After the storms......

We have had rain and more rain in the last week - and for most of it, I have been holed up indoors. With a glimmer of sunshine yesterday I rode out onto the moor with a couple of other riders from Tor Royal. It was so good to be out in the wide open spaces - no roads, no busyness of life - just open (rather boggy) moorland. We are so lucky to have this time living near the moor.

I feel like I am on top of the world when we ride up here. After the heavy rain, the ground is saturated and the horses have to pick their way through the peaty bogs. You are enshrouded in silence - just the breathing of the wind in your ears. The light is sharp and bright when the sun comes out from behind the scudding clouds. The distant villages are clearly defined on the horizon and then become hazy again as the sun slides away. The marbled skies are reflected as stripes of silver that criss-cross the moorland surface.

After the turbulence of last week, I hope for a period of calm and reflection for both the Curate and myself. We have certainly learned a lot about ourselves and what we feel is important to our lives. Perhaps we are slow learners and we should have worked this all out before the Curate applied for any jobs. We thought we had - so it came as a bit of a shock that when every box appeared to be ticked, we both knew we had got something wrong. We have learned that we can't fly solo, that we value our family (obvious really!) and living in a community, that we need open space on our doorstep and our desire for adventure comes with conditions.