Sunday 22 November 2009

An Hour of Blue Sky




A stormy Sunday of wild southerly winds that whipped sheets of rain across fields and Forest. I was drenched when I took my wheelbarrow of hay around to the field shelters and water flooded down the hill in streams.



At midday, the wind changed. Rain and clouds blew away and the expected south westerly arrived with blue sky and white scudding clouds. We took the dogs out into the woods while the fair weather lasted. Most trees are bare now, after a week of storms. No birds were singing and the only sounds were rising wind gusts, a creaking branch overhead and the squelch of our boots as we trod the sodden leaf mould under our feet.





On the edge of the heath, a gorse bush in glorious bloom providing nectar for late bees and other flying insects.




A silver birch, empty of leaves, whipped its fine branches in the wind.


Up the hill and into the woods.


These two mature oaks , their trunks and branches green with lichen, have old lower branches that are pock marked, rotting and waiting to drop to the woodland floor.


Beautiful pale fungi grow out of layers of fallen leaves beneath the oaks.




A secret dell where badgers have dug tunnels into the sandy banks.



On grass beside the wood, we found this soft pink toadstool. It is possibly Russula rosea.



2 comments:

Morning's Minion said...

I have been asking myself lately just why it is that I so eagerly anticipate each new posting from my round of UK bloggers. I suspect that its the recognition of "kindred spirits"--those who in any place delight in the changes of seasons and weather, birds, beasties,pets, the small homely doings of a daily round. When ordinary things are viewed with a discerning eye, detailed with fine descriptions, we have opportunity to share each others' marvels. So it seems to me.

Dartford Warbler said...

Thank you MM. I`m sure you are right.It is a delight in the beauty of "ordinary things" and the changes in nature which make life worth living. Even on a stormy day like this one. The rain and wind are back with a vengeance tonight!

I am still finding my way around the blogging community and have been as pleased as you to find so many like minded people out there. These blogs are living geography and history.