We spent last week on holiday in Exmoor, a national park located in the south west of England. Exmoor is on the smaller side (267 square miles) and its landscape is a mixture of open moors, woodland, river valleys, and rocky coastline. It's pretty sparsely populated; villages are small, few and far between. It's very green, very hilly, mostly populated by livestock, and generally skipped over by American tourists. 

We rented a house for six nights with Richard's colleague, Simon, and his 10-year-old daughter Tia. We stayed in Oare, which is listed as a village, but is really a church surrounded by two or three houses. You can see a photo of our house below. 

The Victorian novel (now slightly outmoded) Lorna Doone is set in Oare and the surrounding countryside. My bad photo does not do it justice; it really is gorgeous. 

This part of England tends to be cool and wet; highs in the summer are only in the mid-60s (Fahrenheit, of course; I've never learned to convert to Celsius). We had hoped for sun and blue skies but we got mostly cloudy, sometimes slightly drizzly, rather chilly weather with some patches of sun. The Brits are hardier than Americans, and they forge onward when the weather is bad (or, in this case, only semi-bad). Thus we continued with our plans and spent mornings in the house, with the girls doing schoolwork, and afternoons going on various adventures. 

We went on several long walks (5 miles = long for Emma and Tia), with gorgeous views. 

You can see from the photos that it was pretty windy. I'll call it "atmospheric," both literally and figuratively.

Exmoor has herds of beautiful semi-wild ponies. The Domesday book (a survey of England completed in 1086 for William the Conquerer) mentions ponies roaming around Exmoor, so they've been there a long time. They're not tame, per se, but they do allow you to take get close enough for a good photograph.

We also managed to go to the beach a couple of times. It actually never occurred to me that Exmoor was viewed by many people as a "seaside resort." Its beaches are rocky (shingled rather than sandy), and the weather is not hugely conducive to sunbathing or swimming. I didn't even bring a swimsuit. Simon clearly had other ideas. He and Tia -- and eventually Emma -- happily went swimming and body surfing in the waves. I think the air temperature was around 62F.

On one of our walks we crossed the Tarr Steps, an ancient "clapper bridge" made up of large, flat stone slabs. No one knows exactly how old it is, but most people date it to the 14th century. It was pretty fantastic to be able to walk on a Grade I listed archeological site. 

Richard, in particular, really loved Exmoor, due in large part to all the hills (I prefer Dartmoor, another nearby national park that is a bit less hilly and less overtly "wild"). Nevertheless, we had a really lovely time and it was great to (a) be with other people and (b) spend so much time outdoors.