“It’s sunny” I said, “let’s take the opportunity to give the dogs a really long walk”. Hrmph is all I can say to that gross stupidity!

We set off from home and realised that despite the benign look of the day, the wind had barely abated from the 60+ mph of overnight and it was bitingly cold. By the time we’d been walking for about 20 minutes, my face felt as though it was having its skin ripped off, cell by cell. DM was grumbling that he was hating it and to be frank so was I. However, the dogs were skipping around like crazy things, oblivious to the wind, cold and wet.

When the snow started falling we really felt as though someone had it in for us. It was coming down thick and fast in a strange mix of snow and hail. The hail was bouncing off our faces, adding to the effect of having our skin ripped off.. Still the dogs showed no sign of anything but pleasure.

Passing the point where this photo was taken, we noticed that one of our tennis balls was still on the other side of this fence, unreachable by man and dog. The fence is there to stop people from falling down an uncapped mine shaft and hence only a complete idiot would climb over it!

The ball will be there, forever fenced in, caged like an animal…it is our little legacy for the wild and windy moor.