It's time to say farewell to the swallows and housemartins for another year (and time to hose down the porch!) A family of housemartins took up residence on the electricity meter (see previous blog) and several swallows took over the antlers inside the porch during rough weather.

Cattle and deer grazing together in Rough Field

Last week Peter Ridd came to brand the horns of our Exmoor Horn two-tooth ewes. All registered Exmoor Horn sheep have to be inspected and branded. It looks scary, with lots of smoke, but it is painless to the sheep (honest!).

After we'd finished haymaking and branding, Chris and I went up to Scotland to see George for a few days. Sarah stayed at home to look after the animals. Some photos of Scotland will be in the next instalment.