So many pictures of Dartmoor highlight the Tors and rocks while most of it comprises huge tracts of grassland and bog. Much of the grass around here is deciduous and is already starting to brown, ending up the palest beige and drifting like snow once released from its roots. At present, with high winds, it undulates and shimmers, rustling above the relative silence now the Swallows seem to have taken their leave. It is a canine paradise.
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Sorry - this one is looking a little lavatorial...he's just poised to jump
This sheep, stripped to the bone in a few days, is the reality of the wild I suppose. No tourists will have seen it so far off the track or they might not come back. Yesterday evening, I found the remains of a Kestrel on the drive, brought up by someone else's dog no doubt. Heartbreaking. I hope it wasn't the young one whose parents we saw the training it other night. The rain has stopped today and it's been a joy to hang out washing again. Over the weekend we intend erecting a scaffolding tower and attempting to sort out our ailing guttering. Hope you have more interesting plans! So until next time, here are Snippet and Jack. Snippet appears to be smiling and Jack really needs to grow into his skin.
HI Em This lovely countryside is wonderful for your dogs. Love the different cloud formations.
ReplyDeleteIt's fabulous for them and once the sheep are less of a problem for Jack, I'll be able to relax again.
DeleteLooks like a good day up on the moor. Do you ever meet anyone out on your walks?
ReplyDeleteVery rarely and, to be honest, if I see someone in the distance, I'll walk a different way. The dogs are rather over-friendly and some people aren't keen on being licked! I love the solitude so winter is my favourite walking time, when there are fewer tourists.
DeleteLove all your photos, Em, especially the one with the 3 sheep, and of course Snippet & Jack. My friend's other half has gone to his Mother's 95th B/D this week in Wales. They are about 100 miles from where you reside, as well as John Gray's home .. maybe someday I will win some Money to be able to travel there. x
ReplyDeleteIt would be great to see you Cindy!
DeleteOh HOW your photos make me yearn for the moor. It really is a physical pain . . . like someone pulling at my heartstrings.
ReplyDeleteIn photo no. 11 (and a later one) is it part of a stone row, or perhaps just a reeve which has got exposed?
Lovely photos of the dogs, as always, having SO much fun (do they know how lucky they are?) I hope that Jack is being more obedient now, ref. the sheep.
I hope you get your guttering fixed. And you don't have any run-off from Next Door! I am hoping we can relax when it rains this winter, safe in the knowledge that all the leaky bits have been sorted . . .
Yes, they are reaves. We have a particularly dense area of mainly bronze age and some medieval settlements here. If you saw that Bronze Age program that Neil Oliver did, there was a whole section filmed at and below Kestor.
DeleteThe work starts on the gutters tomorrow.....I hope. The weather forecast is not TOO bad but you know what it's like up here; better to just look at the sky.
Love the photos! I have always loved the wide open spaces. Love the photo of the three sheep!
ReplyDeleteI like that one too Gail. They were looking at Jack - with good reason!
DeleteGorgeous moorland scenes, it just looks so idyllic up there on your dog walking rambles :-) I like the description of the undulating and shimmering grassland and I can almost hear it rustling myself when I look at all your lovely pics :-)
ReplyDeleteI suppose I should take some film and post that so you can hear, but our broadband is so narrow, I'm not sure it could do it.
DeleteLovely to see Snippet and Jack enjoying their run across the moor. And how did you get those 3 sheep to pose so perfectly for you? I have given in and joined facebook! Well actually Sketching William has, haven't got to grips with it yet, will I ever?!!
ReplyDeleteI thought joining facebook would be a good idea but I never use it and just get irritated with the constant emails saying I've got 'notifications'. If you do get to grips with it, perhaps you could enlighten me?
DeleteI do see what you mean Em, I seem to get a lot of emails. So, I have changed the email notifications to another email address (which I don't look at very often) and then I can delete in bulk! lol
DeleteGood idea. I may try that.....
DeleteLooking lavatorial... in a bog (teeheehee).
ReplyDeleteThose guys have the largest playground ever!
Jane x
It would be cruel not to have a dog.
DeleteYour second picture epitomises Dartmoor for me.
ReplyDeleteLove the three sheep!
Were't they obliging?
DeleteAbsolutely beautiful!!!!
ReplyDeleteThanks Happyone!
