Purple haze…. Exmoor in August is just spectacular!
Ask those that know Exmoor – England’s smallest National Park – to conjure up just one image of it and you would get a number of different answers. For some it is the wild ponies, others the rushing streams but mostly the answer would be the sea or the moorland. On Exmoor you are never very far from either.
At this time of year the moors are, perhaps, at their very best: awash with a purple haze of heather in bloom, speckled with the yellow flowers of furze – the local dialect word for gorse. During the cooler months, however, the heather looks very different, drab browns and greens giving no hint of the glory to come.
The heather is an important resource for animals whether it is food for the ponies, sheep or cattle that roam the open spaces or the deer. In the…
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