We went out last night and neither of us have recovered properly from our journey home…..

We had a completely fab evening, in the pub having a delicious meal and enjoying the best of company. We were offered a lift home, which we declined because we didn’t want to put our host’s babysitter out and besides, the weather forecast was fine and we needed the walk (to walk off all that delicious food)!

So we set off to go over the hill towards home and were charmed to find we shared our walk with wild ponies and a few sheep, who were all still awake and chomping on the fresh, first of spring grass.

We know the hills like the backs of our hands as they say. We walk them often and in all kinds of weather so we were completely confident of our way and what we needed to do to get home. We’ve walked across them on the way back from the pub several times before without mishap.

Then the weather closed in. Fog and rain started to envelope us. We lost sight of the village and the other landmarks and our torches were useless to pinpoint our way.

In all of this, we knew we could not be more than 100 yards off our course because of the slope of the hill but we could not see the path. After a bit of fumbling around, we came upon the path we needed and decided that even though following the path all the way to its end and out onto the road was going out of our way, we’d be safer to do that than to cut across the moor for the final stretch. There are some bloody great holes out there, that have drops of several hundred feet……even though most are ‘capped’, some are not and the risk was just too great.

By this time, the rain was horizontal and the drops like ice-cold needles hitting our faces. We were soaked through our waterproofs, our clothes and through to our skin. When we could see our village, we stopped for a kiss and found nothing but slippery coldness in each other.

We held hands and fumbled our way down from the hill, onto the road and safely home. Wet and cold but otherwise intact, I’m pleased to report.

Today, I feel red-eyed from the wind and rain. I look like some strange rag doll through sleeping on my wet hair and I’m as tired as a tired thing………yep, old red eyes is back!

In a strange twist of fate, last year, I was photographing pink, hairy eyes.....!!!!!!