DeleteYour photos are always wonderful. I scroll through them several times trying to choose a favorite. I think this time its the landscape patterned in bands of sunshine and shadow--or maybe the track leading across the moor.
ReplyDeleteThe space looks vast--I wonder if I could retrace my steps on a walk--or would I be hopelessly lost?
Luckily you can usually see so far ahead, it's difficult to get lost, but people do! You have to be very good at map reading though, given the lack of features in some places.
DeleteIsn't it nice to have two dogs that interact? My brother in law says if you have two dogs you have less than if you have only one that is really devoted just to you, but I wouldn't want to miss the interactions among the members of our pack. And it seems so much more fun for them! Greetings from Arizona where summer is still hanging on, temperature wise, but the fresh green of the monsoon season is giving way to autumn colors here, too
ReplyDeleteSo true. Snippet is no longer completely obsessed with my being here and, when I take OB to school, I leave them in their cages and they seem perfectly happy with there being the two of them. It's more expensive though!
DeleteYou live in a most beautiful place. And Snippet and Jack are so lucky to be able to run free. The one photo of snippet running towards you looks like my Hamish when he has long hair. They could be brothers except for the fact Scotties don't really have legs, not like Snippets... so maybe cousins ?
ReplyDeleteGood luck with the gutters I think ?
I am waiting for the MRI reports or trying to forget I am waiting for the results. I won't hear back till Monday or Tuesday...
cheers, parsnip
I'll keep everything crossed for you Parsnip. x
DeleteI can't believe this is your local landscape - so incredible! Is all that grassland natural, or once upon a time would there have been woods and forests covering it?
ReplyDeleteDartmoor was previously covered in Oak woodland. The 'Dart' bit is the Celtic word for oak, hence the Dart-moor. Prehistoric settlers started the clearance and it continued from there. It must have been absolutely amazing.
DeleteIt still looks absolutely amazing! Thanks for teaching me something new too - I'm a bit rusty on my Celtic! :)
DeleteBelieve me - it's the only word I know!
DeleteSuch beautiful photos - it must be wonderful to walk on this lovely landscape every day :) Great to see Snippet and Jack enjoying themselves so very much :) Good luck with the guttering!
ReplyDeleteThe tower is up.....
DeleteLooks a very tranquil place that, Em. I`m not jealous...MUCH !!
ReplyDeleteBefore we moved here eleven years ago, I used to cry every time we left to go home after a visit!
DeleteWonderful images of Dartmoor and the dogs Em. They are so lucky. My neighbour walks a lot over Dartmoor and tells me stories about finding injured sheep and ponies.
ReplyDeleteThe ponies often get injured thanks to people feeding them next to the road, so that they associate hanging around roads with food. It doesn't happen here as much as we're a dead end and get no through traffic.
DeleteSnippet and Jack have a wonderful life. Don't ever move them to the city!
ReplyDeleteI promise not to Chis.
DeleteYour right Em Jack does look a bit like Jayda !
ReplyDeleteWonderful to see Jack an d Snippet fully enjoying the country.
We're so unsure as to how big he's going to get. His paws are the same size as Snippet's but he has many Jack Russell features....
DeleteWonderful photos of the moor and the dogs loving the open spaces. It seems like a perfect place to walk with the dogs; I'd be fascinated by its changes with the seasons, too (not to mention thinking about its ancient history).
ReplyDeleteThat is sad news about the Kestrel, they are such terrific birds.
I'm just glad I didn't have to look into its face. All that was left was the wings and a skeleton. I've seen one of the parents out since but not both together, so who knows which one it was.
ReplyDeleteIt just looks absolutely wonderful where you walk and your photos are just beautiful too. I agree with your reply to CTs comment, I usually avoid meeting other walkers because Bracken too, is a over-excitable!
ReplyDeleteAnd I just love the solitude. Even with just the one child, I appreciate the silence!
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ReplyDeleteI see you say that the long rows are reaves, so I won't ask ;) You are indeed very lucky to live in such a wonderful place, it is a dog's paradise. Cleaning gutters, yikes when they did the cottage it was all living vegetation lining them, and all the houses are but a foot apart, so they had to go over the roof to the back gutter, hope the cleaning goes well.
ReplyDeleteThe front door has a big black streak down it where some gutter stuff plummeted. Not good.
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