On a rather overcast spring day, I went with a friend to a place on Dartmoor I hadn’t been before – the Emsworthy Mire nature reserve. We timed it perfectly – the variety of pale bluebells growing in lawns were at their peak of perfection (woodland ones near us had peaked a week or two before).
We parked under Saddle Tor and saw a big herd of Dartmoor ponies grazing on the moor. A short walk brought us to blue fields surrounded by granite walls, and the red-roofed barn that is the photographer’s chosen destination. While the painted roof is certainly an attractive feature, there’s lots else to admire, with tumbledown walls of the abandoned farmstead, large flocks of swooping housemartins, young crows chattering in their sycamore tree nest, and ponies posing in the bluebells.
