle are hiding under the hedges and the sheep have occupied an old field shelter and aren't even poking their noses out, despite there being masses of grass (about the only giveaway that its actually still "summer").

Its par for the course to have a few grim days up here, but we've had more than our full 40 days of rain and unsettled weather since St Swithin's day. For the last 3 years, its rained on July 15th and we've had the same until the end of August - there's a good reason behind most of this folklore(!).

By way of light relief and a bit of escapism, here is a link to a great horsey programme that aired here on Sunday - thanks to my mate Sam for the link! I've always liked Martin Clunes, though never realised he was into horses. There are some lovely snippets, and its particularly interesting to see the Mongolian wild horses (lots of similarities to Exmoor ponies!) and the landscape where horses evolved - not a blade of green grass in sight ;-) http://www.itv.com/itvplayer/video/?Filter=167154