The Great Dartmoor Snowfall!

WOW! We awoke on Friday morning to no power and nearly two foot of snow! It was a bit of a shock, but it has been a fun, if exhausting, weekend! It has been amazing to see the village come to an almost complete standstill . The square has had tractors moving through it only, but the inhabitants ( and their dogs - more loose dogs than I knew there were here! ) have been out in force. I love the sense of good cheer and camaraderie that comes out in times like this. The local farm made it down to the dairy with fresh milk, and they sold it from the pavement outside, as there was no electricity inside. There were trees down all over the place , bowed down with the weight of snow, and most of the roads out were blocked.

This is the lane up to the farm where the ponies live. It is only a mile from the village, but up a steep hill, and it took us the best part of an hour to get up there through the thick snow.

The ponies were up to their knees in snow, and extremely pleased to get their hay.

The only problem was Red, a big old baby ( 19 years old) who had got himself into a terrible panic about the snow in the night. He had managed to smash his way out of the field during the night - thankfully uninjured, although the wooden gate was in pieces, with great sharp shards sticking out. He didn't like the snow at all, or the noise of the trees moving under the weight, or the odd sensation of walking in it. The poor boy was in a quivering mucksweat when I arrived. He eventually settled down - for all his posturing, he's actually very nervous, and likes nothing better than a bossy human to tell him it's ok, and take all the worries off his shoulders. You could almost hear him breathing a sigh of relief, and thinking "Pheww, she's come to sort out everything, and she says this white stuff's ok, and she's walked into the barn, despite 2 ft of snow on the roof, and she's going to leave all the gates open, so I have an escape route , just in case I need to use it!"

It is my turn to help out at Brownies this week, and I am supposed to be preparing a toy making activity to take along. The main plan is to make finger puppets, but it occurred to me that some of the little girls haven't sewn before, and might struggle to complete a toy in an hour. So, the girls and I all made a simple version of the 'ball and cup' game this afternoon, to check we could do it in the time. The cups are made out of sheets from a wallpaper sample book, and the balls are those lovely woollen pompons that I used to make with my grandmother!