Tuesday 5 January 2016

A Brief Respite from January Rain




It has rained for several days. This morning it was hard to believe the blue sky and thin, high clouds.
I took my camera up onto the heath where tracks were slippery with puddles and saturated ground.
There is gorse in bloom, but the bare twigs of thorn bushes dripped with water and tree barks were dark from earlier rain.




A small herd of New Forest mares were grazing on new gorse sprigs or dozing in the welcome sunshine.



It was good to see that most of the ponies now wear reflective collars so that they can be more easily seen on the Forest roads at night. Even so, there is a continuous list of pony casualties each week in the local press. Drivers leave the fast A roads and cannot seem to appreciate the vulnerability and freedom of the New Forest animals that have ancient rights to move where they like across the Forest.




Looking back across the valley, wraiths of mist rose from the wet heath.




Vapour trails criss-crossed the morning sky.




From the top of the hill, a new weather front crept in from the south west and bubbling grey cumulus clouds edged into the blue.




New shoots of holly and other woodland plants pierced the bright sphagnum moss and leaf litter underfoot.




Rain clouds brought darkness into the wood.




Old silver birches, growing among their young descendants on the hill.




A scramble down the bramble bank took me down into the lane.
A few hours later, we were drenched again with cold, heavy rain and wintery, icy sleet.




Thank you to everyone who has visited and left a comment on my previous post.
It is so good to see new and familiar names and to catch up with everyone`s blogs.
Happy New Year to you all!

10 comments:

Jan said...

Beautiful pictures! So glad to see you back!

Simon Douglas Thompson said...

Indeed, we had no rain yesterday, well, only a little, but no blue sky whatsoever, it was as leaden as the rainy skies. I'd like some brighter light for my photography to be honest.

Bovey Belle said...

Glad you had a brief respite. Here the only dry bits are in between heavy showers. On Dartmoor they have been painting reflective stripes on the ponies to try and prevent accidents - why not just use the tried and tested collars that are used on the Forest? Crazy.

Good to see your walk and familiar places.

The Weaver of Grass said...

Lovely photographs DW. Here the fields are flooded and the rain never seems to let up for more than a few minutes. But there are aconites out in our walled garden and still rosesd - so it isn't all bad news. Happy New Year to you.

Down by the sea said...

Sorry I didn't' catch your earlier post. It is good to see you are back again. I have missed your views of the forest and East Dorset. It is so wet everywhere at the moment. Sarah x

Pam said...

Hello - in answer to your question, Pam(ela) is my real name. I was Isabelle when I was teaching, just in case any students should stumble upon my blog. But several years into retirement, I decided to use my real name - mainly because I've met, in person or by email, quite a few bloggy friends and it was mildly confusing for them. (Isabelle is my middle name)

The Vegan Lady said...

How lovely to find your blog. Beautiful pictures and poetic writing. Happy (belated) New Year!

Ragged Robin said...

Lovely photos and walk. Good to see blue skies. We have had a few more or less rain-free days here this week but mainly still cloudy and gloomy.

angryparsnip said...

Beautiful photos today.
I love all the roses.

cheers, parsnip and thehamish

WOL said...

We've had more than our share of rain here in the US. Hope you get a chance to dry out with some good weather. Snowing again here. Love the ponies.