Staying on a hill farm was not a new experience for me I was adopted during school holidays by my friend Ruth’s family who lived close to Church Stretton in Shropshire.  They lived on a hill farm on the Long Mynd.  In fact Ruth still lives there farming with her husband and sons after her parents retired.

It was there I came to love farms, hills, bare back horse riding, mushroom picking first thing in the morning and eating the most luscious home made cakes.  Anyway, back to Mahia.  This was like rekindling a little of those memories.

To walk the hills to see the views and the farm animals doing their thing was inspirational once again.  Here’s some pictures of how the animals on the Te Au farm live. To kick things off here’s a close up on the handsome beast featuring in the photo leading this post.

Here’s the handsome beast’s friends

I loved the way that the cows stopped and stared at us

And what a head for heights they must have.

Also the sheep must have very sticky feet to be able to cling to the hillsides.

Staying on top of ridges seemed a piece of cake for the goats.

The sheep weren’t phased either teetering so close to the sea edge

Look what happens when you put a basset hound on top of a hill to admire the view.  You go from this tranquil pose of contemplation…….

…..To this rather unsettling uplifting of one’s ears.  No wonder Fortnum doesn’t care much for the wind!