Playing Shepherd

The heatwave has arrived – days designed to be filled with such arduous tasks as lounging, snoozing, and finding a cool spot of water to tip in a toe or two. We arrived hot and flustered after a busy Friday to this quiet field below a castle, all to ourselves. House martins dipped and zoomed through the wheat stubble, and horses could be heard, but not seen, in the sunken lane below us. It would have been rude to not raise a glass of bubbly to this summer eve.

Wooden hut and brunch photo collage

Fence, hay bale and tractor

Sleeping in a hut, windows wide, makes for an early rise. But the pace of everything is so much slower that the early morning start feels refreshing. We were soon out on the country lanes sheltering from the heat beneath old trees arching their branches. The two fords downhill were too inviting to ignore, and the coolness of the water was worth the surprisingly deep dip. We spotted butterflies, nosed through hedgerows, and climbed dusty earth steps; a hectic schedule indeed.

Bryony walking down a lane

Sunset through the tall grass

We were back home on Sunday, and doing homework for the week ahead. Rarely does twenty four hours feel like such a luscious and languorous escape from it all.

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