THE RAMBLINGS OF A STRUGGLING ARTIST ON LIFE WITH TWO TERRIERS, A PONY WITH ISSUES AND OTHER WILDLIFE AND BIRDS THAT CROSS OUR PATH

10 October 2012

MISTS AND PUDDLES


If I manage to upload this post it will be a miracle. Our broadband is narrowing swiftly to a point where it's taken me half an hour just to log into Blogger. Anyway, with such an inspiring post title I don't suppose I'll have many takers! What a truly awful day. I've just got back from a squelch through what is essentially liquid peat mixed with slurry, being whipped around the knees by long, wet, droopy grass. Failing to don the waterproof trousers was an error. Living somewhere beautiful is all very well as long as you can see it which, for the last three days, I have not. There is an eerie stillness in the thick mist and, if I didn't know this part of the moor so well, I wouldn't dream of going out in it when visibility is so limited. Today, where rain has meant you can see about a hundred yards rather than yesterday's twenty, I saw a man with a dog in a place I wouldn't expect to see anyone other than me. He kept looking at his map which was a bit of a worry but, as I started to walk towards him, he veered off down the hill and out of sight. Map reading where he was is not easy so I hope he's okay. Here are some dull, if Hound-of-the Baskervilles-ish pictures from the last few days.....


the hound







Dew on the dying grass this morning



Close up of that lonesome hawthorn. I can't resist another one of it....



Misty Snippet



A short respite from the mist on Monday, allowing clearer views of the puddles


Huge puddle in one of the many hut circles around here. I must do a separate post about them 
soon....


I think this might be a Mauve Pink Toadstall. I found it in a crack in a wall. A really good shade of mauve.




Poor Number 2 drenched this afternoon. My first sighting of any ponies since last Friday

Sorry to grizzle about the weather....on a more positive note, the wedding went very well in that I managed not to fall over in my 1 inch heals, which was a distinct possibility. I hate being photographed but by the end of it was managing not to get too stressed about it. What a stunning day it was. The sun was positively hot outside the church and bride and groom had a lovely day. They liked the drawings I did of their dogs as a wedding present too thank goodness. It's all very well drawing ponies and sheep that nobody will ever recognise, but doing people's pets is a very different matter! It's given me the confidence to do it again so I may have to draft some kind of advert....

Sorry, also, that I haven't been commenting on your blogs by the way....I get one done and then the next freezes for ages and I have to abandon it. Phone calls will be made to broadband provider tonight!Thanks for all your lovely comments; It's such a pleasure to read them. Until next time....





16 comments:

  1. Sorry you have had yet another soaking today, although your photos make Dartmoor look beautiful whatever the weather.

    No rain here today, but yesterday it was torrential from dawn to dusk.

    That little purple toadstool is very unusual!

    My favourite photo is the one of the two sheep making their way across the wet moor.

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    1. I've never seen those little purple things until this year. Don't know if I was just not looking properly! I like those sheep too.

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  2. Wow, so wet but the photos convey the Mists and Puddles quite nicely.
    I am feeling very cold and wet right now and it is sunny and beautiful here in Tucson. Perfect Fall weather.
    I especially like #8 dew drying and #11 the tree with all the rocks leading up to it.
    The internet is such a hassle !

    cheers, parsnip

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    1. Sorry to make you feel cold! It really does feel nasty here at the moment. I'm dreaming of Tucson...

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  3. great pics, very atmospheric. I particularly liked the path with the stones either side and yes I would like to read about the hut circles. I loved the photo of the dew on the grass, it looked just like little glass beads on wire. and of course I loved your very own little hound looking wild and scary (not) LOL

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    1. I think your talking about the stone rows which date to around the same time as the hut circles....I will definitely do that post!

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  4. The heavy fog & mist always can look so eerie, can it not Em? Was thinking you might have posted a photo of yourself in your 1" heels ! Our son is to be married next year...I haven't worn heels since I had worked in insurance offices some years long gone now. I shall be a sight I am sure when the time comes. How nice of you to draw the newly wed's pets for them ... something they will have to cherish for years. The stone rows are pretty cool, were they meant to have been fencing to keep livestock in? Take Care, Em, I can well imagine, and know for a fact how frustrating poor broadband can be.

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    1. I may possibly publish one.....perhaps if there's one from behind!

      Am already planning the hut circle and stone row post......have to go out and get more illustrations of them though and the weather is NOT conducive to doing so.

      Take care too and I hope your band is broad.

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  5. Oooh! Misty here too! Get you trying to go & help mysterious dog map man! I'd run the other way! Dog snoring, R away, L in my bed! See you soon x

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    1. No word about dog man so I'm assuming they didn't fall in a bog!

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  6. I'm not sure what the American geographical equivalent of a 'moor' might be. I have walked on days of mist and fog in several parts of the the country where we've lived. Your photos and text describe so well that eerie sense of being almost alone in a landscape where sight and sound have altered.
    [Incidentally, I'm having issues with blogger re photo uploads these past few weeks--the blogger system seems to fall apart every few months.]

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    1. I'm not sure either actually. Dartmoor was originally covered in oak woodland until man cleared it thousands of years ago, so it's kind of a man made landscape. I'm so glad you get that sense from the photos - thank you.

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  7. We are having similar weather here too. Yours is far more picturesque though. Such great photos!

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    1. Isn't it dreary after a while? Some nice crisp cold sunny weather would be lovely!

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  8. Very atmospheric photos, especially of the lone Hawthorn tree. I like your Pocket-Houndo-of-the-Baskervilles appearing from the mist and the water droplets on the moor grass.

    MM - it wasn't even boggy or peaty very much until a catastrophic weather change for the worse around the 1400s which made what had already been a marginal area for living, virtually untenable apart from where there were tinning works. There is a wonderfully atmospheric strip of very stunted oak trees called Wistman's Wood, growing up amidst the grey granite boulders, and giving you an idea of what it might have been like on the moor before it was the moorland we know it today.

    Em - would LOVE to read a post about the hut circles etc.

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    1. Am studying Dartmoor - Atlas of Antiquities to pinpoint certain circles....it's not exactly an easy read!

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Thank you so much for leaving a comment. It's great to read them and I will always try to reply.