2018 season - a summary

I have not seen the Devon countryside look like it did at the end of this summer since 1978 when I was cooped up in school taking my O-level Exams.

This has been a season of intense heat and frenetic activity at Oxen Park Farm with the On the Hill team hosting children ranging from eight to sixteen, from seven schools - camping, working and playing whilst we simultaneously negotiated a sweet and abundant hay harvest.

Children from London, Brighton, Totnes, Exeter and Aldermaston visited and stayed from one to seven nights. The atmosphere during June and July was positively Mediterranean. Having lived in Andalusia for eleven years it all felt very familiar with the colours of the grassland ranging from white to brown. Often, a hot and sweaty procession was to be seen passing through Lower Ashton on our way to the wonderfully cool river Teign after lunch or at the end of a working day, returning an hour later refreshed.