It is very strange but I find talking to a pony is very pleasurable. Very relaxing. Somehow makes sense. I know the pony is just a bit hungry and is eyeing up a potential snack coming its way but they are the most wonderful listening creatures. They are nothing like as nosey as cattle who just can’t help sticking their snouts in and having a good sniff.

So this morning I was up early(ish) and out with the animals in the Welland valley. I had hoped for a bit of mist – not cold enough but the season is still early and we’ll see. Instead I did a bit of communing with all creatures great and small as the sun slowly rose above the horizon.

I ended up in Slawston, a more rural place you couldn’t wish to visit. The last time I drove through there at dawn I shared the main street with a hare casually lolloping along. So bucolic. Only of course it isn’t quite as first reported. Slawston is infact 15 minutes from the train station that will take the Slawston resident to central London in just over an hour.

Still on a crisp autumn morning none of that really mattered. It was just so nice to have a chat to my four legged friends.